Abstract: In long intertwined constructions of political and household authority, the figure of the domestic patriarch has served as an analogy for the centralized postcolonial state of Mali, even as it clashes with discourses of natural rights stemming from the European Enlightenment. In early twentyfirst-century Mali, anxieties ran rampant among senior men who feared losing their status and privileges. These anxieties came to a head during efforts by the Malian government and civil-society groups to eliminate gender discrimination from Malian family law in the early 2000s. A broad coalition of patriarchal interests emerged to defend senior males' prerogatives against the perceived threats posed by gender equality. This backlash challenged the legitimacy of Mali's governing elite and exposed its weaknesses in the run-up to Mali's 2012 political collapse.
{"title":"\"When a Father Speaks, the Child Cannot Answer Back\": Patriarchal Anxiety, Gender Equality, and Malian State Authority","authors":"Bruce Whitehouse","doi":"10.2979/at.2023.a905850","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/at.2023.a905850","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: In long intertwined constructions of political and household authority, the figure of the domestic patriarch has served as an analogy for the centralized postcolonial state of Mali, even as it clashes with discourses of natural rights stemming from the European Enlightenment. In early twentyfirst-century Mali, anxieties ran rampant among senior men who feared losing their status and privileges. These anxieties came to a head during efforts by the Malian government and civil-society groups to eliminate gender discrimination from Malian family law in the early 2000s. A broad coalition of patriarchal interests emerged to defend senior males' prerogatives against the perceived threats posed by gender equality. This backlash challenged the legitimacy of Mali's governing elite and exposed its weaknesses in the run-up to Mali's 2012 political collapse.","PeriodicalId":39703,"journal":{"name":"Africa Today","volume":"91 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135347218","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.2979/africatoday.70.1.01
Dorothea E. Schulz
Rifle, Pen, and Prayer Beads:Constructing Political Legitimacy in Mali Dorothea E. Schulz (bio) Introduction On August 18, 2020, after months of popular unrest targeting the increasingly unpopular presidency of Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and rallies coordinated by Imam Mahmoud Dicko, a leading figure of Muslim opposition, a group of colonels from the Kati military base seized power and forced President Keita's resignation. Ignoring international calls for an immediate return to civilian rule, the leaders of the coup d'état underlined their determination to "put state politics on new foundations" before the next elections so as to reestablish law and order and put a stop to a general economic malaise brought about, in their account, by an increasingly corrupt civilian political elite under the previous presidencies of Alpha Oumar Konaré, Amadou Toumani Touré, and Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. Only nine months later, in May 2021, a transitional government put into place by the military leaders to signal their intention to return to civilian rule was terminated by another coup (the third one within a decade), when Colonel Assimi Goita, then vice president and leader of the 2020 military coup, arrested President Bah N'Daw and Moctar Ouane, the prime minister of the transitional government, and had himself installed as the head of state. The military leaders then retracted their promise to ensure a transition to civilian rule within the next eighteen months and hold presidential elections in February 2022—a move to which the country's long-standing allies in the Euro-American West responded by rallying other members of the West African bloc ECOWAS1 to impose economic and financial sanctions on Mali in January 2022. This special issue brings together studies that aim at historically grounded empirical investigations of political legitimacy in Mali.2 Many scholarly accounts and reports by foreign donor agencies have depicted the rising level of insecurity and political instability in Mali's different regions since the 2012 coup d'état as a sudden and somewhat surprising disruption of the country's role as a beacon of democratization in Africa (Bergamaschi 2007, 2014; Gavelle, Siméant, and Traoré 2013; Wing 2008, 2013). This special issue seeks to add analytical and empirical nuance to this view by [End Page 1] proposing a three-pronged intervention. First, we read the precarity and instability of present-day political institutions and procedural legitimacy as mirroring long-standing trends of asserting and contesting public authority. We thus seek to understand the instability that has shaped Malian politics since the toppling of President Touré in 2012 in light of the precarious legitimacy of political institutions and actors that has shaped political dynamics throughout Sahelian West Africa for decades. Second, in contrast to studies of the "Malian crisis" that center on either "the north," the "central region," or "the south" and Bamako, its political epicente
