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DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeedddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd 22222222222222222222222222222222229999999999999999999999999999999999 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAApppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppprrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr 2222222222222222222222222222222222000000000000000000000000000000000011111111111111111111111111111111117777777777777777777777777777777777 00000000000000000000000000000000001111111111111111111111111111111111::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::55555555555555555555555555555555556666666666666666666666666666666666 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt 111111111111111111111111111111111155555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555555..................................222222222222222222222222222222222244444444444444444444444444444444447777777777777777777777777777777777..................................111111111111111111111111111111111166666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666666..................................222222222222222222222222222222222233333333333333333333333333333333334444444444444444444444444444444444 GLOBAL SHADOWS Global Shadows AFRICA IN THE NEOLIBERAL WORLD ORDER James Ferguson DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS DurhamandLondon 2006 3rdprinting,2007 ©2006DukeUniversityPress Allrightsreserved PrintedintheUnitedStates ofAmericaonacid-freepaper(cid:7) DesignedbyC.H.Westmoreland TypesetinGalliard byTsengInformationSystems,Inc. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in- PublicationDataappearonthelast printedpageofthisbook. Contents acknowledgments vii Introduction:GlobalShadows:AfricaandtheWorld 1 1 GlobalizingAfrica?ObservationsfromanInconvenient Continent 25 2 ParadoxesofSovereigntyandIndependence:‘‘Real’’and ‘‘Pseudo-’’Nation-StatesandtheDepoliticizationof Poverty 50 3 De-moralizingEconomies:AfricanSocialism,Scientific Capitalism,andtheMoralPoliticsofStructural Adjustment 69 4 TransnationalTopographiesofPower:Beyond‘‘theState’’ and‘‘CivilSociety’’intheStudyofAfricanPolitics 89 5 Chrysalis:TheLifeandDeathoftheAfricanRenaissance inaZambianInternetMagazine 113 6 OfMimicryandMembership:Africansandthe‘‘New WorldSociety’’ 155 7 DecomposingModernity:HistoryandHierarchyafter Development 176 8 GoverningExtraction:NewSpatializationsofOrderand DisorderinNeoliberalAfrica 194 notes 211 references 229 index 249 Acknowledgments The essays in this volumewerewritten at various times over the courseofthelastdecade.Theytreatarangeofsubjects,andeach canbereadonitsown,asanindependentessay.Buttheyconverge oncertainbroadthemesandtogetheramounttoasinglebook-long argumentforacertainperspectiveonanthropologyand‘‘Africa.’’I have,forthemostpart,lefttheseveralpreviouslypublishedessays in the form in which they originally appeared, in recognition of thewayeachrespondedtoaparticularsetofcircumstancesinthe worldandreflectedacertainwaypointinthedevelopmentofmy ownideas.Ihave,however,triedtocorrectanyerrorsandtoup- datereferences,whereappropriate. Apartfromtheintroductionandchapter1,whichintroducethe volume,thechaptersappearintheordertheywereoriginallywrit- ten.Chapter2,‘‘ParadoxesofSovereigntyandIndependence,’’was published in Siting Culture, edited by Karen Fog Olwig (Rout- ledge, 1996). Chapter 3, ‘‘De-moralizing Economies,’’ was origi- nally published (in a shorter form) in Moralizing States, edited by Sally Falk Moore (aes Monograph Series, 1993). Chapter 4, ‘‘TransnationalTopographiesofPower,’’waspublishedinaslightly differentversion(andwithaslightlydifferenttitle)inACompan- iontotheAnthropologyofPolitics,editedbyDavidNugentandJoan Vincent (Blackwell, 2004). Chapter 5, ‘‘Chrysalis,’’ appeared (in anabridgedversion)inGlobalNetworks(3,no.3[2003]:271–98). Chapter6,‘‘Of MimicryandMembership,’’appearedinCultural Anthropology (17, no. 4 [2002]: 551–69).Chapters 7 and 8, along withtheintroductionandchapter1,havenotappearedpreviously. Unusuallyforananthropologist,Ihavenotwrittenthesechap- tersaboutpeopleandplacesofwhichIhaveintimateknowledge throughfieldwork.Instead,Ihavetriedtospeakaboutlargerissues —concerning, broadly, ‘‘Africa’’ and its place in the world—that