Claiming the City: Political Connections in African Neighbourhoods

• In Event: New Perspectives on the Comparative Politics of Cities in the Global South

Abstract

Rapid urbanization is changing the way Africans experience and engage the state in their everyday lives, creating new opportunities for urban claim-making. But it also creates the conditions for local capture. In their quest for rights and services, how do neighborhoods navigate these rapidly changing political environments? How does this vary across poor, middle-class, and wealthy neighborhoods? Based on 16 focus group discussions and 87 key informant interviews in eight neighbourhoods in Lagos (Nigeria) and Accra (Ghana), we find that residents in low-income neighbourhoods seek direct connections through voting blocs and the instrumental use of their concerned youth associations, while high-income neighbourhoods use personal connections and leverage their residence associations to influence state power. We argue that a neighborhood’s class structure shapes the political connections that residents have to the state, thereby shaping the everyday strategies that residents use to claim citizenship.

Authors

• Taibat Lawanson, University of Lagos, Nigeria

• Jeffrey W. Paller, University of San Francisco