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Citizenship at the Margins: Status, Ambiguity, and the Mandingo of Liberia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Augustine Konneh
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Extract

Throughout the history of Liberia, the Mandingo have stood at the margins of citizenship-always taken to be “something more” than the other indigenous groups of Liberia but “something less” than the full citizens the Settlers consider themselves to be. In the shifting definitions of Liberian citizenship, Mandingo marginality has always played a curiously ambivalent role, an ambivalence that reflects the ambiguities of the state's self-conception.

While the question of “who are the real citizens of Liberia” has been debated for many years by the various ethnic groups, no group has been more impacted by the debate than the Mandingo. Against this historical background, this paper seeks to address the issue of citizenship which is currently being discussed as Liberia attempts to reestablish itself as a nation state following its recent civil war.

Type
Articles
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , September 1996 , pp. 141 - 154
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1996

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