1 - The Alternative Genealogy of Civil Society and Its Implications for Africa: Notes for Further Research
Corresponding Author(s) : Ebenezer Obadare
Africa Development,
Vol. 29 No. 4 (2004): Africa Development
Abstract
Despite its ubiquity in popular and academic discourses, consensus about the epistemological status of the idea of civil society remains elusive. In Africa, the literature is circumscribed by doubts about, first, its applicability; and second, the usefulness of civil society in explicating social processes on the continent. This has generated a conflictive, yet deeply illuminating, scholarship. The paper makes a modest contribution to the debate, first, by mapping the main contours of the existing intellectual divide, and second, critically complicating it by suggesting the emergence of an 'alternative genealogy' that seemingly renders the debate itself redundant. The 'alternative genealogy' seems to have emerged, partly out of the desire to respond to misgivings about the possibility of civil society in Africa, and partly to provide a description of civil society which, while not totally divorced from its original meaning(s), nevertheless strikes out in fresh directions, taking into cognisance the radical ways in which the notion of civil society is being used across non-Western societies in general. The paper concludes with an examination of the implications of this re-imagining of civil society for both theoretical analysis and practical engagement.
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- Barber, Benjamin R., 2001, 'Blood Brothers, Consumers, or Citizens? Three Models of Identity- Ethnic, Commercial, and Civic', in Carol C. Gould and Pasquale Pasquino (eds.) Cultural Identity and the Nation State, Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield. Bayart, Jean-François, 1986, 'Civil Society in Africa' in Patrick chabal, ed., Political Domination in Africa: Reflections on the Limits of Power, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 109-125. Bayart, Jean-Francois, 1993, The State in Africa: The Politics of the Belly, New York: Longman. Blaney, David L. and Mustapha Kamal Pasha, 1993, 'Civil Society and Democracy in the Third World: Ambiguities and Historical Possibilities', Studies in Comparative International Development, Spring, vol. 28, no. 1, 3-24. Bratton, Michael, 1989, 'Civil Society and Associational Life in Africa', World Politics, 41 (3): 407-430. Callaghy, Thomas M., 1994, 'Civil Society, Democracy, and Economic Change in Africa: A Dissenting Opinion About Resurgent Societies', in John Harbeson, Donald Rothchild and Naomi Chazan, (eds.), Civil Society and the State in Africa, London: Lynne Rienner, pp. 231-54. Cohen, Jean L. and Andrew Arato, 1992, Civil Society and Political Theory, Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press. Comaroff, John L. and Jean Comaroff, (eds.), 1999, Civil Society and the Political Imagination in Africa Critical Perspectives, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Chabal, Patrick, 1991, Power in Africa: An Essay in Political Interpretation, Basingstoke: Macmillan Academic and Professional.This content downloaded from 154.125.121.197 on Sat, 04 Dec 2021 13:56:22 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
- Obadare: The Alternative Genealogy of Civil Society 17 Chan, Stephen, 2002, Composing Africa: Civil Society and Its Discontents Tampere Peace Research Institute Occasional Papers Series No. 86, pp. 1-82. Chandhoke, Neera, 2001, 'A Cautionary Note on Civil Society', Paper presented at the Conference on The Meaning and Value of Civil Society in Different Cultural Contexts, London School of Economics, 28-29 September. Chandhoke, Neera, 2001, 'The "Civil" and the "Political" in Civil Society', Democratization, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Summer), pp. 1-24. Deakin, Nicholas, 2001, In Search of Civil Society, Basingstoke, Palgrave. Diouf, Mamadou, 1998, Political Liberalisation or Democratic Transition: African Perspectives, Dakar, CODESRIA. Ekeh, Peter, 1998, 'Civil Society and the Construction of Freedom in African History', Keynote address to Wilberforce Conference on Civil Society in Africa, Central