[African Arguments] I first encountered the work of Patrick Chabal in his book Africa Works: Disorder as Political Instrument, written with Jean-Pascal Daloz. I bought the book on a scorchingly hot afternoon in central Nairobi at the turn of the millennium twenty-five years ago and, in my often-uneventful workplace in the Ministry of Planning, I devoured it immediately. While I later discovered that Chabal is considered provocative and even controversial by some, I was engrossed by his analysis of African political affairs