Prisoners of Freedom: Human Rights and the African Poor (California Series in Public Anthropology)

260 Pages·2006·1.1 MB·English

by  Harri Englund

Prisoners of Freedom
california series in public anthropology
The California Series in Public Anthropology emphasizes the anthropologist’s role
as an engaged intellectual. It continues anthropology’s commitment to being an
ethnographic witness, to describing, in human terms, how life is lived beyond the
borders of many readers’experiences. But it also adds a commitment, through
ethnography, to reframing the terms of public debate—transforming received,
accepted understandings of social issues with new insights, new framings.
Series Editor: Robert Borofsky (Hawaii PaciWc University)
Contributing Editors: Philippe Bourgois (UC San Francisco),
Paul Farmer (Partners in Health), Rayna Rapp (New York University),
and Nancy Scheper-Hughes (UC Berkeley)
University of California Press Editor: Naomi Schneider
1. Twice Dead: Organ Transplants and the Reinvention of Death,
by Margaret Lock
2. Birthing the Nation: Strategies of Palestinian Women in Israel, by Rhoda Ann
Kanaaneh (with a foreword by Hanan Ashrawi)
3. Annihilating DiVerence: The Anthropology of Genocide,edited by Alexander
Laban Hinton (with a foreword by Kenneth Roth)
4. Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor,
by Paul Farmer (with a foreword by Amartya Sen)
5. Buddha Is Hiding: Refugees, Citizenship, the New America,by Aihwa Ong
6. Chechnya: Life in a War-Torn Society, by Valery Tishkov (with a foreword
by Mikhail S. Gorbachev)
7. Total ConWnement: Madness and Reason in the Maximum Security Prison,
by Lorna A. Rhodes
8. Paradise in Ashes: A Guatemalan Journey of Courage, Terror, and Hope,
by Beatriz Manz (with a foreword by Aryeh Neier)
9. Laughter Out of Place: Race, Class, Violence, and Sexuality in a Rio
Shantytown, by Donna M. Goldstein
10. Shadows of War: Violence, Power, and International ProWteering in the
Twenty-First Century,by Carolyn Nordstrom
11. Why Did They Kill? Cambodia in the Shadow of Genocide, by Alexander
Laban Hinton (with a foreword by Robert Jay Lifton)
12. Yanomani: The Fierce Controversy and What We Can Learn from It,
by Robert Borofsky
13. Why America’s Top Pundits Are Wrong: Anthropologists Talk Back,
edited by Catherine Besteman and Hugh Gusterson
14. Prisoners of Freedom: Human Rights and the African Poor,by Harri Englund
Prisoners
of Freedom
Human Rights and the African Poor
Harri Englund
UNIVERSITYOF CALIFORNIAPRESS
Berkeley / Los Angeles / London
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University of California Press
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University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2006 by The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Englund, Harri.
Prisoners of freedom : human rights and the African poor / Harri
Englund.
p. cm. —(California series in public anthropology : 14)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn-13 978-0-520-24923-3 (cloth : alk. paper), isbn-10 0-520-24923-2
(cloth : alk. paper)
isbn-13 978-0-520-24924-0 (pbk. : alk. paper), isbn-10 0-520-24924-0
(pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Human rights—Malawi. 2. Poverty—Malawi. 3. Ethnology—
Malawi. 4. Democracy—Malawi. I. Title. II. Series.
jc599.m3e54 2006
323.096897—dc22 2005032837
Manufactured in the United States of America
15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on New Leaf EcoBook 50, a 100% recycled Wber
ofwhich 50% is de-inked post-consumer waste, processed chlorine-
free. EcoBook 50 is acid-free and meets the minimum requirements
of ansi/astm d5634–01 (Permanence of Paper).
For Guðrún
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
List of Abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
1. The Situation of Human Rights: Debating Governance
and Freedom 25
2. Rights as Freedoms: Translating Human Rights 47
3. The Hidden Lessons of Civic Education: Training
the Torchbearers 70
4. Watchdogs Unleashed? Encountering “the Grassroots” 99
5. Legal Aid for Abused Labor: Individualizing Grievances 123
6. Crimes of Exploitation: Dehumanizing a Lorry Boy 145
7. Human Rights and Moral Panics: Listening
to Popular Grievances 170
8. Redeeming Freedom 193
Notes 205
References 225
Index 243
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Acknowledgments
Polemba bukuli ndidafuna kuwunikira mbiri ya ufulu wa demokalase ku
Malawi kuti timvetsetse bwino zotsatira za zimene zidachitika kumeneko
m’zaka za 1993 ndi 1994. Ambirife tikudziwa kuti malamulo oyendetsa
dziko adasintha pa nthawi imeneyi, koma zikuoneka ngati anthu wamba
achiMalawi akuvutikabe ngakhale zinthu zidasintha motero. Choncho
ndidaganiza kuti ndifufuze tanthauzo la ufulu limakhala pati pamene
anthu ambiri alibe chakudya chokwanira, ntchito imawasowa ndipo
maphunziro a ana awo adalowa pansi. Cholinga changa sichinali kudan-
daulanso za zimene atsogoleri a ndale adapanga poyambira 1994 mpakana
2004. Mabuku owunikira zimenezo adasindikizidwa kale. Ndidafuna
kukwanitsa cholinga china: kufufuza mbali imene adatenga mabungwe
oyang’anira ufulu wachibadwidwe ku Malawi. Apa ndidafuna kuzindikira
ngati ntchito imene mabungwewa amagwira ndi yothandiza ndithu pa
nkhani ya ufulu wa anthu wamba. Ngakhale mabungwe amene si aboma
amasiyana, ndidaona kuti ambiri adatanganidwa ndi maufulu amene ana-
libe tanthauzo lenileni kwa anthu wamba. Kodi chifukwa chiyani maufulu
amenewa adachititsa chidwi kwa mabungwewa? Yankho lili m’bukuli,
koma ndinene mwachidule kuti anyamata ambiri omwe adalowa ma-
bungwe oyang’anira ufulu wachibadwidwe adanyadira poganiza kuti iwo
okha adazindikira tanthauzo la demokalase. Choncho adaiwala kuti na-
wonso anthu wamba ali ndi nzeru zawo. Polemba bukuli ndidafuna ku-
kumbutsa awerengi anga kuti ngati tikufuna kudziwa m’mene zinthu
ziliri kwa anthu omwe amavutika ndi umphawi tiyenera kukhala nawo
nthawi yaitali kuti atiphunzitse. Tiyenera kulankhula zilankhulo zawo,
kufufuza chikhalidwe chawo ngakhale kuzindikira bwinobwino mavuto
ix