Moving from the specific discussion on minorities in the preceding chapter to a general discussion on identity, this chapter teases out the importance of identity and problem of identity, and the implication for the basic structure of the postcolonial African state. In the explanation of the scope and contents of the basic structure of the postcolonial African state in the penultimate chapter, this book avers that to know whether or to what extent the postcolonial African state is structurally just or unjust, we only need to look at how far away or close the interactions and institutions within the state are from or to the basic structure. In the discussion on identity, this chapter avers that identity is important in the determination of the scope and contents of the basic structure of the postcolonial African state. But a deviation from the ‘ideal’ of identity has made identity problematic in the postcolonial African state just as a deviation from the ‘ideal’ of the scope and contents of the basic structure of the postcolonial African has resulted in certain malignant social, political, and economic condition in the state.