Africa from the margins

Abstract

This article argues for the continued merits of research with rural, longmarginalized peoples, including those whose fervent invocations of ethnic difference- such as Maasai-make many scholars and politicians nervous. Their perspectives "from the margins" offer key theoretical and political insights into this complicated place we call "Africa" by challenging grand narratives of modernization, "Africa rising," and supposedly "universal" ideas of progress and justice. They also defy enduring stereotypes about the passivity and ignorance of rural peoples. I argue, in other words, for the value of both seeing and theorizing Africa from the margins.