Autochthony and the Crisis of Citizenship: Democratization, Decentralization, and the Politics of Belonging Author(s): Peter Geschiere and

Stephen Jackson Reviewed work(s): Source: African Studies Review, Vol. 49, No. 2 (Sep., 2006), pp. 1-7 Published by: African Studies Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20065238 . Accessed: 28/10/2011 06:05
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and the Crisis of Autochthony Citizenship: Democratization, and the Politics of Decentralization, Belonging
Peter Geschiere and Stephen Jackson

Abstract: certainly ization

The not seem A

recent special to go central

upsurge to Africa. together question of

of All with

and similar "autochthony" over the world, processes fierce struggles contributions in highly hence have theme seem over

notions of

of belonging global

is

intensifying

"strangers." the apparent

in

the

and exclusion of belonging to this issue concerns special different such settings. How force can under

"naturalness" seem so

autochthony and

similar very

slogans

self-evident Another

mobilizing somewhat

different

circumstances? of discourses

recurrent They

is the to

surprising

"nervousness" of being rooted turns out to be really" belonging,

in the of belonging. relative: there is always the danger always a "fake" autochthon. or even of being

on autochthony. as a soil form primal

a basic security promise Yet in practice, belonging as "not of being unmasked A comparative perspective

Studies African Peter Geschiere terdam. (Congo), He

Review,

Volume for a

49, Number

is professor has been Yaounde

the anthropology professor Witwatersrand The New

(September of Africa at

visiting

(Cameroon),

1-14 2006), pp. at the of Ams University the Universities of Kisangani and at EHESS (Johannesburg) (New York). University Publications include His Vil

Columbia (Paris), University, was main in West fieldwork lage Communities (KPI, 1982); and Capitalist

and Africa,

School Cameroon.

notably

the State:

Relations in South Cameroun Changing of Authority Encroachment and Old Modes Production: of Anthropological

(KPI, 1985); TheModernity of Explorations in Africa (withWim van Binsbergen) Witchcraft: Politics and theOccult inPostcolonial Africa (Virginia, 1997) ;Globalization and Identity: Dialectics of Flow and Closure (with Birgit Meyer) (Blackwell 1999); and The Forging ofNationhood (with Gyanendra Pandey) (Manohar, 2003).
Stephen the Jackson is currently with secretary-general He holds (MONUC). research special the adviser United Nations to the of representative deputy special in the DR Mission Congo from Princeton Univer anthropology of war, affairs, global/local the political

a Ph.D.

in cultural include and the practice

linkages, principles of ethnic manipulation identity, and conflict formations. regional journals Political African nent and publications, 1

sity. His conflict

interests

economy political in humanitarian violence, appeared

politico-ethnic His work has including

Politique

the postcolonial state, in a number of promi and the Review Africaine of

Economy.

African

Studies

Review

on

autochthony?as the paradoxes

particular of the

pregnant

form with

of

unravel

preoccupation

belonging

entrenchment?may in a globalizing

help world.

to

La pouss?e n'est d'appartenance les processus monde, luttes acharn?es autour centrale "naturelle"

R?sum?:

r?cente

du

concept pas de

d'autochtonie sp?cifique ?

et des l'Afrique. aller

notions Partout de paire

similaires dans avec le des La est dif soi

certainement intensifi?s de qui du l'id?e se

la globalisation

semblent et d'exclusion

d'appartenance d?gage des

probl?matique l'apparence f?rents. et avoir Un autre

contributions dans

de

principe que des

d'autochtonie slogans identiques tel dans palpable li?e des

des "?trangers." ce num?ro sp?cial contextes des tr?s sembler aller de

Comment ainsi un

se fait-il pouvoir r?current une une

puissent

de mobilisation est la "nervosit?"

circonstances des discours de des

si diff?rentes? l'autochtonie. racines, l'?tab

th?me

Ils semblent lissant ainsi

promettre comme

s?curit?

?l?mentaire

? l'ancrage Et

cependant, primale d'appartenance. se r?v?le comme relative: il y a toujours toujours l'appartenance comme et d?nonc? d'?tre "pas r?ellement," d?masqu? n'appartenant un "faux" autochtone. une comme ?tre consid?r? pour Opter perspective comme forme de retranchement, ative de l'autochtonie, porteuse singuli?re veut que rait aider ? d?m?ler globalisant. les paradoxes li?s ? la pr?occupation de

forme

la pratique le danger ou m?me compar pour dans

l'appartenance

un monde

Since
over

the 1990s, Africa

belonging and

has

seemed
many

beset
of

by ever more
them expressed

violent
through

struggles
a resur

exclusion,

term literally {autochtonie in French)?a gent language of "autochthony" a direct an origin "of the soil itself and meaning, by inference, implying claim to territory. Over the last few years, for example, Ivory Coast has suf fered under
separating extremes

the violence
"true" Ivoirians

of President
from "fake" can be

Gbagbo's
ones: a

jeunes

combatants, forcibly
of on the the violent conti

to which

autochtonie

tragic example stretched. Elsewhere

nent,
sion

struggles
expressed

over belonging
in the vernacular

have
of

led to similarly violent

autochthony.

