Insiders & Outsiders: Citizenship & Xenophobia in Contemporary Southern Africa
Francis B. Nyamnjoh
Published 2006; 288 pages; ISBN: 2-86978-155-5
Nyamnjoh’s new book about the heightened xenophobia that both exploits and excludes is an incisive commentary on a globalizing world that reaches down into the grassroots of so many societies with
consequences for ordinary people’s lives that have received all too little attention. He meticulously documents the fate of immigrants and the new politics of insiders and outsiders in these Southern African societies, at the same time delivering a telling commentary on the global rhetoric of open societies in an era of increasing closures and exclusions.
This work is an original and perceptive study of issues that resonate in countries across Africa and the globe. As globalization becomes a palpable reality in the bodies of people in transit, citizenship, sociality and belonging are subjected to stresses to which few
societies have devised a civil response beyond yet more controls. The latter in turn are subverted and nullified, so that, as in Botswana and South Africa, a world is developing where conflict and flux underlie a superficial global progress.
Francis B. Nyamnjoh is Associate Professor and Head of Publications and Dissemination with the Council for the Development of Social
Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA). He has taught sociology, anthropology and communication studies at universities in Cameroon, Botswana and South Africa, and has researched and written extensively on Cameroon and Botswana, where he was awarded the “Senior Arts Researcher of the Year” prize for 2003. His most recent book includes Africa’s Media, Democracy and the
Politics of Belonging (Zed Books, 2005).
Introduction: Globalisation, Mobility, Citizenship and Xenophobia in Southern Africa
Paradoxes of Globalisation
Citizenship and Mobility in South Africa
Citizenship and Mobility in Botswana
Gender, Domesticity, Citizenship and Mobility in Southern Africa
Beyond Boundaries
Chapter 1: Mobility, Citizenship and Xenophobia in South Africa
Attitudes towards Makwerekwere in South Africa
Makwerekwere as Fiction
Makwerekwere and the Excesses of Citizenship
Ama-Ndiya: Indians as Makwerekwere with Citizenship
South African Media and the Narrow Focus on Makwerekwere
Mobile Africa: Brain Drains and Brain Gains
Even the Makwerekwere Think of Home
Chapter 2: Citizenship, Mobility and Xenophobia in Botswana
Introduction
Citizenship and Belonging in Botswana
Press and Ethnicity: BaKalanga as Makwerekwere with Citizenship
Changing Attitudes Towards Foreigners in Botswana
Implications for Democracy and Citizenship
Chapter 3: Gender, Domesticity, Mobility and Citizenship
Introduction
Theorizing Domesticity in Africa
Madams and Maids as Citizens and Subjects in Apartheid South Africa
Global Trends in the Consumption of Maids
Legal Status and State Protection of Maids
Globalisation and the Exacerbation of Servitude among Foreign Maids
Chapter 4: Maids, Mobility and Citizenship in Botswana
Introduction
A Note on Methodology
Situating Maids in Botswana
Uncertainties of Being a Maid
Work and Pay
Living Conditions and Relationships with Employers
Attitudes of Employers Towards Maids
Compounded Uncertainties of Zimbabwean Maids
Zimbabwean Maids and Batswana Employers
Zimbabwean Maids and Foreigner Employers
Chapter 5: Madams and Maids: Coping with Domination and Dehumanisation
Introduction
Turning the Tables of Exploitation Round
Maids, Employers and the Struggle against Uncertainties in Botswana
Maids and Madams: The Need to Question Intra-Gender Hierarchies
Chapter 6: Conclusion: Requiem for Bounded Citizenship
Mobility and Belonging
Ills of Bounded Citizenship
Challenge to Scholarship
Investing in Flexible Citizenship
References
HB ISBN 1 84277 676 2 £ 65.00 $85.00
PB ISBN 2-86978-155-5 $20.00 (Africa); £ 18.95 $29.95 (Elsewhere)
For orders:
Africa
Publications and Dissemination
CODESRIA
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BP 3304, Dakar 18524 Senegal
Email: codesria@codesria.sn / publications@codesria.sn
Web: www.codesria.org
Rest of the world
Zed Books Ltd,
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London, United Kingdom
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www.zedbooks.co.uk
