Boundary work: Police in West Africa Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Carola Lentz Research staff: Jan Beek, M.A. Mirco Göpfert, M.A. Agnes Badou (associated researcher) Duration: January 2009 − December 2012 Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (2011-2012) Inneruniversitäre Forschungsförderung der Johannes-Gutenberg Universität Mainz (initial funding, 2009-2010)

Cell window (left) and mural (right) on the outer wall of a Nigerien gendarmerie station in Gouré, 2010. Photo: Mirco Göpfert©.

Corruption, support of violent political regimes and protection of neoliberal economic interests: West Africa’s police are usually regarded as a dysfunctional state institution, both in popular and scholarly discourses. Representing the state´s monopoly on the legitimate use of force and thus expected to be politically neutral, the police are often criticized as institutionally not autonomous. Solid empirical research on the police in this part of the world, however, is scarce. The research project analyses the autonomy of police institutions at the level of everyday police practices. West African police work in an environment of low legitimacy is faced with competing non-state policing organisations and depends on superordinate or coordinate state institutions. Police practices have adapted to these conditions and therefore have come to terms with permanent informal interference by non-police actors, in some cases using the situation to their advantage by outsourcing certain police tasks. Despite these adaptations, policemen still aim to partially preserve the autonomy of their institution. The project analyses this ambivalent boundary work in which police and civil actors constantly adjust, redraw or preserve the boundary distinguishing them in everyday interactions. A comparison of policemen’s boundary work in two quite different countries, such as Ghana (anglophone, stable democracy since 1992) and Niger (francophone, presently authoritarian), permits researchers to analyse how historical and political contexts shape police practices. The comparative approach will also allow researchers to elaborate on collectively shared practices specific to the police profession and to contribute to empirical and theoretical research on the state in Africa.

Publications
Amo Antwi, Gifty, Jan Beek, Johanna Dienst, Mirco Göpfert, Maria Kind, Konstanze N’Guessan, Andrea Noll, Stefanie Ullmann und  Bianca Volk. 2009.„They are not enlightened“. Wie Staatsbedienstete in Nordghana Differenz zwischen sich und ihren Klienten konstruieren. Working Papers of the Department of Anthropology and African Studies of the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz 97.

Badou, Agnès. 2009. La construction des catégories socioprofessionnelles informelles à la police Béninoise. In: Etats en chantier an Afrique au Sud du Sahara / States at work in Sub-Saharan Africa. Proceedings of the conference / Actes du colloque, Niamey 7 - 9 December. Niamey: Buco-Edit.

Beek, Jan. 2010. Étiqueter les "déviants": le travail des policiers au Nord-Ghana. Déviance et Société 34 (2): 279-290

Beek, Jan. 2009. “There should be no open doors in the police” – Policing in Northern Ghana. Maintenance and Blurring of Boundaries. In: Etats en chantier an Afrique au Sud du Sahara / States at work in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Proceedings of the conference / Actes du colloque, Niamey 7 - 9 December. Niamey: Buco-Edit.

Beek, Jan. 2008. Friend of the Police - Polizei in Nord-Ghana (Upper West Region).. Working Papers of the Department of Anthropology and African Studies of the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz 93.

Göpfert, Mirco. 2009. Security in nocturnal Niamey – Preliminary reflections and conceptual outlook. Sociétés politiques comparées n° 18.

Lentz, Carola. 2010. ‘I take an oath to the state, not the government’: Career trajectories and professional ethics of Ghanaian public servants. Working Papers of the Department of Anthropology and African Studies of the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz 119.