The politics of custom : chiefship, capital, and the state in contemporary Africa

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The politics of custom : chiefship, capital, and the state in contemporary Africa

edited by John L. Comaroff, Jean Comaroff

Wits University Press, 2018

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"Published by arrangement with The University of Chicago Press"--T.p. verso

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

How are we to explain the resurgence of customary chiefs in contemporary Africa? Rather than disappearing with the tide of modernity, as many expected, indigenous sovereigns are instead a rising force, often wielding substantial power and legitimacy despite major changes in the workings of the global political economy in the post-Cold War era - changes in which they are themselves deeply implicated. This pathbreaking volume, edited by anthropologists John L. Comaroff and Jean Comaroff, explores the reasons behind the increasingly assertive politics of custom in many corners of Africa. Chiefs come in countless guises - from university professors through cosmopolitan businessmen to subsistence farmers - but, whatever else they do, they are a critical key to understanding the tenacious hold that `traditional' authority enjoys in the late modern world. Together the contributors explore this counterintuitive chapter in Africa's history and, in so doing, place it within the broader world-making processes of the twenty-fi rst century.

Table of Contents

  • Editorial Note
  • Chapter 1: Chiefs, Capital, and the State in Contemporary Africa: An Introduction John and Jean Comaroff
  • Chapter 2: African Chiefs and the Post-Cold War Moment: Millennial Capitalism and the Struggle over Moral Authority Peter Geschiere
  • Chapter 3: Chieftaincy, Land, and the State in Ghana and South Africa Sara Berry
  • Chapter 4: The Salience of Chiefs in Postapartheid South Africa: Reflections on the Nhlapo Commission Mbongiseni Buthelezi and Dineo Skosana
  • Chapter 5: The Politics of States and Chiefs in Zimbabwe Jocelyn Alexander
  • Chapter 6: Paramount Chiefs, Land, and Local-National Politics in Sierra Leone Mariane Ferme
  • Chapter 7: Republic of Kings: Neotraditionalism, Aristocratic Ethos, and Authoritarianism in Burkina Faso Benoit Beucher
  • Chapter 8: Corporate Kings and South Africa's Traditional-Industrial Complex Susan Cook Chapter 9: The Currency of Chieftaincy: Corporate Branding and the Commodification of Political Authority in Ghana Lauren Adrover
  • Chapter 10: Fallen Chiefs and Sacrificial Mining in Ghana Lauren Coyle
  • Chapter 11: Colonizing Banro: Kingship, Temporality, and Mining of Futures in the Goldfields of South Kivu, DRC James Smith
  • Chapter 12: Third Contact: Invisibility and Recognition of the Customary in Northern Mozambique Juan Obarrio
  • Acknowledgments
  • Contributors
  • Index.

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