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Corruption and “culture” in anthropology and in Nigeria
This article examines the publication and reception of a book about corruption in Nigeria as a form of ethnographic evidence that is useful to interrogate the fraught relationship between the concepts of culture and corruption. The evidence points to multiple…
Conserving Nature, Transforming Authority: Eviction and Development at the Margins of the State The Niokolo-Koba National Park, Senegal
This dissertation examines two distinct but interrelated processes of displacement experienced by the evictees of the Niokolo-Koba National Park, based on fieldwork (2004-2005) in the Tambacounda region of South-Eastern Senegal.
Journal Article
When kleptocracy becomes insolvent: Brute causes of the civil war in South Sudan
South Sudan obtained independence in July 2011 as a kleptocracy – a militarized, corrupt neo-patrimonial system of governance. By the time of independence, the South Sudanese “political marketplace” was so expensive that the country’s comparatively copious revenue was consumed by…
Journal Article
‘And Then He Switched off the Phone’: Mobile Phones, Participation and Political Accountability in South Sudan’s Western Equatoria State
This paper investigates the impact of mobile phones in situations of political contestation or conflict. According to theory, mobile phones could play a positive role in building a more accountable government, and with that, contribute to statebuilding. We examine to…
Report
A Hard Homecoming: Lessons Learned from the Reception Center Process in Northern Uganda: An Independent Study
This independent report has been commissioned by USAID and UNICEF to examine assumptions and evidence about the needs and experiences of children and adults who have been forced to serve under the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and have subsequently escaped,…
A summons to the magistrates’ courts in South Africa and Uganda
The expansive literature on law and justice across Africa emphasizes why people do not use lower state courts. Consequently, a striking lack of attention is paid to how and why people do engage with lower state courts. Drawing on a…
Journal Article
Public Authority and Conservation in Areas of Armed Conflict: Virunga National Park as a ‘State within a State’ in Eastern Congo
Much research on nature conservation in war-torn regions focuses on the destructive impact of violent conflict on protected areas, and argues that transnational actors should step up their support for those areas to mitigate the risks that conflict poses to…
Journal Article
Crisis responses, opportunity, and public authority during Covid-19’s first wave in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan
Discussions on African responses to Covid-19 have focused on the state and its international backers. Far less is known about a wider range of public authorities, including chiefs, humanitarians, criminal gangs, and armed groups. This paper investigates how the pandemic…
Research Paper
Relationships Matter: Persistent Armed Conflict – A Case of Negotiated Authority and Survival
Many of the armed conflicts that have taken place over the past 25 years have been explained as a means by which greedy rebels and elites profit from natural resource rents. Accordingly, much of the research conducted in the field…
Book Chapter
Civil Society and Peacebuilding in the Kivu Provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo
This chapter explores how effective or not has civil society been in ending armed conflict and building sustaining peace in Kivu provinces via the use of seven civil society’s peacebuilding functions. The findings are drawn from desk research, mainly exploring…
Briefings
Women, Conflict and Public Authority in the Congo
Even though women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are undoubtedly marginalized in formal political life, they are not completely absent from the political arena. Congolese women are involved in the exercise of local public authority in a…
Background Reports
Southern Sudan at Odds with Itself: Dynamics of Conflict and Predicaments of Peace
This report aims to clarify reasons for increased intra-south violence in South Sudan. By reflecting on how people living and working in Southern Sudan experienced events since the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), this report looks at ways in which intra-southern…
