Encountering the Nigerian State

by Adebanwi, Wale; Obadare, Ebenezer

• ISBN13: 9780230622340
• ISBN10: 0230622348
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-06-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This volume advances extant reflections on the state constituted as the Ur-Power in society, particularly in Africa. It analyzes how various agents within the Nigerian society rs"encounterrs" the state - ranging from the most routine form of contact to the spectacular. While many recent collections have reheated the old paradigms ' of the perils of federalism; corruption; ethnicity etc, our focus here is on ls"encounterrs", that is, the nuance and complexity of how the state shapes society and vice-versa. Through this, we depart from the standard state versus society approach that proves so limiting in explaining the African political landscape.

Author Biography

Wale Adebanwi is Assistant Professor of African-American and African Studies at the University of California, Davis.

Ebenezer Obadare is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Kansas.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Notes on Contributors	p. xi
Introduction: Excess and Abjection in the Study of the African State	p. 1
Deconstructing "Oluwole": Political Economy at the Margins of the State	p. 29
The Spatial Economy of Abjection: The Evacuation of Maroko Slum in Nigeria	p. 55
"Rotten English": Excremental Politics and Literary Witnessing	p. 79
The Perils of Protest: State Repression and Student Mobilization in Nigeria	p. 99
Vocalizing Rage: Deconstructing the Language of Antistate Forces	p. 123
The Subaltern Encounters the State: OPC-State Relations 1999-2003	p. 139
The State as Undertaker: Power and Insurgent Media in Nigeria	p. 155
From Corporatist Power to Abjection: Labor and State Control in Nigeria	p. 177
When the State Kills: Political Assassinations in Abacha's Nigeria	p. 199
The Sharia Challenge: Revisiting the Travails of the Secular State	p. 217
Koma: A Glimpse of Life at the Edges of the State	p. 243
Index	p. 255
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.