What if State Logic Rests on Enslavement? Radical Alternatives in Laila Lalami's The Moor's Account.

This article critically examines Laila Lalami's 2014 novel *The Moor's Account*, focusing on its portrayal of Mustafa, a North African slave who escapes Spanish colonial servitude by choosing statelessness over returning to empire. The novel challenges conventional state logic by depicting states as inherently coercive and enslaving entities that perpetuate domination through mechanisms like the division of labor and bourgeoisification, which rely on abstract debts and false promises to sustain power. Mustafa's journey into the wilderness and his rejection of statehood serve as a radical critique of postcolonial polities, suggesting that statelessness may offer an alternative to the persistent cycles of enslavement embedded in state structures. The article situates Lalami's work within broader postcolonial and anarchist critiques, while also questioning whether the novel risks romanticizing statelessness as a simple escape from systemic oppression. This analysis is relevant to scholars of literature, political economy, development, and postcolonial studies.