This study takes post-colonial theory out of its literary confines and extends it in order to understand the complexities and dynamics of post-colonial African politics. Pat Ahluwalia contends that post-colonial theory has marginalized a huge part of its constituency, namely Africa. Moreover, he argues that if post-colonial theory is to have any major and lasting effect within social and political theory, it needs to engage with matters overtly political. Eurocentric theory has failed to understand post-colonial Africa and this book traces how African identity has been constituted and reconstituted by examining movements such as negritude and the rise of nationalism and decolonization. It questions how helpful post-colonial analysis can be in understanding the complexities which define institutions such as the nation-state, civil society, human rights and citizenship.