Introduction: The Perils and Possibilities of African Roads

Abstract

Roads and automobility on the African continent are commonly encountered with a rather ambivalent stance, both by Africans and Africanist scholars. This ambivalence emerges from what Adeline Masquelier describes as the ‘profoundly contradictory nature of roads as objects of both fascination and terror’ (2002: 381). In her widely received article on ‘road mythographies’ surrounding Niger's Route 1, Masquelier draws a vivid picture of the ‘contradictory aspects of the road as a space of both fear and desire’ (ibid.: 831). She highlights, in particular, how roadside residents perceive automotive travel as ‘a process fraught with risky and contradictory possibilities’ (ibid.: 832). A ‘pioneering study in the ethnography of roads’ (Campbell 2012: 498), Masquelier's account of people's profound ambivalence towards roads, mobility and transport in post-colonial Niger has been a source of inspiration for a range of scholars who have explored in a similar vein the intricate entanglement of people with (auto)mobility, space and modernity, both in Africa and elsewhere (see, for example, Khan 2006; Klaeger 2009; Dalakoglou 2010; Hart 2011). Five articles in this volume press ahead with the analytic theme of the ambivalence of roads. Through their historic analyses and ethnographic observations, the assembled case studies from Senegal, Ghana, Sudan, Kenya and Tanzania give a strong sense of how the perils and possibilities of roads, roadsides, traffic and transport have been and continue to be embraced in the everyday lives of colonial and post-colonial subjects.

Life (and limb) in the fast-lane: disposable people as infrastructure in Kampala’s boda boda industry

“…iii While the "ontological turn" in anthropology has animated one line of debate, ontology in general can only be understood as a novel disciplinary concern by ignoring decades of scholarship not only in African Studies, as noted in the introduction to this special issue, but also in feminist and medical anthropology, in the anthropology of religion, and in post-colonial and black studies, where questions of being, mutability, and materiality have long been central. iv These conditions are not unique to Kampala's roads; such "infrastructural overload" (Lamont 2013), is the subject of a growing body of research (Masquelier 2002, Mutongi 2006, Gibbs 2014, Stasik 2016, Lamont and Lee 2015 for an overview, see Klaeger 2013). v This stage name, as with all proper names and certain identifying descriptors in this article, has been changed.…”

From Peripatetic Anthropology to the Ethnography of Roads and Motorisation in Africa

“…On the whole, it results difficult to trace the consideration of roads and motorised transportation in the ethnographies written throughout the best part of the last century. Luzón (1988) and Wrangham (2004); Ethiopia: Ramos (2010) and Alem (2013); Gabon: Soengas (2009); Ghana: Field (1960), Dickson (1961), Date-Bah (1980), Geest (1989Geest ( , 2009, Grieco, App, & Turner (1996), Akurang-Parry (2001), Verrips & Meyer (2001), Lyon (2007), Asiedu & Agiey (2008), Chalfin (2008Chalfin ( , 2010, Klaeger (2009Klaeger ( , 2012aKlaeger ( , 2012bKlaeger ( , 2013, Hart (2011), Ntewusu (2011), Porter (2012) and Stasik (2013); Kenya: Wainaina (1981), Munguti (1997), Chitere (2004), Kimani, Kibua, & Massinde (2004), Carrier (2005) Chavis (2012) and Lamont (2012Lamont ( , 2013; Madagascar: Cole (1998) and Thomas (2002); Mali: Fiori (2010); Mauritania: Godard (2002), Retaillé (2006), Chenal, Pedrazzini, & Vollmer (2009), Chenal, Kaufmann, Cissé, & Pedrazzini (2009a, 2009b, Choplin (2009) and Alonso & Nucci (2011); Mozambique: Chilundo (1992Chilundo ( , 1995, Agadjanian (2002) and Nielsen (2012); Nami...…”

Development and Progress as Historical Phenomena in Tanzania: “Maendeleo? We Had That in the Past”

“…Many saw the potential to procure casual employment as a clear benefit, both in Dihimba and in Mikindani, and as Rizzo (2006) points out, the Scheme created a localized economic boom. Elsewhere Rizzo (2009) demonstrates that opportunities for street hawking presented themselves to the most entrepreneurial and economically savvy in the interior at Nachingewa, moving us beyond assumptions that such a livelihood is an exclusively recent, urban phenomenon across Africa (see also Klaeger 2013).…”