ANR XenAfPol – The politics of xenophobic exclusion in Africa: mobilisations, local orders and violence (2011-2013)

In short

The ANR XenAfPol, “Politics of xenophobic exclusion in Africa: mobilisations, local orders and violence”,  is a three-year research programme funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR) that ran between 2011 and 2013. This research programme looks at the politics of xenophobic mobilisation across the continent. This comparative project runs across four countries: South Africa, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria.

The results of the programme have been published in two special issues:

 

Who?

Laurent Fourchard (CNRS/FNSP Research Unit LAM – Les Afriques dans le Monde, Institute of Political Science, Bordeaux, France) is the project Principal Coordinator. He coordinates the Nigerian leg of the programme.

Aurelia Segatti (the African Centre for Migration & Society, University of the Witwatersrand) assists him in the administrative and scientific coordination, and coordinates the South African, Kenyan and Congolese legs of the programme.

The research unit LAM (Les Afriques dans le Monde, University of Bordeaux) is the main institutional coordinator, and organised the mid-term (Bordeaux, 2012) and final (Cambridge, 2013) workshops of the programme.

IFAS-Research (Johannesburg) is a financial partner and coordinates fieldworks in Southern and Eastern Africa (South Africa, DRC and Kenya) along with Aurelia Segatti. IFAS-Research also organised the programme’s opening seminar in Johannesburg, 2011.

IFRA-Nigeria (the French Institute of Research in Africa, Ibadan, Nigeria) is a financial partner.

Scientific partners providing staff and intellectual input are the Centre of Governance and Human Rights (Department of Politics and International Studies, King’s College, Cambridge University), the Centre of African Studies (University of Oxford), the African Centre for Migration & Society (University of the Witwatersrand), the Department of Political and Administrative Studies of the University of Kinshasa, and the Department of History of the University of Lagos.


What?

As the African population continues to grow and move, the continent’s societies have seen increasing social, cultural, linguistic and economic heterogeneity. Cities and metropolitan areas have now reached a crossroads where local authorities have little effective control over the socio-economic processes which they have been charged to manage. Long-term and more recent voluntary and forced movements and forms of inclusion and exclusion going along with them contribute to a rapidly evolving redistribution of power and space that is at once highly visible but yet poorly understood. What makes this particularly visible today in several countries across the continent is the fact that exclusion has taken the form of violent attacks targeting more specifically foreigners or groups identified as ethnic, political, or religious outsiders. This project aims to document these phenomena in two specific areas: that of the changing social dynamics at work in the continent between hosts and strangers, nationals and foreigners and that of the role of the State in managing cultural diversity and socio-economic differentiation.

This research project will distinguish itself from several different trends in the study of African societies which have produced a rich and diverse literature in the recent years. It will do so specifically in tackling xenophobic forms of exclusion (from their inception down to violent occurrences or demobilisation). Drawing from the rich literature on autochthony but without confining to it only, the project intends moving away from the study of violent groups seeking to overtake power either nationally or regionally, and approaches in terms of economies of war, armed conflicts and the (re)emergence of militia groups in the democratisation contexts.

Three research questions will guide researchers’ work:
1. The historicity of politics and place in the production of xenophobic exclusion and violence;
2. Forms of mobilisation, counter-mobilisation and demobilization;
3. The question of State retreat or embededness;

Building on a small group of experienced researchers familiar with African terrains and the management of this kind of projects, the partnership relies on a team of 16 senior and junior researchers, based in both Europe and Africa. The comparison focuses on Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Capitalising on data collected previously and particularly the production of original data in a comparative perspective, the project will be divided between phases of collaborative design and phases of fieldwork over a period of 36 months. It is based on a partnership between internationally renowned research and higher education institutions experienced in the logistical management of such programmes.


Results

The results of the programme have been published in two special issues: