Summary of Fancois Bayart on Extraversion

Summary of Fancois Bayart on Extraversion

Key argument(s) made in the article(s)

The main point of Bayart's article is to prove that "more than ever, the discourse on Africa's marginality is a nonsense" (p. 267). This is because the empirical evidence points towards the phenomenon of "extraversion". He defines extraversion as the manner in which ruling elites "mobilize resources derived from their (possibly unequal) relationship with the external environment" in order to entrench their rule (p. 218). Indeed, it is argued that at "the heart" of extraversion is "the creation and the capture of a rent generated by dependency...which functions as a matrix of inequality, political centralization and social struggle" (p. 222).

The two main tools used by elites for economic accumulation and political entrenchment are 'war' and 'democracy', and both also demonstrate how Africa is not marginalized from the international system. Crucially, this is through the use of structural dependency. Bayart refers to a process of structuration, this is a dialectical relationship (p. 220). War is simply the manner in which elite control of the security apparatus (often funded externally) enables the use of coercive violence to physically seize resources and property (p. 225). Moreover, Bayart notes that "it is now evident that the ‘new leaders' on whom US Africa policy was posited had, in reality, their own agendas. The State Department and the Pentagon have shown themselves incapable of keeping control of the anti-Sudan coalition which they assembled, ?nanced, armed and advised". This illustrates that not only is Africa not marginalized, African actors have a degree of agency as well (p. 230). Democracy refers to the manner in which superficial democratic reforms allow elites to attract conditional western aid and trade; ""One might summarize by saying that democracy, or more precisely the discourse of democracy, is no more than yet another source of economic rents" (p. 226), which can be captured for elites through the use of corrupt institutions. Moreover, "resources accumulated during long years of plunder" allow elites to "purchase the support of some key political opponents, ?nance the creation of a plethora of small parties calculated to divide the opposition, and implement veritable ‘strategies of tension' by provoking various forms of agitation, most notably in the form of ethnic and agrarian clashes in rural areas" (p. 225). This creates something of a feedback loop where the internationally prevalent discourse of democracy is used to attract foreign, which in turn allows further entrenchment through ‘democratic' reforms, which in turn allow more aid etc... Either way, it clearly illustrates once again that not only is Africa not marginalized, it has agency too.

There is a final and less obvious factor involved in extraversion; "strategies of extra-version do not relate solely to a regime of economic accumulation and social inequality, but also to what one might term a ‘moral economy'" (p. 249). Here, Bayart cites the work of Weber and Foucault and notes how the prevalence of (western-oriented) social institutions (schools, hospitals, organized religions, police etc...) as well as consumer culture are turning