3 - Remaking from Below: The Political and Policy Implications of Subaltern Experiences in Postcolonial Freetown
Corresponding Author(s) : Ibrahim Abdullah
Afrika Zamani,
No. 22-23 (2015): Afrika Zamani: An Annual Journal of African History
Abstract
This article deals with the archaeology of violence and urban exclusion in postcolonial Freetown. It argues that subalterns underwent a double exclusion – from the colonial to the postcolonial: first as natives on the basis of race, and then subsequently, as a marginal economic category. Their dogged resistance to structuration from above compels us to rethink the city and the citizenry in new ways that challenge our conception of urbanization, citizenship and the nation state in contemporary Africa. The article is divided into three sections. The first section discusses colonial restrictions from above and the exclusion of natives in the colonial city based on race. The second section examines the postcolonial divide and the reinvention of the natives as subalterns within the prism of class. The third section deals with the monumental changes that continue to make and remake post-war Freetown and the travails of the urban poor.
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- Abdullah, I. 1994, ‘Rethinking the Freetown crowd: the moral economy of the 1919 strikes and riot in Sierra Leone’, Canadian Journal of African Studies 26 (2): 197–218.
- Abdullah, I. 2005, ‘""I am a rebel"": youth culture and violence’, in Honwana, A. and De Boeck, F., eds, Makers and Breakers: children and youth in postcolonial Africa, Trenton NJ: Africa World Press.
- Abdullah, I. and Muana, P., 1998, ‘The Revolutionary United Front (RUF): a revolt of the lumpenproletariat’, in Clapham, C., ed., African Guerillas, Oxford: James Currey.
- Banton, Michael, 1957, West African City: A study of Tribal Life in Freetown, New York: New York University Press.
- Cooper, F., 1983, Struggle for the City: Migrant labor, Capital, and the State in Urban Africa, Sage Publication: Beverly Hills
- Davis, M., 2006, Planet of Slums, London and New York: Verso.
- Fanon, F., 1963, The Wretched of the Earth, New York: Grove Press.
- Fyfe, C. and Jones, E., eds, 1968, Freetown: a symposium, London: Oxford University Press and Sierra Leone University Press.
- Government of Sierra Leone, 2008, An Agenda for Change: Second Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRSP 11) 2008-2012.
- Hardoy, J. E. and Satterthwaite, D., eds, 1989, Squatter Citizens: life in the urban Third World, London: Earthscan.
- Harrell-Bond, B., Howard, A.M., and Skinner, D.E, 1978, Community Leadership and the Transformation of Freetown, The Hague: Mouton.
- Howard, A., 2003. ‘Cities in Africa, past and present: contestation, transformation, discourse’, Canadian Journal of African Studies 37 (2 & 3), Special Issue, ‘Cities in Africa’.
- Makannah, T. J., ed., 1996, Handbook of the Population of Sierra Leone, Freetown: Toma Enterprises.
- Mamdani, M., 1996, Citizen and Subject, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Mitlin, D. and Satterthwaite, D., eds, 2001, Empowering Squatter Citizen: local government, civil society and urban poverty reduction, London: Earthscan.
- Porter, Arthur T., 1963, Creoledom: A Study of the Development of Freetown Society, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Tranberg Hansen, K. 2008, Youth and the City in the Global South, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
- UN-Habitat, 2008, State of the World Cities, 2010/2011, UN-Habitat: Nairobi.
- UN-Habitat, 2010, State of the Urban Youth 2010/2011. Leveling the Playing Field: Inequality of Youth Opportunity, UN-Habitat: Nairobi.
- UN-Habitat/UNEP, 2010, The State of African Cities: Governance, Inequality and Urban Land Markets, Nairobi.
References
Abdullah, I. 1994, ‘Rethinking the Freetown crowd: the moral economy of the 1919 strikes and riot in Sierra Leone’, Canadian Journal of African Studies 26 (2): 197–218.
Abdullah, I. 2005, ‘""I am a rebel"": youth culture and violence’, in Honwana, A. and De Boeck, F., eds, Makers and Breakers: children and youth in postcolonial Africa, Trenton NJ: Africa World Press.
Abdullah, I. and Muana, P., 1998, ‘The Revolutionary United Front (RUF): a revolt of the lumpenproletariat’, in Clapham, C., ed., African Guerillas, Oxford: James Currey.
Banton, Michael, 1957, West African City: A study of Tribal Life in Freetown, New York: New York University Press.
Cooper, F., 1983, Struggle for the City: Migrant labor, Capital, and the State in Urban Africa, Sage Publication: Beverly Hills
Davis, M., 2006, Planet of Slums, London and New York: Verso.
Fanon, F., 1963, The Wretched of the Earth, New York: Grove Press.
Fyfe, C. and Jones, E., eds, 1968, Freetown: a symposium, London: Oxford University Press and Sierra Leone University Press.
Government of Sierra Leone, 2008, An Agenda for Change: Second Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRSP 11) 2008-2012.
Hardoy, J. E. and Satterthwaite, D., eds, 1989, Squatter Citizens: life in the urban Third World, London: Earthscan.
Harrell-Bond, B., Howard, A.M., and Skinner, D.E, 1978, Community Leadership and the Transformation of Freetown, The Hague: Mouton.
Howard, A., 2003. ‘Cities in Africa, past and present: contestation, transformation, discourse’, Canadian Journal of African Studies 37 (2 & 3), Special Issue, ‘Cities in Africa’.
Makannah, T. J., ed., 1996, Handbook of the Population of Sierra Leone, Freetown: Toma Enterprises.
Mamdani, M., 1996, Citizen and Subject, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Mitlin, D. and Satterthwaite, D., eds, 2001, Empowering Squatter Citizen: local government, civil society and urban poverty reduction, London: Earthscan.
Porter, Arthur T., 1963, Creoledom: A Study of the Development of Freetown Society, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tranberg Hansen, K. 2008, Youth and the City in the Global South, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
UN-Habitat, 2008, State of the World Cities, 2010/2011, UN-Habitat: Nairobi.
UN-Habitat, 2010, State of the Urban Youth 2010/2011. Leveling the Playing Field: Inequality of Youth Opportunity, UN-Habitat: Nairobi.
UN-Habitat/UNEP, 2010, The State of African Cities: Governance, Inequality and Urban Land Markets, Nairobi.