A Companion to the Anthropology of Africa The Blackwell Companions to Anthropology offers a series of comprehensive syntheses of the traditional subdisciplines, primary subjects, and geographic areas of inquiry for the field. Taken together, the series represents both a contemporary survey of anthropology and a cutting edge guide to the emerging research and intellectual trends in the field as a whole. 1. A Companion to Linguistic Anthropology, edited by Alessandro Duranti 2. A Companion to the Anthropology of Politics, edited by David Nugent and Joan Vincent 3. A Companion to the Anthropology of American Indians, edited by Thomas Biolsi 4. A Companion to Psychological Anthropology, edited by Conerly Casey and Robert B. Edgerton 5. A Companion to the Anthropology of Japan, edited by Jennifer Robertson 6. A Companion to Latin American Anthropology, edited by Deborah Poole 7. A Companion to Biological Anthropology, edited by Clark Larsen 8. A Companion to the Anthropology of India, edited by Isabelle Clark‐Decès 9. A Companion to Medical Anthropology, edited by Merrill Singer and Pamela I. Erickson 10. A Companion to Cognitive Anthropology, edited by David B. Kronenfeld, Giovanni Bennardo, Victor C. de Munck, and Michael D. Fischer 11. A Companion to Cultural Resource Management, edited by Thomas King 12. A Companion to the Anthropology of Education, edited by Bradley A. Levinson and Mica Pollock 13. A Companion to the Anthropology of the Body and Embodiment, edited by Frances E. Mascia‐Lees 14. A Companion to Paleopathology, edited by Anne L. Grauer 15. A Companion to Folklore, edited by Regina F. Bendix and Galit Hasan‐Rokem 16. A Companion to Forensic Anthropology, edited by Dennis Dirkmaat 17. A Companion to the Anthropology of Europe, edited by Ullrich Kockel, Máiréad Nic Craith, and Jonas Frykman 18. A Companion to Border Studies, edited by Thomas M. Wilson and Hastings Donnan 19. A Companion to Rock Art, edited by Jo McDonald and Peter Veth 20. A Companion to Moral Anthropology, edited by Didier Fassin 21. A Companion to Gender Prehistory, edited by Diane Bolger 22. A Companion to Organizational Anthropology, edited by D. Douglas Caulkins and Ann T. Jordan 23. A Companion to Paleoanthropology, edited by David R. Begun 24. A Companion to Chinese Archaeology, edited by Anne P. Underhill 25. A Companion to the Anthropology of Religion, edited by Janice Boddy and Michael Lambek 26. A Companion to Urban Anthropology, edited by Donald M. Nonini 27. A Companion to the Anthropology of the Middle East, edited by Soraya Altorki 28. A Companion to Heritage Studies, edited by William Logan, Máiréad Nic Craith and Ullrich Kockel 29. A Companion to Dental Anthropology, edited by Joel D. Irish and G. Richard Scott 30. A Companion to Anthropology of Environmental Health, edited by Merrill Singer 31. A Companion to South Asia in the Past, edited by Gwen Robbins Schug and Subhash R. Walimbe 32. A Companion to the Anthropology of Africa, edited by Roy Richard Grinker, Stephen C. Lubkemann, Christopher B. Steiner, and Euclides Goncalves Forthcoming A Companion to Witchcraft and Sorcery, edited by Bruce Kapferer A Companion to Anthropological Genetics, edited by Dennis H. O’Rourke A Companion to Oral History, edited by Mark Tebeau A Companion to the Anthropology of Africa Edited by Roy Richard Grinker, Stephen C. Lubkemann, Christopher B. Steiner, and Euclides Gonçalves This edition first published 2019 © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by law. Advice on how to obtain permission to reuse material from this title is available at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. 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The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a specialist where appropriate. Further, readers should be aware that websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. Neither the publisher nor authors shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication data applied for 9781119251484 (hardback); 9781119251507 (ePDF); 9781119251514 (epub) Cover image: (From top to bottom) © spooh/Getty Images; © Bartosz Hadyniak/ Getty Images; © Hector Mediavilla/Agentur Focus/Contact Press Images Cover design by Wiley Set in 10/12.5pt Galliard by SPi Global, Pondicherry, India 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Notes on Contributors vii Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 Roy Richard Grinker, Stephen C. Lubkemann, Christopher B. Steiner, and Euclides Gonçalves Part I Enduring Themes 13 1 The Economic Anthropology of Africa 15 Jane I. Guyer 2 Revisiting the Social Bedrock of Kinship and Descent in the Anthropology of Africa 33 Pauline E. Peters 3 Witchcraft in Africa 63 James H. Smith 4 Law, Dispute Resolution, and Justice 81 Jessica Johnson 5 Illness and Healing: Africanist Anthropology 97 Rebecca L. Upton 6 Power, Meaning, and Materiality in the Anthropology of African Religions South of the Sahara: A Dialogue with Religious Studies 119 Joseph Hellweg and Jesse C. Miller vi contents Part II Critical and Decolonizing Themes 145 7 Who Are the New Natives? Ethnicity and Emerging Idioms of Belonging in Africa 147 George Paul Meiu 8 Culture by Other Means: An Africanist Anthropology of Political Violence and War 173 Danny Hoffman 9 The Anthropology of Forced Migration in Africa 199 Stephen C. Lubkemann 10 Sex and Sexuality in Africa 229 Suzanne Leclerc‐Madlala Part III Post‐colonial and Emerging Themes 249 11 Social Trauma and Recovery: Emergent Themes 251 Victor Igreja and Erin Baines 12 Questioning Humanitarian Exceptions 271 Louisa Lombard 13 Rights, Inequality, and Social Justice 289 Carolyn Rouse 14 Anthropology and the Politics of Childhood in Africa 307 Kristen E. Cheney 15 Africa Has Moved!: New African Diasporas and the Anthropology of Transnationalizing Africa 323 Dianna Shandy and Stephen C. Lubkemann 16 Anthropological Approaches to Media in Africa 351 Katrien Pype and Alessandro Jedlowski 17 Environmental Anthropology in Africa: From Cattle Complex to Environmentality 