VAD e.V.

African Elite Generations

Convenor: Andrea Behrends Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist gegen Spambots geschützt! Sie müssen JavaScript aktivieren, damit Sie sie sehen können. Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist gegen Spam Bots geschützt, Sie müssen JavaScript aktivieren, damit Sie es sehen können

Independence from colonial rule starting in the late 1950s opened up new possibilities for African politicians, intellectuals, lawyers or doctors to take up positions in the senior civil service, as managers of companies, in the health system etc. which had formerly been occupied by the colonial rulers. Labelled as “the fortunate few” (Clignet and Foster 1966) because of their small number and the comparatively large quantity of newly opened positions after the departure of the colonizers, they raised expectations for future economic and social development in African states. However, subsequent generations not only had to struggle with economic decline, high corruption and political closure of access to more powerful positions; the increased numbers of highly educated and motivated candidates aspiring to fill a diminishing number of vacancies made professional success more competitive and thereby much harder to achieve than before.

The panel wants to address the pathways of elites in the last fifty years, their strategies of access to elite status and the possible closure of these pathways to new aspirants. To widen the perspective, the panel also encourages papers dealing with successful traders: how did they pass on their business and how do their successors cope with global economical changes? – or so-called traditional elites: how do more recent democratic pathways on the one hand and the consistency of civil war and dictatorship on the other hand influence traditional elites? In general, have elite groups been able to maintain their status over generations? And if yes, what were the (political and socio-economic) conditions for that? In which way did new elites come into being and how did these elites demonstrate their outstanding social position? The panel invites papers that look at the history and the trajectories of elite groups, the strategies of gaining or maintaining elite membership and the changing dynamics connected to African elites. The panel will be held in English.