Description
This paper looks at the role of absurdity in the workings of African states. There has been significant analysis exploring why African states do not necessarily operate in the manner outlined by political philosophers deriving from the Global North. Such critiques have often focused on the intersections between the public and private spheres, often referred to as neo-patrimonialism, but this notion has particularly racial undertones. More recently however, attention has shifted to looking less at how (African) states should function and examining them as works in progress or “states at work” (Bierschenk and Olivier de Saardan 2014). Surrealism can help theorise the incongruous but powerful connections and negotiations that characterise these workings, in which states surrealistically reveal the latent capacity for violence that underpins their existence. This paper, therefore, attempts to provide new insights into how states actually work, exploring the complex relationship(s) and realities between surrealism, humour and state legitimacy.