State University, Wilberforce, Ohio. Ferguson, Adam, 1980, An Essay on the History of Civil Society, With a New Introduction by Louis Schneider, New Brunswick, Transaction Books. Gellner, Ernest, 1994, Conditions of Liberty: Civil Society and its Rivals, London: Hamish and Hamilton. Giner, Salvador, 1995, 'Civil Society and its Future', in John A. Hall, (ed.) Civil Society: Theory, History, Comparison, Cambridge: Polity Press. Gyimah-Boadi, Emmanuel, 1997, 'Civil Society in Africa: the good, the bad the Ugly', Journal: CIVnet's journal for Civil Society, May, vol. 1 no. 1. Harbeson, John W., 1994, 'Civil Society and Political Renaissance in Africa', in John Harbeson, Donald Rothchild and Naomi Chazan, (eds.), Civil Society and the State in Africa, London: Lynne Rienner, pp. 1-32. Hefner, Robert W., 2000, Civil Islam Muslims and Democratization in Indonesia, Princeton: Princeton University Press. Howell, Jude and Jenny Pearce, 2001, Civil Society and Development: A Critical Exploration, London: Lynne Rienner Publishers. Hutchful, Eboe, 1998, 'The Civil Society Debate in Africa', International Journal 51 (1): 54-77. Ihonvbere, Julius and Timothy Shaw, 1998, Illusions of Power: Nigeria in Transition, Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press. Jorgensen, Lars, 1996, 'What are NGOs doing in Civil Society?', in Andrew Clayton (ed.), NGOs, Civil Society and the State: Building Democracy in Transitional Societies, Oxford: INTRAC, pp. 36-55. Kaviraj, Sudipta, and Sunil Khilnani, (eds.), 2001, Civil Society History and Possibilities, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kamali, Masoud, 1998, Revolutionary Iran: Civil Society and the State in the Modernization Process, Aldershot: Ashgate. Kazemi, Farhad, 2002, 'Perspectives on Islam and Civil Society', in Rosenblum, Nancy L., and Robert C. Post, Civil Society and Government, Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 317-333. Keane, John, 1998, 'Civil Society: Old Images', New Visions, Cambridge: Polity Press.This content downloaded from 154.125.121.197 on Sat, 04 Dec 2021 13:56:22 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
- Africa Development, Vol. XXIX, No. 4, 2004 Krader, Lawrence, 1976, 'The Dialectic of Civil Society', Amsterdam: Van Gorcum, Assen. Lewis, David, 2002, 'Civil Society in African Contexts: Reflections on the Usefulness of a Concept', Development and Change, September, Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 569-586 (18). Mamdani, Mahmood, 1995, 'A Critique of the State and Civil Society Paradigm in Africanist Studies', in Mahmood Mamdani and Ernest Wamba-dia-Wamba, (eds.), African Studies in Social Movements and Democracy, Dakar: CODESRIA. Mamdani, Mahmood, 1997, Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism, Princeton: N.J: Princeton University Press. Mardin, Serif, 1995, 'Islam and Civil Society', in John A. Hall, (ed.), Civil Society: Theory, History, Comparison, Cambridge: Polity Press. Monga, Celestin, 1995, 'Civil Society and Démocratisation in Francophone Africa ', Journal of Modern African Studies, 33:359-379. Monga, Celestin, 1996, 'The Anthropology of Anger: Civil Society and Democracy in Africa', Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers. Mustapha, Abdul Raufu, 1998, 'When Will Independence End? Democratization and Civil Society in Rural Africa', in Lars Rudebeck, Olle Tornquist, Virgilio Rojas, (eds.), Democratization in the Third World: Concrete Cases in Comparative and Theoretical Perspective, Basingstoke: Macmillan. Nairn, Tom, 1997, 'From Civil Society to Civic Nationalism: Evolutions of a Myth', in Tom Nairn, Faces of Nationalism: Janus Revisited, Verso, London. Nwokedi, Emeka, 1995, Politics of Démocratisation Changing Authoritarian Regimes in sub-Saharan Africa, Demokratie und Entwicklung Bd. 18 Munster. Obadare, Ebenezer, 2002, 'Civil Society in Nigeria: Conjectures and Refutations', in Toyin Falola, (ed.) Nigeria in the Twentieth Century, Durham: Carolina Academic Press, pp. 551-60. Obadare, Ebenezer, 2004, 'The Uses of the Primordial: Reflections on Ethnicity, Civil Society and Democracy in Nigeria' paper accepted for publication in Quarterly Journal of