Introducing Normativity in African International Politics

Abstract

With fifty-four states, Africa represents a microcosm of the Westphalian world. In conjunction with the Westphalian fragmentation of the continent, other fragmentations have compounded the intractable problem of ‘othering’ on the continent. The fragmentations sum up an African condition in the twenty-first century because they simultaneously represent the ‘divisions’ based on which Africans are ‘differentiated’ and the ‘differences’ based on which Africans are ‘divided’. This article argues for normative international politics in which the divisions and differences are superseded by non-discriminatory, unifying, positive identities and shared values. In this normative international politics, cooperation is the organising principle. The article proposes ‘fusion of horizons’ as the mechanism through which the supersession of the divisions and differences by positive identities and shared values can be realised.