Markakis transcends the usual focus on a single state to compare the experiences of the Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia in the twentieth century. Despite the book's title, the author points to neither nationalism nor class antagonism as the key force in these experiences. Rather, he sees the basic issue in the unhappy history of the three countries as city vs. countryside.
As Markakis interprets the anti-colonial nationalists, they did not aspire "to undo what imperialism had wrought" but to preserve the privileged political and economic positions that they — the urbanites — had attained. These efforts succeeded entirely, as shown by the constant aggrandizement of the post-colonial central governments. Those excluded from the state and the modern economy - the rural dwellers — were "pushed to the margins of the colonial domain and left to fend for [themselves] in a situation of expanding population and shrinking resources." To express dissatisfaction, the rural dwellers had no recourse but violent rebellion. Consequently, all three states have suffered repeatedly from anti-state uprisings. The rebels define themselves variously along the lines of nationality, region, ethnicity, class, and religion, but Markakis holds their true common denominator to be "powerlessness accompanied by material deprivation and social discrimination." His intelligent, depressing study adds much to an understanding of one of the world's poorest regions and of the failure of the post-colonial state in general.
