Published
Mar 27, 2023Page count
186 pagesISBN
978-1529219715Dimensions
203 x 127 mmImprint
Bristol University PressPublished
Mar 27, 2023Page count
186 pagesISBN
978-1529219722Dimensions
203 x 127 mmImprint
Bristol University PressPublished
Mar 27, 2023Page count
186 pagesISBN
978-1529219722Dimensions
203 x 127 mmImprint
Bristol University Press
Humour and Politics in Africa
Analyses of humour often focus primarily on the Global North, with little consideration for examples and practices from elsewhere. This book provides a vital contribution to humour theory by developing a Global South perspective.
Taking a wide-ranging view across the whole of the continent, the book examines the relationship between humour and politics in Africa. It considers the context of the production and reception of humour in African contexts and argues that humour is more than just symbolic. Moving beyond the idea of humour as a mode of resistance, the book investigates the ‘political work’ that humour does and explores the complex entanglements in which the politics, practices and performances of humour are located.
‘The authors take great care to tease out the nuances of ‘humour in action’ and its entanglements in various scenarios in African states. As evidenced by case-studies across the continent, the book reveals that while the literature has highlighted the importance of humour practices in speaking back to power, what humour does beyond that remains contentious and calls for further study.’ The Journal of Development Studies
“An exciting, witty, innovative survey and incisive analysis of the diversity of humour across Africa and its complex, at times contradictory, political significance. Fills a major gap in the literature.” Peter Limb, Michigan State University
“A timely, deeply informed and well-wrought intervention in the academic conversation on a subject that is of increasing political, performative and moral significance in Africa; written with verve and a palpable sense of scholarly responsibility. Highly recommended to scholars and students of African politics.” Ebenezer Obadare, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)
“This book situates jokes and laughter within a much longer genealogy of performance not merely shaped by colonialism. In refuting an easy equation of humour with resistance, it provides an excellent, much-needed nuanced analysis of humour as a form of agency in its own right with potentially positive or negative consequences, or both.” Wendy Willems, London School of Economics and Political Science
Daniel Hammett is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geography at the University of Sheffield, UK, and Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Geography, Environmental Management and Energy Studies at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.
Laura S. Martin is Assistant Professor in Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham, and a research affiliate and advisor at the University of Makeni (UNIMAK), Makeni, Sierra Leone.
Izuu Nwankwọ is Research Fellow with the project CEDITRAA in the Department of Anthropology and African Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany.
Preamble: Have You Heard the One About the Three Academics?
Chapter 1: Humour and Politics in Africa: An Overview
Chapter 2: Multiple For(u)ms of Resistance: Humour, Agency and Power
Chapter 3: Beyond the Symbolic: Humour in Action
Chapter 4: Between Jokes: Silence and Ambiguities Within Humour
Chapter 5: The Last Laugh?
