Challenging Authorities: Ethnographies of Legitimacy and Power in Eastern and Southern Africa

Social anthropologists have long studied the relationship between fact and power, and African societies provide a rich context for exploring this relationship. This edited volume examines how authority is contested in Southern and Eastern Africa, highlighting the specificities and pluralities of modern societies. It engages with larger theoretical questions about power and authority in the context of (post)colonial states, offering critical analyses of ethnographic data that compare African phenomena to current controversies in other global settings.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 459 pages
Publication date: 22 September 2022
Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland AG

Social anthropologists have found themselves in a familiar terrain when the concept of "alternative facts" and the emergence of a "postfactual world" entered public discourse. In their empirical experience, facts, which are accepted as true, gain their significance through social mechanisms of legitimization, revealing a profound connection with power and authority. From this perspective, facts are constantly contested and volatile social categories.

African societies, due to their unique histories of colonialism and post-independence, provide a rich source of insights into the social processes of juxtaposition, opposition, and even outright competition between different postulated authorities. The contributions to this volume explore the diverse ways in which authority is contested in Southern and Eastern Africa, examining localized discourses on which institutions, what kind of knowledge, or whose expertise is considered authoritative. This highlights the specificities and pluralities in modern societies.

This edited volume engages with broader theoretical questions regarding power and authority in the context of (post)colonial states (neo)traditional authority, claiming space, conflict, and (in)justice, and contestations of knowledge. It offers in-depth critical analyses of ethnographic data that place contemporary African phenomena on par with current controversies in North America, Europe, and other global settings.

Weight: 633g
Dimension: 210 x 148 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783030769260
Edition number: 1st ed. 2021