Afrika-seminar: Nationalitet og middelklasse i Mozambique

TIME: Thursday, 23 February, 15.15 – 17.00

VENUE: Auditorium 12, Centre of African Studies, 4th floor, Købmagergade 46

Recent debates concerning politics in Africa and beyond have tended to focus on the practices of rule. The ethnography in this article outlines the perspective of members of the ‘middle class’ in Maputo, Mozambique.

TIME: Thursday, 23 February, 15.15 – 17.00

VENUE: Auditorium 12, Centre of African Studies, 4th floor, Købmagergade 46

Recent debates concerning politics in Africa and beyond have tended to focus on the practices of rule. The ethnography in this article outlines the perspective of members of the ‘middle class’ in Maputo, Mozambique.

It is argued that the underlying legitimacy of the state’s nationalist vision, the reason one has the right to rule, is as important as the policies enacted.

By discussing changing conceptions of legitimacy it is explored how members of a group that largely owe their positions to the current political structure are also increasingly alienated by it.

Dr Jason Sumich is a research fellow at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He has studied social anthropology at the University of Cape Town and completed a PhD in social anthropology at the London School of Economics.

He has worked at the LSE and University of Pretoria before joining NTNU. His work focuses on nationalism, legitimacy, democratization and the middle class in Mozambique.

Discussant: Amanda Hammar, MSO Professor of African Studies, Centre of African Studies, Copenhagen University.