Administration, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, Volume XXXII, No. 1, pp. 124-143. Onwudiwe, Ebere, ed., 1998, African Perspectives on Civil Society, New York: Tri-Atlantic Books. Orvis, Stephen, 2001, 'Civil Society in Africa or African Civil Society?', Journal of Asian and African Studies, XXXVI, I, 17-38. Seligman, Adam B., 1992, The Idea of Civil Society, New York: The Free Press. Tester, Keith, 1992, Civil Society, London and New York: Routledge. Trentmann, Frank, 1999, Paradoxes of Civil Society: New Perspectives on Modern German and British History, Oxford: Berghahn. Van Rooy, (ed.), 1998, Civil Society and the Aid Industry, London: Earthscan. Varshney, Ashutosh, 2001, 'Ethnic Conflict and Civil Society in India and Beyond', World Politics, April, pp. 362-98
References
Barber, Benjamin R., 2001, 'Blood Brothers, Consumers, or Citizens? Three Models of Identity- Ethnic, Commercial, and Civic', in Carol C. Gould and Pasquale Pasquino (eds.) Cultural Identity and the Nation State, Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield. Bayart, Jean-François, 1986, 'Civil Society in Africa' in Patrick chabal, ed., Political Domination in Africa: Reflections on the Limits of Power, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 109-125. Bayart, Jean-Francois, 1993, The State in Africa: The Politics of the Belly, New York: Longman. Blaney, David L. and Mustapha Kamal Pasha, 1993, 'Civil Society and Democracy in the Third World: Ambiguities and Historical Possibilities', Studies in Comparative International Development, Spring, vol. 28, no. 1, 3-24. Bratton, Michael, 1989, 'Civil Society and Associational Life in Africa', World Politics, 41 (3): 407-430. Callaghy, Thomas M., 1994, 'Civil Society, Democracy, and Economic Change in Africa: A Dissenting Opinion About Resurgent Societies', in John Harbeson, Donald Rothchild and Naomi Chazan, (eds.), Civil Society and the State in Africa, London: Lynne Rienner, pp. 231-54. Cohen, Jean L. and Andrew Arato, 1992, Civil Society and Political Theory, Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press. Comaroff, John L. and Jean Comaroff, (eds.), 1999, Civil Society and the Political Imagination in Africa Critical Perspectives, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Chabal, Patrick, 1991, Power in Africa: An Essay in Political Interpretation, Basingstoke: Macmillan Academic and Professional.This content downloaded from 154.125.121.197 on Sat, 04 Dec 2021 13:56:22 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Obadare: The Alternative Genealogy of Civil Society 17 Chan, Stephen, 2002, Composing Africa: Civil Society and Its Discontents Tampere Peace Research Institute Occasional Papers Series No. 86, pp. 1-82. Chandhoke, Neera, 2001, 'A Cautionary Note on Civil Society', Paper presented at the Conference on The Meaning and Value of Civil Society in Different Cultural Contexts, London School of Economics, 28-29 September. Chandhoke, Neera, 2001, 'The "Civil" and the "Political" in Civil Society', Democratization, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Summer), pp. 1-24. Deakin, Nicholas, 2001, In Search of Civil Society, Basingstoke, Palgrave. Diouf, Mamadou, 1998, Political Liberalisation or Democratic Transition: African Perspectives, Dakar, CODESRIA. Ekeh, Peter, 1998, 'Civil Society and the Construction of Freedom in African History', Keynote address to Wilberforce Conference on Civil Society in Africa, Central State University, Wilberforce, Ohio. Ferguson, Adam, 1980, An Essay on the History of Civil Society, With a New Introduction by Louis Schneider, New Brunswick, Transaction Books. Gellner, Ernest, 1994, Conditions of Liberty: Civil Society and its Rivals, London: Hamish and Hamilton. Giner, Salvador, 1995, 'Civil Society and its Future', in John A. Hall, (ed.) Civil Society: Theory, History, Comparison, Cambridge: Polity Press. Gyimah-Boadi, Emmanuel, 1997, 'Civil Society in Africa: the good, the bad the Ugly', Journal: CIVnet's journal for Civil Society, May, vol. 1 no. 1. Harbeson, John W., 1994, 'Civil Society and Political Renaissance in Africa', in John Harbeson, Donald Rothchild and Naomi Chazan, (eds.), Civil Society and the State in Africa, London: