Enforcing the Line

This book analyses historic and contemporary border regime developments in East Africa, and draws a complex picture of borders control in Africa beyond stereotypical Western imaginations. Based on ethnographic research, it describes the everyday realities of Kenyan border officers dealing with colonial border legacies on the ground, and analyses actual enforcement practices. Moreover, the book examines the implementation process of One Stop Border Post (OSBP), which is currently taking place all over the African continent. OSBPs stand in between regional, pan-African as well as neo-colonial, capitalist interests, and will shape cross-border trade, migration, security and transnational relations in the future. The book offers a critical analysis of this implementation process with reference to local voices from different borderlands of Kenya with Ethiopia, Tanzania, South Sudan and Uganda. The case studies thereby exemplify the ambivalent reality of borders worldwide, which simultaneously open and close at the same time, whereby reproducing inequalities.

Draw a complex picture of border control in Africa, its contemporary dynamics and transformation processes Assembles findings from four different borders of Kenya (Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan) Provides a critical analysis of the implementation of One Stop Border Posts with reference to challenges on the ground

Autorentext

Katrin Sowa is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Cologne, Germany. Her research project in Kenya was financed by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme in affiliation with Kenyatta University, Kenya.

Klappentext

"Enforcing the Line offers an eye-opening ethnographic account of Kenya's evolving border regime. Challenging clichés of African borders as chaotic or corrupt, Katrin Sowa reveals the complexities of everyday border enforcement and the global dynamics shaping them. From border officers to local communities, this book brings to life the human side of border controlhighlighting both the legacies of colonialism and the ambitions of a continent in motion."

Mirco Göpfert, Professor for Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany

This book analyses historic and contemporary border regime developments in East Africa, and draws a complex picture of borders control in Africa beyond stereotypical Western imaginations. Based on ethnographic research, it describes the everyday realities of Kenyan border officers dealing with colonial border legacies on the ground, and analyses actual enforcement practices. Moreover, the book examines the implementation process of One Stop Border Post (OSBP), which is currently taking place all over the African continent. OSBPs stand in between regional, pan-African as well as neo-colonial, capitalist interests, and will shape cross-border trade, migration, security and transnational relations in the future. The book offers a critical analysis of this implementation process with reference to local voices from different borderlands of Kenya with Ethiopia, Tanzania, South Sudan and Uganda. The case studies thereby exemplify the ambivalent reality of borders worldwide, which simultaneously open and close at the same time, whereby reproducing inequalities.

Katrin Sowa is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Cologne, Germany. Her research project in Kenya was financed by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme in affiliation with Kenyatta University, Kenya.

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2. Border Life.- 3. The Border Post.- 4. B/order Control.- 5. Discussion.