can be addressed only by venturing beyond the kinds of knowl- edge claims that can be firmly ‘‘grounded’’ in any specific ethno- graphicallyknowncase.Ibelievethattherearecompellingreasons forattemptingthis,asIexplainintheintroduction.Butgiventhe strong disciplinary commitment of contemporary anthropology to ethnographic specificity, it is perhaps appropriate to note to theanthropologicalreaderthatmyexperimenthereismeantasa waynotofdiscarding(stilllessofdisparaging)ethnographybut, rather, of pointing out some directions in which it might turn. Engaging with discussions and projects that are framed at levels of scale and abstraction (‘‘Africa,’’ ‘‘the West,’’ ‘‘the globe,’’ ‘‘the world’’) clearly not amenable to ethnographic study in the tradi- tionalsenseundoubtedlyposesachallengeforethnographicprac- tice.Butitseemstomethatthischallengeisbeingmetasanew generationofresearchersisstartingsuccessfullytobringrecogniz- ably ethnographic methods of social and cultural contextualiza- tiontobearonprojectsandprocessesthatareevidently(andoften self-consciously)non-local.Iamthinkingofsuchexamplesas(to choosealargelyarbitraryhandfulfromamuchlargerfield)Erica Bornstein’s study of ‘‘Christian development’’ agencies in Zim- babwe (2003),Gillian Hart’s analysis of the movement of trans- nationalcapital(intheformof Taiwanesefamilyfirms)toSouth Africa(2002),AnneliseRiles’sethnographicexplorationofglobal networks of women’s organizations (2001), or Anna Tsing’s ac- count of speculative mining investment in Indonesia (2001)—all studies that convincingly link ‘‘global’’ projects and processes to specific, and ethnographically knowable, social and cultural con- texts.Insucharichintellectualenvironment,therecanbenoques- tionof‘‘turningaway’’fromethnography;rather,thepointofthe free-ranging,speculativeessaysthatfollowistoposeachallengeto establishedanthropologicalwaysofknowing‘‘Africa’’byidentify- ingcertainconceptual(and,inthebroadestsense,political)issues thatformsofscholarshiprootedinacommitmenttoparticularity haveuptonowtoooftenignored,avoided,orsimplyfeltunequal viii Acknowledgments to.Given the current (and, it seems to me, extremely vital) state ofthefieldofanthropologyatpresent,thereiseveryreasontobe hopeful that such a provocation will be answered with new and innovativeformsofethnographicpracticethatcanpushthesorts of questions I have tried to raise in this book in productive and intellectuallyrewardingdirections. More than anything I have written before, this book has been shapedbytheinstitutionalandprofessionalsettingswithinwhich its chapters took form. Most of the chapters began as seminar papers,presentedatconferences,workshops,andinvitedlectures at dozens of different universities in the United States and else- where. It is perhaps too easy to be cynical about the ‘‘circuit’’ of seminarsandcolloquiathataresomuchapartofacademiclifein theUnitedStates.Myownexperience,atleast,isof havingbeen enormouslyenrichedbymyencounterswithhundredsofserious, thoughtful faculty and student colleagues in such settings—col- leagueswhosequestions,insights,andsuggestionsplayedatruly germinal part in forming my ideas, shaping the contours of my arguments,andpushingmetowardgreaterclarityinmywriting. I cannot thank all of these colleagues individually, but I am pro- foundlyintheirdebt. Much of thework on this book was donewhile I was a mem- beroftheDepartmentofAnthropologyattheUniversityofCali- fornia,Irvine(uci).TheIrvineDepartmentprovidedawonder- fully stimulating and supportive environment for my intellectual development over the years, and I am deeply grateful to my an- thropologycolleagues(especiallyVictoriaBernal,TomBoellstorff, MikeBurton,TeresaCaldeira,FrankCancian,LeoChavez,Susan Greenhalgh,KarenLeonard,BillMaurer,andMeiZhan),aswell as to the members of uci’s Critical Theory Institute, and to the manywonderfulstudentsIworkedwithovertheyearsatIrvine. Since2003,Ihaveenjoyedanequallydelightfulacademichomein theDepartmentofCulturalandSocialAnthropologyatStanford University,whichprovidedanenvironmentamazinglyrichinboth intellectual excitement and warm collegiality for the final round ofworkonthebook.Portionsofthebookwerealsowrittendur- ingafellowshipyear(2000–01)attheCenterforAdvancedStudy in the Behavioral Sciences, whose support is gratefully acknowl- Acknowledgments ix