PLENARY - Lugard Lecture

Fri 1st July, 18.30-19.45

Race, identity and citizenship in Black Africa: the case of the Lebanese in Ghana

Professor Emmanuel Akyeampong

As we approach the post-colonial half century, trans-nationalism has become a major reality in Africa and the larger world with the proliferation of immigrants, refugees and displaced persons. But trans-nationalism is not a new development, and diaspora and globalization -- both historical processes – have long served as contexts for the remaking of identity, citizenship and polity. Today, concepts such as “cosmopolitanism” and “flexible citizenship” are in vogue in a globalized world, as trans-nationalism challenges statist concepts of political citizenship. In this lecture, I revisit the historic presence of a Lebanese diaspora in West Africa from the 1860s, and the intellectual and political obstacles that have worked against a full incorporation of the Lebanese in West Africa as active political citizens, using the case of Ghana. I seek to understand why the prospect of non-black citizenship was considered problematic in black Africa during the era of decolonization, interrogating the institutional legacies of colonial rule and pan-Africanist thought. The intellectual rigidity of pan-Africanism on race is contrasted with current notions of the constructedness of identity. I probe the ways in which the Lebanese in Ghana constructed their identities, and how these facilitated or obstructed assimilation. As African governments seek to tap into the resources of the new African communities in Europe and North America, the lecture suggests the timeliness of exploring alternative ways of defining citizenship in black Africa other than indigeneity.

Chair: Prof. V. Y. Mudimbe, Chairman of the International African Institute
Vote of thanks: Prof. Dr. Birgit Meyer, Member of the IAI Council

This an annual lecture of the International African Institute.