{"title":"Rifle, Pen, and Prayer Beads: Constructing Political Legitimacy in Mali","authors":"Dorothea E. Schulz","doi":"10.2979/africatoday.70.1.01","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/africatoday.70.1.01","url":null,"abstract":"Rifle, Pen, and Prayer Beads:Constructing Political Legitimacy in Mali Dorothea E. Schulz (bio) Introduction On August 18, 2020, after months of popular unrest targeting the increasingly unpopular presidency of Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and rallies coordinated by Imam Mahmoud Dicko, a leading figure of Muslim opposition, a group of colonels from the Kati military base seized power and forced President Keita's resignation. Ignoring international calls for an immediate return to civilian rule, the leaders of the coup d'état underlined their determination to \"put state politics on new foundations\" before the next elections so as to reestablish law and order and put a stop to a general economic malaise brought about, in their account, by an increasingly corrupt civilian political elite under the previous presidencies of Alpha Oumar Konaré, Amadou Toumani Touré, and Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. Only nine months later, in May 2021, a transitional government put into place by the military leaders to signal their intention to return to civilian rule was terminated by another coup (the third one within a decade), when Colonel Assimi Goita, then vice president and leader of the 2020 military coup, arrested President Bah N'Daw and Moctar Ouane, the prime minister of the transitional government, and had himself installed as the head of state. The military leaders then retracted their promise to ensure a transition to civilian rule within the next eighteen months and hold presidential elections in February 2022—a move to which the country's long-standing allies in the Euro-American West responded by rallying other members of the West African bloc ECOWAS1 to impose economic and financial sanctions on Mali in January 2022. This special issue brings together studies that aim at historically grounded empirical investigations of political legitimacy in Mali.2 Many scholarly accounts and reports by foreign donor agencies have depicted the rising level of insecurity and political instability in Mali's different regions since the 2012 coup d'état as a sudden and somewhat surprising disruption of the country's role as a beacon of democratization in Africa (Bergamaschi 2007, 2014; Gavelle, Siméant, and Traoré 2013; Wing 2008, 2013). This special issue seeks to add analytical and empirical nuance to this view by [End Page 1] proposing a three-pronged intervention. First, we read the precarity and instability of present-day political institutions and procedural legitimacy as mirroring long-standing trends of asserting and contesting public authority. We thus seek to understand the instability that has shaped Malian politics since the toppling of President Touré in 2012 in light of the precarious legitimacy of political institutions and actors that has shaped political dynamics throughout Sahelian West Africa for decades. Second, in contrast to studies of the \"Malian crisis\" that center on either \"the north,\" the \"central region,\" or \"the south\" and Bamako, its political epicente","PeriodicalId":39703,"journal":{"name":"Africa Today","volume":"77 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135688488","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.2979/africatoday.70.1.05
Susanna D. Wing
Abstract: Mali, once argued to be a democratic model for Africa, is in a state of perennial crisis, the result of poor governance, unmet democratic expectations, and competition for domestic political legitimacy among the political class, the military, and religious leaders. After the 1991 revolution, international donors poured money into Mali to promote democratization. Meanwhile, most Malian citizens were becoming increasingly disconnected from a growing political class dependent on these funds. This article shows how popular protests led to both the reversal of family-law reform and the instigation of military coups d'état. The lack of accountability of the political class and the influx of donor money have contributed to increased popular perceptions of state corruption and impunity. Peace and security are impossible amid governance failures and serial coups d'état. This article explains the political consequences of the breakdown of popular trust and political legitimacy of the ruling elite and argues that restoring trust and legitimacy is a critical element to rebuilding Mali.
