Looking for the Political in Africa: Historical Knowledge and Contemporary Struggles(Oxford Studies in African Politics and International Relations)

How should we make sense of the political dynamics in Africa today? Which point of view should we adopt to grasp the diversity of what is happening on the ground and in the day-to-day reality of power relations and social practices? To what extent do structural determinants articulate with individual practices and political imaginaries? In answer to these questions, Looking for the Political in Africa provides a captivating, multifaceted portrait of the many ways in which power relations and the daily lives of individuals are negotiated all around the African continent, in places that are often discrete and far removed from the classic arenas of politics. This book brings together contributions from fourteen distinguished social scientists from a wide range of disciplines and geographical backgrounds. Without neglecting the question of the state, international institutions, or globalized capitalism, each chapter pays particular attention to the intimacy of actors, to issues of gender and age, to their online engagement, as well as to the major dynamics of ethnicity, militarization, religion, migration and finance, showing that the political cannot be reduced to politics. They draw on long-term empirical research to present a synthetic picture and offer conclusions that go beyond the continent's limits and feed into broader intellectual projects. In doing so, Looking for the Political in Africa builds an innovative picture of political fields across the continent, underlining the historical depth of current dynamics and highlighting both the transformations of African societies and the ways in which these societies are studied. Oxford Studies in African Politics and International Relations is a series for scholars and students working on African politics and International Relations and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on contemporary developments in African political science, political economy, and International Relations, such as electoral politics, democratization, decentralization, gender and political representation, the political impact of natural resources, the dynamics and consequences of conflict, comparative political thought, and the nature of the continent's engagement with the East and West. Comparative and mixed methods work is particularly encouraged. Case studies are welcomed but should demonstrate the broader theoretical and empirical implications of the study and its wider relevance to contemporary debates. The focus of the series is on sub-Saharan Africa, although proposals that explain how the region engages with North Africa and other parts of the world are of interest. Series Editors: Nic Cheeseman (University of Birmingham), Peace Medie (University of Bristol), and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira (University of Oxford). Chapter 6 of this work is available under the terms of a CC BY-SA 4.0 International open access licence. This part of the work is free to read on the Oxford Academic platform and offered as a free PDF from OUP and selected open access locations.

Table of Contents:
Vincent Bonnecase and Julien Brachet: Introduction: Studying Africa, still. Predicaments and Commitments of Knowledge Production Part 1: Historical Knowledge for the Future 1: Laurent Fourchard: Disputed Historicities: Genealogies and Uses in African Studies 2: Judith Scheele: Soldiers' Pay: Historical Perspectives on Militarization in Africa 3: Lyn Ossome: Feminist Politics in Agrarian Africa 4: Ophélie Rillon: Politics through Intimacy: Stories of Love, Masculinities, and Commitments in Mali 5: Maame Adwoa A. Gyekye-Jandoh: Ethnic Conflict and Politics in Africa: The Winding Roads to Democracy in Ghana and Uganda 6: Abdoulaye Sounaye: Salafi Revolution in West Africa Part 2: Rooted Contemporary Struggles 7: Mounia Bennani-Chraïbi: Keeping the Politicization Debate Going 8: Barbara M. Cooper: Predicaments of Gender and Generation in the Contemporary Sahel 9: Sylvie Bredeloup: Intra-African Migration: Change the Focus 10: Katrien Pype: (Online) Politics from Below in Sub-Saharan Africa 11: Janet Roitman: Africa Rising: Class or Finance? 12: Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni: The Decolonial Turn(s) in African Studies: Challenges of Rewriting Africa

About the Author :
Vincent Bonnecase is a Historian and Political Scientist, and Researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). His work focuses on the social construction of feelings of injustice in Africa from historical and contemporary perspectives. He has published on the political use of livelihood statistic in the Sahel, and on anger over the high cost of living in Burkina Faso and Niger. He is the author of La Pauvreté au Sahel (Kathala, 2011), Les Prix de la Colère (Éditions de l'EHESS, 2019), and La vie Chère (Flammarion, 2023). Julien Brachet is a Geographer and Researcher at the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD - Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University). His research investigates economic and political dynamics in the Sahara and the Sahel, and the process of knowledge production in/on Africa. He has been a visiting research fellow at the universities of Niamey, Oxford, N'Djaména, and Princeton. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of the quarterly journal Politique Africaine with Vincent Bonnecase (2018-2021), and the author of Migrations Transsahariennes (Le Croquant, 2009) and The Value of Disorder with J. Scheele (Cambridge University Press, 2019).