Table Of ContentMIDDLE CLASSES IN AFRICA
Changing Lives and
Conceptual Challenges
Edited by
LENA KROEKER, DAVID O’KANE
AND TABEA SCHARRER
Frontiers of Globalization
Series editor
Jan Nederveen Pieterse
University of California
Santa Barbara, California, USA
With the onset of the twenty-frst century, key components of the archi-
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industrializing societies, rather than post-industrial consumer societies,
are again propelling the world economy. Tese changes involve major
breaks: an era of multipolarity; the afrmation of the plurality of capital-
isms; the emergence of new modernities; and the new patterns of East-
South and South-South relations, in contrast to the North-South
relations. Tese changes unfold on a global scale and cannot be properly
understood on a national, regional or even international basis. Tey rep-
resent major trends breaks, although actual changes may well take shape
through a thousand small steps. Understanding these changes requires
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Lena Kroeker • David O’Kane
Tabea Scharrer
Editors
Middle Classes in
Africa
Changing Lives and Conceptual
Challenges
Editors
Lena Kroeker David O’Kane
Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Max Planck Institute for Social
Studies Anthropology
Bayreuth, Germany Halle, Germany
Tabea Scharrer
Max Planck Institute for Social
Anthropology
Halle, Germany
Frontiers of Globalization
ISBN 978-3-319-62147-0 ISBN 978-3-319-62148-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62148-7
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Acknowledgements
Tis book would not exist without the help and assistance of many peo-
ple to whom the editors are very grateful. Te frst, and biggest, debt of
gratitude goes to the many African people who acted as interview part-
ners to the various empirical investigations which form the basis of sev-
eral of the chapters in this volume. Te second debt is to the various
participants in the debate over the question of middle classes in Africa,
who made this volume both necessary and possible. We thank also our
contributors, without whom the book would not exist. Among the con-
tributors, we particularly thank Dr Florian Stoll for his participation in
the early stages of the project. Prof James Carrier provided us with invalu-
able advice, and we thank him very much as well. We also gratefully
acknowledge the comments by Prof Henning Melber and Prof Roger
Southall, as well as those by the anonymous reviewers of our book pro-
posal, whose encouragement and advice proved very helpful to the edito-
rial process. At Palgrave, the help of various editorial staf was invaluable.
At the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, we thank our col-
leagues in general, and Prof Günther Schlee in particular. At the University
of Bayreuth, we thank our colleagues at the Bayreuth Academy of
Advanced African Studies, namely Prof Dr Erdmute Alber and Prof Dr
Dieter Neubert. Jennifer Cash and Elisa Herrmann assisted ably in the
editing process of this book, and we are very grateful for their assistance
in the project.
v
Contents
1 I ntroduction: Africa’s Middle Classes in Critical Perspective 1
Tabea Scharrer, David O’Kane, and Lena Kroeker
Part I Rethinking Concepts of Middle Classes in Africa 33
2 T urning the Poor into Something more Inspiring:
The Creation of the African Middle Class Controversy 35
Dominique Darbon
3 T he Narrative of ‘the African Middle Class’ and Its
Conceptual Limitations 57
Dieter Neubert and Florian Stoll
4 A nthropology and Class in Africa: Challenges of the
Past and Present 81
David O’Kane and Tabea Scharrer
vii
viii Contents
Part II T e Recurring Rise and Return of Middle Classes
in Africa 107
5 T e Ghanaian Middle Class, Social Stratifcation, and
Long-Term Dynamics of Upward and Downward
Mobility of Lawyers and Teachers 109
Jan Budniok and Andrea Noll
6 T e Nubians of Kibera ‘Revisited’: Detribalized Natives,
Slum Dwelers, Middle Clas? 135
Johanna Sarre
7 S aving and Serving the Nation: HIV Politics and the
Emergence of New Professional Classes in Botswana 157
Astrid Bochow
Part III Te Political Consequences of the Middle Classes 177
8 P ropertied Citizenship in a Township and Suburb
in Johannesburg 179
Barbara Heer
9 T inking Sierra Leone and Building a New Middle
Class: Political Expression and Political Values at
the University of Makeni 203
David O’Kane
10 A frican Middle Classes: Formation and Destabilizing
Efects 23
Jason Musyoka
Conten ts ix
Part IV F ormation of Social Interconnections and
Interdependencies 247
11 P athways into the Middle: Rites of Passage and
Emerging Middle Classes in Namibia 249
Julia Pauli
12 M iddle-Class Approaches to Social Security in Kenya 273
Lena Kroeker
13 M iddle Classes and ‘Moderate Prosperity’ in Rural
Madagascar 293
Tsiry Andrianampiarivo
14 A fterword. Te (Idea of ) African Middle Classes:
Teorizing from Africa 311
Rachel Spronk
R eferences 327
Index 365
List of Figures
Photograph 6.1 N ubians in Kenya in the 1930s/1940s 146
Fig. 10.1 M iddle classes in the vertical middle.
Source: Musyoka (2016) 240
Fig. 10.2 M iddle classes in the horizontal middle.
Source: Musyoka (2016) 240
Photograph 11.1 A symbolic key as a 21st birthday gift
(Copyright Julia Pauli, 2004) 255
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