{"title":"Coups d'État, Political Legitimacy, and Instability in Mali","authors":"Susanna D. Wing","doi":"10.2979/africatoday.70.1.05","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/africatoday.70.1.05","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: Mali, once argued to be a democratic model for Africa, is in a state of perennial crisis, the result of poor governance, unmet democratic expectations, and competition for domestic political legitimacy among the political class, the military, and religious leaders. After the 1991 revolution, international donors poured money into Mali to promote democratization. Meanwhile, most Malian citizens were becoming increasingly disconnected from a growing political class dependent on these funds. This article shows how popular protests led to both the reversal of family-law reform and the instigation of military coups d'état. The lack of accountability of the political class and the influx of donor money have contributed to increased popular perceptions of state corruption and impunity. Peace and security are impossible amid governance failures and serial coups d'état. This article explains the political consequences of the breakdown of popular trust and political legitimacy of the ruling elite and argues that restoring trust and legitimacy is a critical element to rebuilding Mali.","PeriodicalId":39703,"journal":{"name":"Africa Today","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135688170","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract: In response to the occupation of northern Mali in 2012, Ganda Koy, a primarily Songhay militia, has attempted to increase its political legitimacy within and beyond Mali, in part through more formalized integration within the Malian army. To justify such integration, many of its leaders have highlighted its combat and surveillance prowess while portraying it as supportive of a racially and ethnically unified Mali, thereby contrasting it with more Tuareg- or Arabseparatist militias based in the Sahara Desert. It has presented itself as a grassroots organization; however, many in its ranks publicly argue for a more Songhay- and Blacknationalist approach to Malian politics. While such an attitude might privately resonate among much of the political elite in Bamako, it contrasts with Mali's postcolonial myth as a harmonious ethnic melting pot and serves to undermine Ganda Koy's integration in more formal state institutions.
{"title":"From Militia to Army: Ganda Koy's Struggle for Political Legitimacy in Mali","authors":"Andrew Hernández","doi":"10.2979/at.2023.a905849","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/at.2023.a905849","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: In response to the occupation of northern Mali in 2012, Ganda Koy, a primarily Songhay militia, has attempted to increase its political legitimacy within and beyond Mali, in part through more formalized integration within the Malian army. To justify such integration, many of its leaders have highlighted its combat and surveillance prowess while portraying it as supportive of a racially and ethnically unified Mali, thereby contrasting it with more Tuareg- or Arabseparatist militias based in the Sahara Desert. It has presented itself as a grassroots organization; however, many in its ranks publicly argue for a more Songhay- and Blacknationalist approach to Malian politics. While such an attitude might privately resonate among much of the political elite in Bamako, it contrasts with Mali's postcolonial myth as a harmonious ethnic melting pot and serves to undermine Ganda Koy's integration in more formal state institutions.","PeriodicalId":39703,"journal":{"name":"Africa Today","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135346988","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Reviewed by: Every Household Its Own Government: Improvised Infrastructure, Entrepreneurial Citizens, and the State in Nigeria by Daniel Jordan Smith Chikezirim Nwoke Smith, Daniel Jordan. 2022. Every Household Its Own Government: Improvised Infrastructure, Entrepreneurial Citizens, and the State in Nigeria. