Africa Initiative

Power, Authority and Governance

Convener: Lucie White, Law School
Co-Convener: Caroline Elkins, History Department

The Working Group on Power, Authority, and Governance has directed its attention to the intersection of state power with advocates' efforts to further the well-being of African peoples. It has looked at how advocacy strategies and social policy innovations have harnessed state power to promote socioeconomic security and political stability across the African subcontinent. It has also examined ways that state power has stifled efforts to enhance the sociopolitical stability of African populations.

The Working Group has emphasized the different conceptions of citizenship that are emerging from African political practice. For instance, it has observed how a narrow equation of "citizenship" is inadequate to the problems presented by refugees and internally displaced persons. It has looked at how African human rights advocates have reinterpreted the notion of citizenship to comport with the equation, in human rights treaties and covenants, of "citizenship" with "personhood."

The Working Group's activities have centered on three major conferences. The first, in February of 2004, focused on conflicts over land in sub-Saharan Africa. The keynote address was given by eminent Africanist, Mahmood Mamdani. This conference was combined with a larger Roundtable session at the Harvard Law School at which several of the invited scholars debated issues of land registration, land tenure, and other matters.

The Working Group's second major activity was a conference in the spring of 2006 on African advocates' innovations in the use of human rights strategies and values in struggles over both civil and social/political issues.

The Working Group's third major activity, which is ongoing, is a project focused specifically on economic and social rights innovation among some of Africa's most distinguished human rights advocates and activists. The project will focus on case studies based on African activists' work. A first phase of the project, which is in progress, is a book centered on the case studies. A second stage will translate the case studies into training materials for other African advocates. A third proposed stage will pilot and use these materials in African settings.