The politics of paper: negotiating over and around indigeneship certification in Plateau State, Nigeria

The certification of indigeneship in Nigeria has become one of the most contested documentation processes in the country, given its implications for Nigerians' citizenship rights and political and economic opportunities. This paper analyses the contestations over and around indigeneship certifi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Canadian journal of African studies 2018-09, Vol.52 (3), p.331-347
Main Authors: Mang, Henry Gyang, Ehrhardt, David
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Certification
Citizenship
conflict
conflit
Documentation
GOVERNMENT PAPER: THE PRODUCTION AND LIFE OF STATE DOCUMENTS / PUBLICATIONS GOUVERNEMENTALES: LA PRODUCTION ET LA VIE DES DOCUMENTS ÉTATIQUES
indigeneship
Native peoples
Negotiation
Nigeria
Plateau State
Politics
Postcolonialism
Rural areas
statut d'indigène
État du Plateau
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The certification of indigeneship in Nigeria has become one of the most contested documentation processes in the country, given its implications for Nigerians' citizenship rights and political and economic opportunities. This paper analyses the contestations over and around indigeneship certification in Plateau State. It argues that while the notion of indigeneship has roots in the colonial period, postcolonial forces have reshaped and transformed it. The increasingly poor documentation practices of the Nigerian state, particularly at the local level, have interacted with a fragmentation and formalisation of "indigenous belonging" and given it new functions. In the context of Plateau State, then, this paper shows how these processes have resulted in at least two distinct forms of contestation over indigeneship: first, the intergroup competition over indigeneship in Jos North and, second, the contestation around the margins of indigeneship in the rural areas of Quan Pan.
ISSN:0008-3968
1923-3051
DOI:10.1080/00083968.2018.1546602