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 232 pp. $26.95 (paperback). Nigeria is a site of staggering paradoxes. The country is regarded as Africa's largest economy and yet is home to dire deprivation. On one hand, it is famed for its political vibrancy and popular consciousness; on the other, it presents a reality of perpetual government inadequacy. Standing on years of disappointment occasioned by the inability or unwillingness of the state to provide the essentials of life, or what Nigerians like to call the dividends of democracy, citizens must devise strategies to meet their own needs. [End Page 105] It is against this backdrop that Daniel Jordan Smith draws parallels among infrastructure, governance, and everyday experiences of citizenship. In Every Household Its Own Government, his fourth book, he foregrounds infrastructure in its conceptuality and materiality as being focal to the Nigerian experience. With insights drawn from ethnographic research spanning more than three decades in southeast Nigeria, he explores, in commendable depth, six areas of infrastructure—water, electricity, transportation, communication, education, and security—to show how state failure creates innovative informal systems of sustenance, adapted mostly on the household level, which he claims operates as (and are colloquially called) local governments. However, not all individuals or households are equal. The rich can wield economic and sociopolitical power to shield themselves from the harshness of government neglect by purchasing comfortable alternatives, but the poor must make do with risky, time-consuming, labor-intensive improvisations, which often end up worsening their condition. Remarkably, Smith does not stop at merely capturing these improvisations: he goes a step further to detail the political economic cost. Nigerians across various social strata, by participating in this thriving economy of improvised infrastructure, are implicated in a system that perpetuates inequality. The book is organized in a manner such that each chapter examines one of the six infrastructural domains that Smith chose for this book. To begin with, chapter 1, "Empty Pipes and H2O Entrepreneurs," highlights the often onerous task of acquiring water for daily use—which, in Smith's argument, offers a special insight into "the ways that infrastructure is central to how [citizens] experience and understand politics and inequality" (30). Because existing state-installed waterpipes, designed to service homes in urban centers, hardly ever supply water in any but a few elite neighborhoods, ordinary Nigerians must look to water entrepreneurs, who set up and run private ventures, navig
《每个家庭都有自己的政府:尼日利亚的临时基础设施、创业公民和国家》，作者:Daniel Jordan Smith, Daniel Jordan, 2022。每个家庭都有自己的政府:尼日利亚的临时基础设施、企业家公民和国家。普林斯顿，新泽西州:普林斯顿大学出版社，232页，26.95美元(平装本)。尼日利亚是一个充满惊人悖论的地方。这个国家被认为是非洲最大的经济体，但却是极度贫困的家园。一方面，它以其政治活力和大众意识而闻名;另一方面，它呈现出政府永远无能的现实。多年来，由于政府无力或不愿提供生活必需品(尼日利亚人喜欢称之为民主的红利)，民众感到失望，他们必须制定策略来满足自己的需求。正是在这样的背景下，丹尼尔·乔丹·史密斯在基础设施、治理和公民的日常经历之间找到了相似之处。在他的第四本书《每个家庭都有自己的政府》中，他将基础设施的概念性和物质性作为尼日利亚经验的焦点。他从尼日利亚东南部30多年的民族志研究中获得了深刻的见解，深入探讨了基础设施的六个领域——水、电、交通、通信、教育和安全——以展示国家的失败是如何创造出创新的非正式维持系统的，这些系统主要适用于家庭层面，他声称这些系统就像(通俗地说)地方政府一样运作。然而，并非所有的个人或家庭都是平等的。富人可以运用经济和社会政治力量，通过购买舒适的替代品来保护自己免受政府忽视的严酷影响，但穷人必须采取冒险、耗时、劳动密集型的临时措施，而这些措施往往最终会使他们的状况恶化。值得注意的是，史密斯并没有仅仅停留在捕捉这些即兴创作上:他进一步详细描述了政治经济成本。来自不同社会阶层的尼日利亚人，通过参与这个由临时基础设施组成的繁荣经济，被卷入了一个使不平等永久化的体系。本书的组织方式是，每一章都考察史密斯为本书选择的六个基础结构领域中的一个。首先，第一章“空管道和水企业家”强调了获取日常用水的繁重任务——在史密斯的观点中，这一任务提供了一种特殊的见解，即“基础设施是(公民)如何体验和理解政治和不平等的核心”(30)。由于现有的国家安装的自来水管道，原本是为城市中心的家庭服务的，但除了少数精英社区之外，几乎从来没有向任何地方供水，普通的尼日利亚人必须指望水务企业家，他们建立并经营私人企业，在(不)合法和可接受的社会边缘驾驭官僚规则和流程。第二章探讨的电力部门也是如此。例如，为了解决以频繁停电为代表的国家电力基础设施问题，个人和小企业求助于使用发电机，试图自行操纵公共设施，或向国家官员行贿以维持电力供应。同样，正如第三章“冈田和丹福:尼日利亚的“公共交通””所示，公民通勤者、警察等政府力量和经营非正规交通业务的个人聚集在一种复杂的关系中，这种关系既受到缺陷国家机器的破坏，又受到润滑和强迫。最后三章从通信、教育和安全等基础设施领域提供了新的定性证据，以支持本书的一些核心论点:普通的尼日利亚人(下层阶级、中产阶级和有抱负的中产阶级公民)，通过努力创造可行的基础设施替代方案，无意中卷入了他们热情地哀叹的剥削制度的复制。在这个体系中，国家及其代理人是最大的暴利者，这一事实并不令人意外，但同样令人遗憾，这使得以建立只对精英有利的企业为前提的腐败成为可能。史密斯质疑，如果一个政府机构故意保护富人和权贵的利益，而牺牲为大多数人发展基础设施，那么它应该被视为一个软弱或失败的国家，而不是一个狡猾的国家(53)。最后，他断言……的实质是……
