The colonial era and decolonization impacted on African states, especially on politics, economy, and individuals. In discussing the political effects, this chapter focusses on the nature of the state, borders, solidarity among former liberation fighters, and the continued links to the former colonial power. Turning to the “economic revolution” that colonial powers have left behind, it is shown that post-colonial leaders did not want to undo it in most places even though the economy was designed to benefit the colonial powers and not the colonies. The effects on individuals are various and the discussion can only sheds light on a very limited number of factors such as the effects of the humiliation of individuals.

This chapter engages with theories of global governance and private regulation to explain how and why standards support what I call a transnational hybrid authority. It shows that the notion of hybrid is mostly used as a default attribute to accommodate multiple and contradictory policies of global governance. Supplementing international political economy literature with semiotics, science and technology studies, and post-colonial studies, I argue that the concept of hybrid allows for seeing such ambiguity as an ontological attribute transforming the relationship between transnational capitalism and territorial sovereignty. Ambiguity thus imbues not only the status of the actors involved in standardisation and regulation but also the scope of the issues on which they operate and the spaces on which they exert their authority. The chapter outlines the analytical framework of the book including the three dimensions of actors setting standards, the scope of the standards and space on which such authority is recognised.