Politics of Origin in Africa: Autochthony, Citizenship and Conflict

This book addresses a critical and badly neglected issue in the politics of modern Africa, and makes a vital contribution to understanding the dynamics of conflict in the continent. –Christopher Clapham, Centre of African Studies, Cambridge University

Politics of Origin in Africa argues that the definition of citizenship on exclusionary terms or the activation of ethnicity and autochthony discourses are an integral component of state-making practices. Through detailed empirical studies of violent manifestations observed in Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya and the DRC, Morten Bøås and Kevin Dunn decipher interactions between space and identity, politics and memory, land ownership and landlessness. The outcome is an insightful and stimulating discussion of strategies associated with situations where the redistribution of resources within the neopatrimonial state and through its big men is highly dysfunctional. –Daniel C. Bach, University of Bordeaux

Kevin C. Dunn is an associate professor of political science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY, USA. His publications include Imagining the Congo: The international relations of identity (2003), Africa’s Challenge to International Relations Theory (with Timothy M. Shaw, 2001), Identity and Global Politics: Theoretical and empirical elaborations (with Patricia Goff, 2004) and African Guerrillas: Raging against the machine (with Morten Bøås, 2007).