Lynne Rienner, pp. 1-32. Hefner, Robert W., 2000, Civil Islam Muslims and Democratization in Indonesia, Princeton: Princeton University Press. Howell, Jude and Jenny Pearce, 2001, Civil Society and Development: A Critical Exploration, London: Lynne Rienner Publishers. Hutchful, Eboe, 1998, 'The Civil Society Debate in Africa', International Journal 51 (1): 54-77. Ihonvbere, Julius and Timothy Shaw, 1998, Illusions of Power: Nigeria in Transition, Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press. Jorgensen, Lars, 1996, 'What are NGOs doing in Civil Society?', in Andrew Clayton (ed.), NGOs, Civil Society and the State: Building Democracy in Transitional Societies, Oxford: INTRAC, pp. 36-55. Kaviraj, Sudipta, and Sunil Khilnani, (eds.), 2001, Civil Society History and Possibilities, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kamali, Masoud, 1998, Revolutionary Iran: Civil Society and the State in the Modernization Process, Aldershot: Ashgate. Kazemi, Farhad, 2002, 'Perspectives on Islam and Civil Society', in Rosenblum, Nancy L., and Robert C. Post, Civil Society and Government, Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 317-333. Keane, John, 1998, 'Civil Society: Old Images', New Visions, Cambridge: Polity Press.This content downloaded from 154.125.121.197 on Sat, 04 Dec 2021 13:56:22 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Africa Development, Vol. XXIX, No. 4, 2004 Krader, Lawrence, 1976, 'The Dialectic of Civil Society', Amsterdam: Van Gorcum, Assen. Lewis, David, 2002, 'Civil Society in African Contexts: Reflections on the Usefulness of a Concept', Development and Change, September, Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 569-586 (18). Mamdani, Mahmood, 1995, 'A Critique of the State and Civil Society Paradigm in Africanist Studies', in Mahmood Mamdani and Ernest Wamba-dia-Wamba, (eds.), African Studies in Social Movements and Democracy, Dakar: CODESRIA. Mamdani, Mahmood, 1997, Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism, Princeton: N.J: Princeton University Press. Mardin, Serif, 1995, 'Islam and Civil Society', in John A. Hall, (ed.), Civil Society: Theory, History, Comparison, Cambridge: Polity Press. Monga, Celestin, 1995, 'Civil Society and Démocratisation in Francophone Africa ', Journal of Modern African Studies, 33:359-379. Monga, Celestin, 1996, 'The Anthropology of Anger: Civil Society and Democracy in Africa', Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers. Mustapha, Abdul Raufu, 1998, 'When Will Independence End? Democratization and Civil Society in Rural Africa', in Lars Rudebeck, Olle Tornquist, Virgilio Rojas, (eds.), Democratization in the Third World: Concrete Cases in Comparative and Theoretical Perspective, Basingstoke: Macmillan. Nairn, Tom, 1997, 'From Civil Society to Civic Nationalism: Evolutions of a Myth', in Tom Nairn, Faces of Nationalism: Janus Revisited, Verso, London. Nwokedi, Emeka, 1995, Politics of Démocratisation Changing Authoritarian Regimes in sub-Saharan Africa, Demokratie und Entwicklung Bd. 18 Munster. Obadare, Ebenezer, 2002, 'Civil Society in Nigeria: Conjectures and Refutations', in Toyin Falola, (ed.) Nigeria in the Twentieth Century, Durham: Carolina Academic Press, pp. 551-60. Obadare, Ebenezer, 2004, 'The Uses of the Primordial: Reflections on Ethnicity, Civil Society and Democracy in Nigeria' paper accepted for publication in Quarterly Journal of Administration, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, Volume XXXII, No. 1, pp. 124-143. Onwudiwe, Ebere, ed., 1998, African Perspectives on Civil Society, New York: Tri-Atlantic Books. Orvis, Stephen, 2001, 'Civil Society in Africa or African Civil Society?', Journal of Asian and African Studies, XXXVI, I, 17-38. Seligman, Adam B., 1992, The Idea of Civil Society, New York: The Free Press. Tester, Keith, 1992, Civil Society, London and New York: Routledge. Trentmann, Frank, 1999, Paradoxes of Civil Society: New Perspectives on Modern German and British History, Oxford: Berghahn. Van Rooy, (ed.), 1998, Civil Society and the Aid Industry, London: Earthscan. Varshney, Ashutosh, 2001, 'Ethnic Conflict and Civil Society in India and Beyond', World Politics, April, pp. 362-98