$2000 to Samuel Mbah for his book Military Dictatorship and the State in Africa (co-authored by I.E. Igariwey). This book will utilize an anarchist critique to analyze military dictatorship on the African continent. It is intended to follow up their previous book, African Anarchism: The History of a Movement (See Sharp Press, 1997).

Mbah and Igariwey will use libertarian analytical tools to lay bare the problems of military dictatorship. They will demonstrate that military dictatorship is a logical, if perverse, extension of the state system (despite liberal and state socialist criticisms). They will also show that overthrowing military dictatorship does not remedy the instability, economic difficulties, and lack of freedom inherent in the state system and neo-colonial capitalism.

Drawing on case studies of Nigeria, Egypt, Zaire, and other countries, they will address the role of the military as an institution on the African continent since the 1960's. They will examine military dictatorship in an historical context, the relationship between the military and state system, and its connection to the international political order. They will also portray the repression of free speech and human rights, corruption and economic mismanagement, and the destruction of communal African values.

The authors will conclude that overthrowing military dictatorships will not put an end to the oppressive conditions on the African continent. They will show that military dictatorships are not isolated aberrations of the state system and that nothing short of an anarchist response to the state and capitalism will fundamentally advance the African people to freedom.

The scheduled completion date for this project is December 1999.