Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism

Awards:   Short-listed for Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century 2002 Winner of Herskovitis Award of the African Studies Association 1997 (United States)
Author:   Mahmood Mamdani ,  Mahmood Mamdani ,  Sherry Ortner ,  Mahmood Mamdani
Publisher:   Princeton University Press
ISBN:  

9780691180427


Pages:   384
Publication Date:   01 May 2018
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Out of stock   Availability explained
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Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism


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Awards

  • Short-listed for Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century 2002
  • Winner of Herskovitis Award of the African Studies Association 1997 (United States)

Overview

"In analyzing the obstacles to democratization in post- independence Africa, Mahmood Mamdani offers a bold, insightful account of colonialism's legacy--a bifurcated power that mediated racial domination through tribally organized local authorities, reproducing racial identity in citizens and ethnic identity in subjects. Many writers have understood colonial rule as either ""direct"" (French) or ""indirect"" (British), with a third variant--apartheid--as exceptional. This benign terminology, Mamdani shows, masks the fact that these were actually variants of a despotism. While direct rule denied rights to subjects on racial grounds, indirect rule incorporated them into a ""customary"" mode of rule, with state-appointed Native Authorities defining custom. By tapping authoritarian possibilities in culture, and by giving culture an authoritarian bent, indirect rule (decentralized despotism) set the pace for Africa; the French followed suit by changing from direct to indirect administration, while apartheid emerged relatively later. Apartheid, Mamdani shows, was actually the generic form of the colonial state in Africa. Through case studies of rural (Uganda) and urban (South Africa) resistance movements, we learn how these institutional features fragment resistance and how states tend to play off reform in one sector against repression in the other. The result is a groundbreaking reassessment of colonial rule in Africa and its enduring aftereffects. Reforming a power that institutionally enforces tension between town and country, and between ethnicities, is the key challenge for anyone interested in democratic reform in Africa."

Full Product Details

Author:   Mahmood Mamdani ,  Mahmood Mamdani ,  Sherry Ortner ,  Mahmood Mamdani
Publisher:   Princeton University Press
Imprint:   Princeton University Press
ISBN:  

9780691180427


ISBN 10:   0691180423
Pages:   384
Publication Date:   01 May 2018
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock   Availability explained
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.
Language:   English

Table of Contents

Reviews

An original book that offers a new angle of vision and is likely to stir up lively debate. --Foreign Affairs This theoretically adventurous work by a prominent Ugandan academic attempts to shift away from current paradigms constructed around themes of ethnic identity and the role of civil society. . . . This is an original book that offers a new angle of vision and is likely to stir up lively debate. --Foreign Affairs One of Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century Winner of the 1997 Herskovits Award, African Studies Association


Citizen and Subjectis going to be a verynecessarybook. Mamdani's exposition, of a rare clarity, offers us a broadness of vision based upon experience and knowledge always informed by his profound perceptiveness. --Breyten Breytenbach, South African writer Mahmood Mamdani is one of the most original thinkers writing about Africa today. His skills in comparative analysis and conceptual refinement are strikingly illustrated in this volume. --Ali A. Mazrui, Institute for Global Studies, SUNY-Binghamton This book explores a provocative and original thesis about African politics, with the vigor and rigor that readers of Professor Mamdani's earlier work will expect. Anyone who cares to understand the state in contemporary Africa--anyone who wants to understand the current situation on the continent at all--would do well to read this new book. Whether you agree or disagree, this is a book to learn from. --Kwame Anthony Appiah Mahmood Mamdani's powerful new volume challenges the established wisdom of Africanists concerning the European colonial impact on Africa and Africa's postcolonial settlement.... [I]mpressive. --Robert L. Tignor, American Historical Review A compelling historical reconstruction.... [A]n analysis distinguished by its utter respect for the specificity of historical experience. --Irene Grendzier, The Nation One of Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century Winner of the 1997 Herskovits Award, African Studies Association


This theoretically adventurous work by a prominent Ugandan academic attempts to shift away from current paradigms constructed around themes of ethnic identity and the role of civil society. . . . This is an original book that offers a new angle of vision and is likely to stir up lively debate. --Foreign Affairs One of Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th CenturyWinner of the 1997 Herskovits Award, African Studies Association


Author Information

Mahmood Mamdani is the Herbert Lehman Professor of Government in the Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies Department at Columbia University. His many books include Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror.

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