Confinement, Punishment and Prisons in Africa

This interdisciplinary volume critically examines the prison experience in Africa, highlighting the contingent and porous nature of African prisons across time and space. It draws on original ethnographic research in Francophone and Anglophone settings and explores how prisons imprint themselves on wider political and social imaginaries, shape particular forms of ordering, and permeate urban and rural surroundings. The book also examines how reforming and resisting the prison take shape at the intersection of global governance models and prisoner self-organisation.

\n Format: Hardback
\n Length: 228 pages
\n Publication date: 11 May 2021
\n Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
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This comprehensive and interdisciplinary volume delves into a nuanced examination of the prison experience across diverse detention facilities in Africa. It emphasizes the dynamic and multifaceted nature of African prisons, spanning across both historical and geographical contexts. The book draws upon original long-term ethnographic research conducted in both Francophone and Anglophone settings, which are organized into four distinct parts.

The first part explores the profound impact of prisons on broader political and social imaginations, while also examining how structures of imprisonment bear the imprint of various political actions throughout history. The second part delves into the intricate dynamics of order formation within African prisons, highlighting that these orders often arise through coercion and neglect, but are better understood as the result of ongoing negotiations and the pursuit of meaning and value by a diverse range of actors.

The third part examines the permeability of prison life beyond its physical boundaries, exploring how it intertwines with urban and rural environments and vice versa. It addresses the popular and contested nature of prisons, particularly in terms of their role in shaping moral subjects. The fourth and final part examines how efforts to reform and resist the prison system emerge at the intersection of globally circulating models of good governance and levels of self-organization among prisoners.

This book serves as an invaluable resource for students, academics, and policy-makers in the fields of Law, Criminology, Sociology, and Politics. It provides a deep understanding of the complex dynamics and challenges associated with prisons in Africa, offering valuable insights into the broader social, political, and economic contexts in which they operate.

\n Weight: 460g\n
Dimension: 162 x 241 x 24 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9780367444082\n \n