orders

of exclu of
to

Yet, as this special similar emotion-laden

patterns. Striking,

across issue shows, this brandishing notions of belonging actually masks

is the varying relation

the continent highly different

claims

especially,

between

of pre the shibboleth the idea of national citizenship, autochthony was still seen by both postcolonial decades, when nation-building ceding actors as the primary precondition for develop regimes and expatriate and
ment. In Ivory Coast, autochthony has come to mean a much more

restricted
who are

and smaller
not of the

scale redefinition
Ivoirian souche

of the nation,
In Cameroon,

excluding
the

all those
same Ian

(trunk).

Autochthony

and the Crisis of Citizenship

guage

is used

to challenge
in a certain region

the very
may

idea of uniform
claim to be

national

citizenship:
citizens, yet

immigrants

Cameroonian

In Eastern Congo/Zaire, the violent struggles they do not really belong. over the belonging of peoples of Rwandan/Burundian descent (including can only be understood the enigmatic against the back Banyamulenge)
ground of Mobutu's on-again, off-again manipulations of their national cit

and this volume). years (Jackson forthcoming izenship in preceding in such highly different of a notion the meaning like settings, Clearly, or belonging is not a given; indeed it turns out to be slippery autochthony
and unstable. It is all the more striking, then, that these notions seem to

to those who regularly use them. It would be have such great self-evidence too simplistic to explain the upsurge of these ideas as the result of political in all the by certain leaders. This aspect is certainly present manipulation
cases examined in this issue of ASR, but such manipulation can be success

ful only because

population. through a One comparison

it strikes
of the

such a deep
aims of this cases,

emotional
issue, how these

chord with
is to can notions

the general
understand, retain such

therefore,

of different

self-evident
different

meaning
situations.1

and therefore

such great popular

appeal

in strikingly

This question is all the more relevant if one takes into account that in are the context of our supposedly "globalizing" world, such preoccupations certainly not limited to Africa. One of the intriguing aspects of the concept of autochthony is the surprising ease with which it bridges the gap between South and North. Thus, in this issue Bambi Ceuppens shows how the lan resonance on the has acquired considerable guage of autochthony politi
cal right in Flanders and the Netherlands. Sloganeering about autochthon

in Italy by Umberto Bossi and his Lega Nord in an rights has been adopted discourse also has a long his attempt to redefine his "Other"; autochthony clear that tory in Canada and is on the rise in the Pacific. It is therefore
African conflicts around autochthony have to be seen in the broader con

text of what Tanja Murray Li (2000) calls most aptly "a global conjuncture of belonging." unrelated and eco Apparently global trends?political concerns over nomic liberalization, decentralization, global "disappearing to converge in a deepening cultures," and decreasing biodiversity?seem concern about belonging. terms: the New World Or to put it in different so proudly at the end Order that George Bush Sr. (and others) announced of the Cold War is less an order of cosmopolitan in citizens circulating flows than one of communal violence and efforts to exclude people global
who do not "belong."2

Ruth Marshall-Fratani calls it in great "performative quality"?as to this issue?of her contribution similar languages of belonging in very different of the world bears some relation to what many see as the parts seems to be surpassed by "crisis" of the nation-state, which intensifying Yet in this respect as well, all sorts of paradoxes of globalization. processes emerge. As Jean-Francois Bayart shows with such a rich array of empirical

The

African

Studies

Review

examples
processes

in Le Governement duMonde
have really led to a weakening

(2004),
of the

it is far from clear that global

nation-state per se. In many

respects processes,
processes

the

latter has

seemed

rather

and its institutions

crystallize.

still form

to graft itself onto globalization the framework through which these

But

process the nation-state and deterring

"integration."

difference to be held

itself in the particular also manifests globalization In Europe, "the immigrant issue" provided responsible. with an increasing role to play in protecting autochthony to enforce an often impossible immigration by attempting
by contrast, the recent upsurge of conflict over

In Africa,

to have been detonated by the twin and decentralization which so deeply marked The return of multipartyism and the fact that met with great popular enthusiasm. elections became meaningful again But in many regions these developments also triggered fear among local more numerous that they would be outvoted by populations immigrants. and autochthony belonging of democratization processes the 1990s on the continent.
Questions arose as to "who can vote where," and more important, "who can

seems

stand
belongs.