{"title":"Every Household Its Own Government: Improvised Infrastructure, Entrepreneurial Citizens, and the State in Nigeria by Daniel Jordan Smith (review)","authors":"","doi":"10.2979/at.2023.a905854","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/at.2023.a905854","url":null,"abstract":"Reviewed by: Every Household Its Own Government: Improvised Infrastructure, Entrepreneurial Citizens, and the State in Nigeria by Daniel Jordan Smith Chikezirim Nwoke Smith, Daniel Jordan. 2022. Every Household Its Own Government: Improvised Infrastructure, Entrepreneurial Citizens, and the State in Nigeria. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 232 pp. $26.95 (paperback). Nigeria is a site of staggering paradoxes. The country is regarded as Africa's largest economy and yet is home to dire deprivation. On one hand, it is famed for its political vibrancy and popular consciousness; on the other, it presents a reality of perpetual government inadequacy. Standing on years of disappointment occasioned by the inability or unwillingness of the state to provide the essentials of life, or what Nigerians like to call the dividends of democracy, citizens must devise strategies to meet their own needs. [End Page 105] It is against this backdrop that Daniel Jordan Smith draws parallels among infrastructure, governance, and everyday experiences of citizenship. In Every Household Its Own Government, his fourth book, he foregrounds infrastructure in its conceptuality and materiality as being focal to the Nigerian experience. With insights drawn from ethnographic research spanning more than three decades in southeast Nigeria, he explores, in commendable depth, six areas of infrastructure—water, electricity, transportation, communication, education, and security—to show how state failure creates innovative informal systems of sustenance, adapted mostly on the household level, which he claims operates as (and are colloquially called) local governments. However, not all individuals or households are equal. The rich can wield economic and sociopolitical power to shield themselves from the harshness of government neglect by purchasing comfortable alternatives, but the poor must make do with risky, time-consuming, labor-intensive improvisations, which often end up worsening their condition. Remarkably, Smith does not stop at merely capturing these improvisations: he goes a step further to detail the political economic cost. Nigerians across various social strata, by participating in this thriving economy of improvised infrastructure, are implicated in a system that perpetuates inequality. The book is organized in a manner such that each chapter examines one of the six infrastructural domains that Smith chose for this book. To begin with, chapter 1, \"Empty Pipes and H2O Entrepreneurs,\" highlights the often onerous task of acquiring water for daily use—which, in Smith's argument, offers a special insight into \"the ways that infrastructure is central to how [citizens] experience and understand politics and inequality\" (30). Because existing state-installed waterpipes, designed to service homes in urban centers, hardly ever supply water in any but a few elite neighborhoods, ordinary Nigerians must look to water entrepreneurs, who set up and run private ventures, navig","PeriodicalId":39703,"journal":{"name":"Africa Today","volume":"132 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135346997","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.2979/africatoday.70.1.02
Souleymane Diallo, Dorothea E. Schulz
Abstract: This article examines official constructions of political legitimacy since the introduction of multiparty democracy in Mali and asks how some segments of the population have responded to them. We argue that these constructions evolved in the context of three symbolic repertoires, symbolized by the rifle, the ballpoint pen, and prayer beads. In this process, politicians have mobilized repertoires in selective and changing ways, subject to continuous reformulation, bricolage, and rearticulation. We end with the proposition that the result of these constructions, a cross of the pen and the rifle repertoires favored by the military regime of Colonel Assimi Goita, high-lights the popularity of the imagery of military strongmanship in Mali—and in sub-Saharan Africa more widely.
