Making Citizens in Africa

Download or read book Making Citizens in Africa written by Lahra Smith and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-05-20 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a study of contemporary politics in Ethiopia through an empirical focus on language policy, citizenship, ethnic identity, and gender. It is unique in its focus not only on the political institutions of Ethiopia and the history of the country but in that it studies these subjects at the intersection of both modern and historical time periods. In particular, it argues that meaningful citizenship, which is much more than the legal state of being a citizen, is a process of citizens and the state negotiating the practice of citizenship. Therefore, it puts the citizen back at the forefront of the process of expanding citizenship, suggesting the ways that citizens support, resist, and affect state policy on political rights.