as a candidate
(For example,

where,"
can an

inciting
immigrant

fierce
run

discord
for mayor

about
in a

where
city where

one
he

If he wants to go into politics, does not belong? shouldn't he do so in his home village?) The abrupt switch by the development establishment?the a strongly statist con World Bank and the major bilateral donors?from to a policy of decentralization and "by-passing the ception of development
state" raised similar that cases, is questions: supposed the result was who to profit an can claim a to "really" belong to the pro chang "community" In many from explosion new-style of fuzzy development and rapidly

ject?

ing identities. These new developments have to be seen against a longer historical in which role. A the colonial heritage played a complicating background over the continent was between recurrent the formal all contradiction on the one hand, and to territorialize effort by colonial regimes people, on the other. Both Indirect common preference for migrants, their equally should Rule and la politique des races were inspired by the idea that people to facilitate in order be kept where them; identity they belong ruling this was countered in practice by all should be rooted in the soil. However,
sorts of measures to encourage migrants. Unfailingly, was was village with a colonials compared

migrants
even labor" were sent-day

favorably,

as more
locals.3

hardworking
The consequence migration to the

and enterprising,
encouraged, at the same uncomfortable

to "indolent"
"migrant but time.

or

"obdurate" policy: somehow

precarious

in many to remain over

contexts, attached citizenship,

people The pre mix of

struggles

its

also have to be seen against the and other forms of belonging, autochthony inconsistencies. of such historical background to this special issue give an indication of the star The contributions con that have emerged from this complex varieties of autochthony tling

Autochthony

and

the Crisis of Citizenship

a vivid account of Laurent Ruth Marshall-Fratani offers figuration. in C?te d'Ivoire?notably experiments Gbagbo's terrifying nation-building the proposed Op?ration Nationale which takes the idea of d'Identification, to unprecedented limits. Antoine the quite autochthony Socpa analyzes
different triangle of autochtons, allog?nes, and the state in Yaounde, the cap

Here the land issue has a long history, but it threatened ital of Cameroon. to become violent only when the full implications of the new style of elec
tions became clear. Self-styled "autochthons" insisted that even if immi

land, they should not use the new political opportuni grants had bought ties in order to rule in the "home of their host," while the Biya regime to divide the opposition. used such divisions Alec Leonhardt dis eagerly cusses the complex of the new emphasis on autochthony for implications Cameroon's these people can claim to be the Baka "Pygmies." In principle
real autochthons, but they are hardly considered as such because, para

doxically,
son shows

they seem not

how the "nervous

to qualify

as Cameroonian
of autochthony

citizens.
in the

Stephen
specific

Jack
con

language"

text of Eastern Zaire/Congo has led to a true explosion of fuzzy and con on belonging redefined identities on multiple scales. Debates stantly may focus for now on the contested of the Banyamulenge/Ban citizenship yarwanda, but they also fan out in other directions, leading to violent con
frontations with all sorts of supposed "newcomers." Loren Landau shows

for postapartheid how growing resentment of immigrants Johannesburg from across the Limpopo reinforces not only a joint (the Makwere-kwere) sense of belonging among the various South African groups in the city, but
also ideas a stereotyping their about that own completely misrepresents future. Bambi Finally, these Ceuppens Makwere-kwere's studies the emer

as a powerful gence of autochthony text may be completely different

acquires the other ities, gain change. a similar authors, aura of self-evidence shows in of this case Ceuppens reflects, processes

political slogan in Flanders. The con from that of Africa, yet the notion
and that a similar if there more than a emotional are certain force. Like even continu effort refusal to of

autochthony access to

as well,

a determined "traditional"

globalization

In terms of our underlying how notions of autochthony question?of can retain such "natural" self-evidence and belonging in strikingly different contexts?two recurrent points stand out. One of the secrets of this broadly to a new and even its attachment applied language is its relative emptiness, more pliable form of & Nyamnjoh (see Geschiere 2000). By now ethnicity it seems clear that ethnicity, despite its apparent primordialism, is in prac
tice a historical construct that can be readapted to changing circumstances.

