ON THE SUBJECT OF CITIZENSHIP, late colonialism in the world today

231pp., paperback, London, 2023

"In any studies of contemporary Africa and indeed the postcolonial world, Mahmood Mamdani's empirically grounded and theoretically illuminating scholarship occupies a central place. It is therefore inevitable for scholars to visit and revisit Mamdani's work as they reflect on current and pertinent issues of how colonialists ruled Africa, what social orders were laid out, how violence was deployed, how knowledge was colonized, and how the colonial impinged on the postcolonial. I have nothing but praise for this volume that is focused on Mamdani's ever relevant scholarship. Suren Pillay must be commended for assembling a stellar group of scholars to reflect on Mamdani's work in the advancement of scholarship on Africa in particular and the postcolonial world in general." Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Professor and Chair of Epistemologies of the Global South and Vice-Dean for Research of the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence, University of Bayreuth, Germany

Contributions include:

Of Citizen(s) and Subject(s): Mamdani on research, methods, and commitments in postcolonial Africa" by Siba N'Zatioula Grovogui

"Empire in the Era of DIY Colonialism: Barbarism or slavery in the (post)colonial context?" by Abdelwahab El-Affendi

"Political Identity and Postcolonial Democracy" by Karuna Mantena

"Colonial legacies of ethnicized violence, gendered subjects and emancipatory politics" by Lyn Ossome

"The Bifurcated Society: Citizen and subject in contemporary South Africa" by Steven Friedman

Suren Pillay is AC Jordan Professor of African Studies and Director of the Centre for African Studies at the University of Cape Town.