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Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.2979/africatoday.70.1.07
Reviewed by: Animality and Colonial Subjecthood in Africa: The Human and Nonhuman Creatures of Nigeria by Saheed Aderinto Odinaka Kingsley Eze Aderinto, Saheed. 2022. Animality and Colonial Subjecthood in Africa: The Human and Nonhuman Creatures of Nigeria. New African Histories. Athens: Ohio University Press. 261 pp. $80.00 (hardcover), $36.95 (paperback). Since the 1990s, African historians have been encouraged to investigate the complexities of the colonial past, the intricacies of its operation and imagination, and the interplay of power beyond the locale in a more extensive manner, one that would demonstrate the connectivity of Africa's past with global history while writing for African audiences. Saheed Aderinto's Animality and Colonial Subjecthood in Africa not only answers this call, but charts innovative and groundbreaking terrain in African historiography. In only a few books on African history will readers find interactions between humans and animals, involving symbolism, representation, and embedded characterization of animal personae in historical narratives, as Aderinto has done—which compels us to rethink and reimagine what we know about history, how we interpret it, why we choose a particular narrative over another, and the implications of what we decide to write about in the present. Indeed, Aderinto's prescient inclination makes this book capable of stimulating other scholars to undertake further research in this field. Moreover, writing a history that includes animals not only assigns agency to them, but lifts them from their position as objects to subjects, whose place is not "at the nibbling edge" in the footnotes of African historical texts, conferences, and journals (5). Aderinto boldly seeks to challenge the conceptualization of history as a discipline that has concentrated on the human past, sidelining animals despite ubiquitous relationships forged between them and humans since time immemorial. Therefore, Aderinto insists that "we may not truly comprehend the extent of imperial domination until we bring animals into our understanding of colonialism" (3). He uses animals to portray familiar themes in African historiographies, such as colonial modernity and civilization, ideology and subjecthood, ethnicity, violence, resistance and hegemony, and colonial power and nationalism. For instance, discussing dogs, he contends that dogs owned by British colonial administrators enjoyed more privileges than their counterparts that belonged to Africans. [End Page 103] Similarly, Aderinto weaves donkeys, cattle, and horses into the tapestry of the colonial political economy. Donkeys and horses were significant for transportation—which made them accomplices in colonial conquest and consolidation, utilized by the British colonial power to exploit Nigeria's resources. Donkeys conveyed mineral resources and agricultural products, but horses were the most reliable means of moving across unmotorable topographies and a spectacle of imperial
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Pub Date : 2023-09-01DOI: 10.2979/africatoday.70.1.08