Yet by comparison
ing: an ethnic

with

autochthony,
needs a name,

ethnicity
a specific

has some
history,

sort of core mean

often a language.

group

needs none of this: only a claim to having been the first.4 Autochthony it is this very emptiness that seems to make it fit so very well into Indeed, the constantly changing boundaries created by globalization processes and

African Studies Review

that makes logues. The

fuzzy ones?can

it so politically "Other"?crucial
be easily

a discourse "useful" and malleable for ideo to such to any form of identity but especially
precisely because autochthony an as such

redefined,

has hardly

any substance.
tenor the can

A related
of these "Other" always put at

point,
ever to 'You

then,
there

iswhat might
seems the even to bed to be

be called
inherent

the
dan

"segmentarizing" to define tendency someone is that ger one As Cameroonian

discourse: closer

range;

concomitant than an you

claim it:

skeptic

"belong" can go

more as

do.

autochthon

an allog?ne." Autochthony up to find that you have become and so there is always the danger of being unmasked always relative, and wake
traitor.

is as a

This goes autochthony,

Autochthony

some way to explaining the "nervousness" of the language of in Jackson's contribution below. highlighted particularly
seems to promise a primal security, based as it is on some sort

of primordial
it seems turns "really" out rather to be belongs.5

truth-claim
to relative,

about belonging
a basic than a given; tenor

to the land. Yet

In can practice, never be on

in everyday

life

compound rather

insecurity. one of

"belonging" sure that one autochthony

The

"naturalizing"

discourse

and belonging

may explain also why it can so For Africa, both Achille violent Mbembe implications. easily acquire Simone (2001:25) strongly emphasize (2001:283; 2002:7) and AbdouMaliq seems to imply a return to the local and a cel that such discourse?which is highly deceiving?which
ebration of origins?reflects in practice a determined struggle about access

to the global. This may be a crucial point to make about the present-day all over the world. The contributions of belonging" below "conjuncture as reflecting an it is to take the upsurge of belonging show how misleading
effort of old to return to some as tensions sort a kind flare of "traditional" of manhole up again?may situation. cover?take be a For Africa, it away tempting the and one. authoritarianism communal image all the Yet on

it becomes clear that autochthony closer inspection forms and with its strong emotional appeal can be understood tion to incisive global changes. Acknowledgments With

in all

only

its different in rela

and Ron Kassimir, who played an thanks to Alcinda Honwana the of this theme within role in setting up earlier discussions inspiring to Catherine and especially Boone, who played such a seminal role SSRC; many
in co-organizing and co-chairing the two panels on this theme at the

annual ASA References

conference

in New Orleans,

November

2004.

Bayart, J.-F. 2004. Paris: Fayard.

Le Gouvernment

du monde?Une

critique

politique

de

la globalisation.

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and

the Crisis of Citizenship

Ceuppens, Modes

Bambi, in the

and

Peter

Geschiere. over Citizenship

2005.

Struggle and

"Autochthony: in Africa and

Local Europe."

or Global? Annual

New Review

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Comaroff, lypse 627-51. Geschiere, Jean, and the Comaroff. the Nation: 2001, John "Naturing Postcolonial State." Southern of African Journal Francis 2000. Aliens, Studies Apoca 27 (3):

Peter,

and

Nyamnjoh.

"Capitalism the

and Autochthony:

The

Seesaw of Mobility

and Belonging." Public Culture 12 (2): 432-53.

and 'Nationality Question' in East Affairs (forthcoming). et de la terre?Mythe ? Ath?nes. Paris: Le Seuil. Politique the NewNativism?Introduction." Beyond "Ways of Seeing: Africains: entre nativisme et

"The Banyamulenge 2006. Jackson, Stephen. ern D.R. and International Ethics Congo." Loraux, Mbembe, Nicole. Achille. 1996. 2001. N?

African Studies Review 44 (2): 1-14.

_. Esprit Meyer, 2002. 10: "Les 1-10. and Peter Geschiere, eds. 1999. Globalization and Identity?Dialectics Studies of nouveaux cosmopolitanisme."

Birgit, Flow and

Closure.

Oxford: 2001.

Blackwell. "On the Worldling of African Cities." African

Simone,

AbdouMaliq.

Review 44 (2): 15-43. Notes

1. Jean and John Comaroff notion. Meyer between and Peter Geschiere and (2005). in this. Autochthony, itself (see the title a classical of Loraux's Greek fascinating notion, book lit on who characterize (1999), as a "dialectics of flow the and explosive closure." (2001) speak of the "naturalizing capacity" of the

2.

autochthony See Birgit relation See There

3. 4.

Ceuppens is an

globalization and Geschiere catch soil

identity

means erally this subject, movements tlement;

interesting "from the N?

are built

de la terre [1996] ). Yet a claim around claim itself

in most practice, to be ?rst-comer

present-day to the present

autochthony of set place

5.

Nicole

already implies movement. an this basic contradiction between highlights apparent and a practice of in her seminal security insecurity nagging study of the very of cradle classical Athens. This itself on being the only autochthony, city prided one among autochthonous all the Greek Hence its special talent for truly poleis. Loraux (1996) inconsistencies of autochthony hidden in this (see also Jack

so the

Loraux's of the democracy. fine-grained analysis to view is of direct relevance versions present-day

son, below; Ceuppens & Geschiere

2005)