375 Raquel Rodrigues Machaqueiro and Roy Richard Grinker Part IV Reflexivity 397 18 Anthropology and Africanist Political Science 399 Eric Kramon 19 African Anthropological Practice in the “Era of Aid”: Towards a Critique of Disciplinary Canons 415 Euclides Gonçalves 20 A frican Participation in, and Perspectives on, the Politics of Knowledge Prod uction in Africanist Anthropology 439 Mwenda Ntarangwi Index 459 Notes on Contributors Erin Baines is an Associate Professor at the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of British Columbia, Canada. She is author of Buried in the Heart: Women and Complex Victimhood (Cambridge, 2017) and Vulnerable Bodies: Gender, the UN and the Global Refugee Crisis (Ashgate, 2017). Kristen E. Cheney is Associate Professor of Children and Youth Studies at the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, the Netherlands. Her research has focused on children’s survival strategies amidst difficult circumstances in sub‐ Saharan Africa. Her most recent research examines the impact of the global “orphan industrial complex” – including orphanage tourism, support for orphanages, and intercountry adoption – on child protection and welfare in developing countries. She is also studying youth sexual and reproductive health and has participated in child/ youth‐related research, consultancy, and capacity‐building projects in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Euclides Gonçalves is a researcher and director at Kaleidoscopio – Research in Public Policy and Culture. His research examines public encounters with bureaucratic power through the analysis of the performativity of documents. His published articles include “Orientações superiores: Time and Bureaucratic Authority in Mozambique” and “Imagining Agricultural Development in South–South Cooperation: The Contestation and Transformation of ProSAVANA.” Roy Richard Grinker is Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs at the George Washington University and Editor‐in‐Chief of Anthropological Quarterly. He is the author of Houses in the Rainforest: Ethnicity and Inequality among Farmers and Foragers in Central Africa (University of California Press, 1994), Korea and Its Futures: Unification and the Unfinished War (St. Martin’s Press, 1997), In the Arms of Africa: The Life of Colin M. Turnbull (University of Chicago Press, 2000), and Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism (Basic Books, 2007). He is co‐editor of Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History, and Representation (Wiley Blackwell, 2010). viii notes on contributors Jane I. Guyer is Professor Emerita of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. A graduate from the London School of Economics (1965), and the University of Rochester (1972), her fieldwork was in Nigeria and Cameroon, on small‐scale farming and money in African communities. She is a member of the National Academy of Science. Her most widely cited work is Marginal Gains. Monetary Transactions in Atlantic Africa (2004), an extension of the Lewis Henry Morgan Lectures of 1997. Joseph Hellweg is Associate Professor of Religion and Anthropology in the Department of Religion at Florida State University. He has conducted research in Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, and Mali in both French and Mandekan among dozo hunters and N’ko healers. He has also written on the lives of LGBT Africans, especially about those living in Côte d’Ivoire. He is currently president of the Mande Studies Association and an editor of the “Religion in Transforming Africa” Series published by James Currey and Boydell & Brewer. Danny Hoffman is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Washington. His research in Sierra Leone and Liberia focuses on youth mobilization and militancy. He is the author of two books on the region, The War Machines: Young Men and Violence in Sierra Leone and Liberia (2011) and Monrovia Modern: Urban Form and Political Imagination in Liberia (2017). Victor Igreja is Senior Lecturer at the University of Southern Queensland. He teaches International Relations, Anthropology, and Social Justice. Recent articles appeared in the Encyclopedia of Transitional Justice, Wiley‐Blackwell’s International Encyclopedia of Anthropology, Current Anthropology, Anthropological Quarterly, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, International Journal of Transitional Justice, Social Science and Medicine, British Journal of Psychiatry, Transcultural Psychiatry, Journal of African Law, Journal of Religion in Africa, Journal of Southern African Studies, and Journal of Traumatic Stress. Between September 2018 and July 2019, he will be a research fellow at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research, University of Bielefeld, Germany. Alessandro Jedlowski is a Belgian Scientific Research Fund (FRS‐FNRS) post‐ doctoral fellow in anthropology at the University of Liege (Belgium). His research interests include Nigerian cinema, African visual cultures, and South–South media interactions. He is the editor of a special issue of the Journal of African Cultural Studies on China‐Africa media interactions and of the books Mobility between Africa, Asia and Latin America: Economic Networks and Cultural Interactions (Zed Books, 2017) and Cine‐Ethiopia: The History and Politics of Film in the Horn of Africa (Michigan State University Press, 2018). Jessica Johnson is a social anthropologist and lecturer in the Department of African Studies and Anthropology at the University of Birmingham, UK. She also serves as an editor of the Journal of Southern African Studies. Her first book, In Search of Gender Justice: Rights and Relationships in Matrilineal Malawi, is forthcoming in the International African Library series, published by Cambridge University Press. Eric Kramon is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University. His research focuses on clientelism, ethnic politics, and electoral accountability in new democracies, with a regional focus on sub‐Saharan