Reviewed by: Every Household Its Own Government: Improvised Infrastructure, Entrepreneurial Citizens, and the State in Nigeria by Daniel Jordan Smith Chikezirim Nwoke Smith, Daniel Jordan. 2022. Every Household Its Own Government: Improvised Infrastructure, Entrepreneurial Citizens, and the State in Nigeria. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 232 pp. $26.95 (paperback). Nigeria is a site of staggering paradoxes. The country is regarded as Africa's largest economy and yet is home to dire deprivation. On one hand, it is famed for its political vibrancy and popular consciousness; on the other, it presents a reality of perpetual government inadequacy. Standing on years of disappointment occasioned by the inability or unwillingness of the state to provide the essentials of life, or what Nigerians like to call the dividends of democracy, citizens must devise strategies to meet their own needs. [End Page 105] It is against this backdrop that Daniel Jordan Smith draws parallels among infrastructure, governance, and everyday experiences of citizenship. In Every Household Its Own Government, his fourth book, he foregrounds infrastructure in its conceptuality and materiality as being focal to the Nigerian experience. With insights drawn from ethnographic research spanning more than three decades in southeast Nigeria, he explores, in commendable depth, six areas of infrastructure—water, electricity, transportation, communication, education, and security—to show how state failure creates innovative informal systems of sustenance, adapted mostly on the household level, which he claims operates as (and are colloquially called) local governments. However, not all individuals or households are equal. The rich can wield economic and sociopolitical power to shield themselves from the harshness of government neglect by purchasing comfortable alternatives, but the poor must make do with risky, time-consuming, labor-intensive improvisations, which often end up worsening their condition. Remarkably, Smith does not stop at merely capturing these improvisations: he goes a step further to detail the political economic cost. Nigerians across various social strata, by participating in this thriving economy of improvised infrastructure, are implicated in a system that perpetuates inequality. The book is organized in a manner such that each chapter examines one of the six infrastructural domains that Smith chose for this book. To begin with, chapter 1, "Empty Pipes and H2O Entrepreneurs," highlights the often onerous task of acquiring water for daily use—which, in Smith's argument, offers a special insight into "the ways that infrastructure is central to how [citizens] experience and understand politics and inequality" (30). Because existing state-installed waterpipes, designed to service homes in urban centers, hardly ever supply water in any but a few elite neighborhoods, ordinary Nigerians must look to water entrepreneurs, who set up and run private ventures, navig
《每个家庭都有自己的政府:尼日利亚的临时基础设施、创业公民和国家》，作者:Daniel Jordan Smith, Daniel Jordan, 2022。每个家庭都有自己的政府:尼日利亚的临时基础设施、企业家公民和国家。普林斯顿，新泽西州:普林斯顿大学出版社，232页，26.95美元(平装本)。尼日利亚是一个充满惊人悖论的地方。这个国家被认为是非洲最大的经济体，但却是极度贫困的家园。一方面，它以其政治活力和大众意识而闻名;另一方面，它呈现出政府永远无能的现实。多年来，由于政府无力或不愿提供生活必需品(尼日利亚人喜欢称之为民主的红利)，民众感到失望，他们必须制定策略来满足自己的需求。正是在这样的背景下，丹尼尔·乔丹·史密斯在基础设施、治理和公民的日常经历之间找到了相似之处。在他的第四本书《每个家庭都有自己的政府》中，他将基础设施的概念性和物质性作为尼日利亚经验的焦点。他从尼日利亚东南部30多年的民族志研究中获得了深刻的见解，深入探讨了基础设施的六个领域——水、电、交通、通信、教育和安全——以展示国家的失败是如何创造出创新的非正式维持系统的，这些系统主要适用于家庭层面，他声称这些系统就像(通俗地说)地方政府一样运作。然而，并非所有的个人或家庭都是平等的。富人可以运用经济和社会政治力量，通过购买舒适的替代品来保护自己免受政府忽视的严酷影响，但穷人必须采取冒险、耗时、劳动密集型的临时措施，而这些措施往往最终会使他们的状况恶化。值得注意的是，史密斯并没有仅仅停留在捕捉这些即兴创作上:他进一步详细描述了政治经济成本。来自不同社会阶层的尼日利亚人，通过参与这个由临时基础设施组成的繁荣经济，被卷入了一个使不平等永久化的体系。本书的组织方式是，每一章都考察史密斯为本书选择的六个基础结构领域中的一个。首先，第一章“空管道和水企业家”强调了获取日常用水的繁重任务——在史密斯的观点中，这一任务提供了一种特殊的见解，即“基础设施是(公民)如何体验和理解政治和不平等的核心”(30)。由于现有的国家安装的自来水管道，原本是为城市中心的家庭服务的，但除了少数精英社区之外，几乎从来没有向任何地方供水，普通的尼日利亚人必须指望水务企业家，他们建立并经营私人企业，在(不)合法和可接受的社会边缘驾驭官僚规则和流程。第二章探讨的电力部门也是如此。例如，为了解决以频繁停电为代表的国家电力基础设施问题，个人和小企业求助于使用发电机，试图自行操纵公共设施，或向国家官员行贿以维持电力供应。同样，正如第三章“冈田和丹福:尼日利亚的“公共交通””所示，公民通勤者、警察等政府力量和经营非正规交通业务的个人聚集在一种复杂的关系中，这种关系既受到缺陷国家机器的破坏，又受到润滑和强迫。最后三章从通信、教育和安全等基础设施领域提供了新的定性证据，以支持本书的一些核心论点:普通的尼日利亚人(下层阶级、中产阶级和有抱负的中产阶级公民)，通过努力创造可行的基础设施替代方案，无意中卷入了他们热情地哀叹的剥削制度的复制。在这个体系中，国家及其代理人是最大的暴利者，这一事实并不令人意外，但同样令人遗憾，这使得以建立只对精英有利的企业为前提的腐败成为可能。史密斯质疑，如果一个政府机构故意保护富人和权贵的利益，而牺牲为大多数人发展基础设施，那么它应该被视为一个软弱或失败的国家，而不是一个狡猾的国家(53)。最后，他断言……的实质是……
