The Politics of Custom

Chiefship, Capital, and the State in Contemporary Africa

John L Comaroff editor Jean Comaroff editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:The University of Chicago Press

Published:9th Mar '18

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

The Politics of Custom cover

How are we to explain the resurgence of customary chiefs in contemporary Africa? Rather than disappearing with the tide of modernity, as many expected, indigenous sovereigns are instead a rising force, often wielding substantial power and legitimacy despite major changes in the workings of the global political economy in the post–Cold War era—changes in which they are themselves deeply implicated.
 
This pathbreaking volume, edited by anthropologists John L. Comaroff and Jean Comaroff, explores the reasons behind the increasingly assertive politics of custom in many corners of Africa. Chiefs come in countless guises—from university professors through cosmopolitan businessmen to subsistence farmers–but, whatever else they do, they are a critical key to understanding the tenacious hold that “traditional” authority enjoys in the late modern world. Together the contributors explore this counterintuitive chapter in Africa’s history and, in so doing, place it within the broader world-making processes of the twenty-first century.

ISBN: 9780226510767

Dimensions: 23mm x 16mm x 3mm

Weight: 595g

368 pages