Postcolonial Crisis and State Fragility in Niger, 2010–2023:A Critical Interrogation of Frantz Fanon’s Theory
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Between 2010 and 2023, Niger faced escalating security and governance crises that culminated in the military coup of 26 July 2023. Conventional accounts often describe this trajectory in terms of state fragility, treating institutional weakness primarily as a deficit requiring technical reform. This article instead critically examines the explanatory value of Frantz Fanon's theory of postcolonial crisis in The Wretched of the Earth. Drawing on historical scholarship, empirical studies and policy reports, it develops five propositions concerning the inherited colonial state, the intermediary national bourgeoisie, the political marginalisation of the masses, neocolonial dependence, and the failure to transform national consciousness into social consciousness. Each proposition is assessed against developments in Niger between 2010 and 2023. The analysis finds that Fanon offers particular insight into elite intermediation, unequal access to state resources and externally mediated political power. Nevertheless, his framework gives insufficient attention to the relative autonomy of customary and religious authorities, transnational armed organisations and contemporary security partnerships. The 2023 coup further complicates his account by showing how military actors can appropriate the language of national liberation without demonstrating a corresponding commitment to social transformation. The article argues that Fanon's work remains valuable as a critical diagnosis of historically produced political relations, but should not be treated as a deterministic explanation of Niger's institutional trajectory.
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W7225397078