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Abstract: Many African water-related conflicts have their roots in so-called colonial treaties. This article examines the dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia regarding the construction and operation of an Ethiopian dam at the headwaters of the River Nile. We start by reviewing these countries' current political and economic circumstances as a prerequisite to assessing the severity of the conflict. We then trace the dispute back to the treaties used by each country to prove its rights to the Nile's water. We identify political circumstances that provide hidden motives behind the stalled negotiations. We conclude that current bilateral economic and political circumstances push decision makers away from reaching a concrete settlement of the dispute and argue that the treaties are only worsening the situation. Cooperation in the field of development in general is required to break the current deadlock, strengthen Egyptian-Ethiopian relations, and promote regional prosperity.
{"title":"The Egyptian-Ethiopian Dispute over the Nile: Lessons from the Past for Future African Peace and Prosperity","authors":"Abeer Youssef, Victoria J. Mabin, Bronwyn Howell","doi":"10.2979/at.2023.a900110","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2979/at.2023.a900110","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: Many African water-related conflicts have their roots in so-called colonial treaties. This article examines the dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia regarding the construction and operation of an Ethiopian dam at the headwaters of the River Nile. We start by reviewing these countries' current political and economic circumstances as a prerequisite to assessing the severity of the conflict. We then trace the dispute back to the treaties used by each country to prove its rights to the Nile's water. We identify political circumstances that provide hidden motives behind the stalled negotiations. We conclude that current bilateral economic and political circumstances push decision makers away from reaching a concrete settlement of the dispute and argue that the treaties are only worsening the situation. Cooperation in the field of development in general is required to break the current deadlock, strengthen Egyptian-Ethiopian relations, and promote regional prosperity.","PeriodicalId":39703,"journal":{"name":"Africa Today","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135142356","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-01DOI: 10.2979/africatoday.69.4.05
Abeer Youssef, Victoria J. Mabin, Bronwyn Howell
Many African water-related conflicts have their roots in so-called colonial treaties. This article examines the dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia regarding the construction and operation of an Ethiopian dam at the headwaters of the River Nile. We start by reviewing these countries' current political and economic circumstances as a prerequisite to assessing the severity of the conflict. We then trace the dispute back to the treaties used by each country to prove its rights to the Nile's water. We identify political circumstances that provide hidden motives behind the stalled negotiations. We conclude that current bilateral economic and political circumstances push decision makers away from reaching a concrete settlement of the dispute and argue that the treaties are only worsening the situation. Cooperation in the field of development in general is required to break the current deadlock, strengthen Egyptian-Ethiopian relations, and promote regional prosperity.
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