Crime, Criminology and Post-Colonial Theory: Criminological Reflections on West Africa, by Biko Agozino in Transnational and Comparative Criminology (2005). Sheptycki, James and Ali Wardak (eds), London: Glasshouse Press, 375 pages.

Abstract

In his quest to provide a theoretical explanation for the militarized social control format that dominates West Africa, Biko Agozino in this chapter delves into a brief legal history of West Africa and the imperialist roles of powerful Western (European) countries in Africa. He contends that the colonizing Western countries, as well as their indigenous postcolonial versions (deputy imperialists of gunslinger capitalism, p. 117), are responsible for the gunboat or gunslinger criminology (p. 117) that pervades contemporary West Africa. The author is of the view that the true nature of the West African criminology and social control is to be found in an in-depth analysis and understanding of the West African pre-colonial, colonial, and postcolonial histories.