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egard to a “state”, Museveni offers that it is “the package of pillars of power andauthority that enable the exercise of control over any one country” (Museveni2003:14). The powers and authority of a state are invested in the police, the army,prisons, judiciary, civil service, the executive, parliament, and the organs whichregulate the professions and the economy. Every country needs state machinery.Museveni remarks that for historical reasons, countries such as Somalia and the“Democratic Republic” of Congo may not be referred to as states because of their lackof state control over the whole country. Although the cause of such a situation mightbe seen to be internal armed political conflict, a phenomenon that I will discussshortly, there is always external influence on the destabilisation of these Africancountries.Italian city-states were generally a construction by Italians, not foreigners. Africancountries were a construct of colonial imperialism. Even the state machinery wasnever the choice of Africans. This external pressure has continued, and will have afar-reaching impact on African states’ self-determination in the event of globalisedeconomic control.After many years of political turmoil, Italian city-states were unified in the topicalhistorical event of the re-unification of Italy in 1800. The Organisation of AfricanUnity, which led to Africa Union (Durban, July 2001), was similar to the reunificationof Italy. However, it was not the same, because African States, especiallythe instruments of political and economic control, are still under the control ofindividual states. Some efforts have been made toward the consolidation of economicand political interests at regional level. We hope that the recently inaugurated AfricanParliament will gather authority so as to influence and regulate state power. Statepower is still individually controlled by each individual African state. The process ofdemocratisation of the continent is in progress, though much is still desired. There arecases of ruling political parties’ pressure to revise national constitutions in order toincrease their term in office. Uganda is a case in point. It has taken internal andexternal pressure to force the party in power to relent. In all, political reorganisationcould be moving in the right direction, if it were not for the problem or the paradox ofarmed political conflicts.118