States at Work Public Services and Civil Servants in West Africa: Education and Justice in Benin, Ghana, Mali and Niger

Scientific coordinators
M. Tidjani Alou (LASDEL, Niamey, Niger), T. Bierschenk (University of Mainz, Germany)

Duration January 2006 – December 2009

Financial and administrative coordinator
S. Fichtner (University of Mainz, Germany)

Financed by Volkswagen Foundation Programme
Knowledge for Tomorrow-Cooperative Research Projects in Sub-Saharan Africa

Participating Institutions
Laboratory for the Study and Research of Social Dynamics and Local Development (LASDEL Niger and Benin)
Department of Anthropology and African Studies, University of Mainz
University of Ghana (Legon)
Université du Mali (Bamako)

If the institutionalization of power, the local anchoring of central government and the self-limitation of the ruling classes through the codification of law constitute the central characteristics of the modern, Western-type state, then state-formation in Africa is still underway. In this perspective, African states appear like permanent, and never finishing building sites. However, there is a striking absence of empirically grounded studies of the dayto-day functioning of African bureaucracies, public services and the professional practices of African civil servants. There is in fact very little empirical knowledge of the banal, habitual, routinized functioning of what might be called the ‘real’ state ‘at work’.

The project analyses these ‘real’ workings of states and public services, at both the central and local levels, with a focus on two key sectors, education and justice, in four West African countries (Benin, Ghana, Mali, Niger). It combines institutional and actor approaches, complemented by a historical perspective.

Media

• Press release Universität Mainz
• Press release VolkswagenStiftung
• FAZ- Article 15.11.2005
• JOGU Article (195/ Februar 2006)
  

Participants and Sub-Projects

Education
Since the 1950s, education has not only been of strategic importance for state and nation building and for the social promotion of post-colonial elite in Africa. It is also seen as essential to efforts towards meeting the development challenge and figures prominently in current policies of poverty reduction. In terms of its share in the national budget and in the number of employees, it is by far the most important sector (40 %) in African civil services. Educators are the civil servants which African populations are most likely to encounter, even in outlying rural areas, and they are considered as the archetypical change agents.

Abdulai Abubakari: Non-governmental organisations and the provision of primary education in northern Ghana.
Mahamane Ali Bako: Primary school teachers in Niger: Professional ethics and practical norms.
Prof. Thomas Bierschenk: Primary school teachers in Benin.
Sarah Fichtner: Relations between the state and international nongovernmental organisations in public primary education in Benin.
Azizou Chabi Imorou: Teacher’s trade unionism: pluralist claims and the construction of the State in Benin.
Dr. Yaouga Félix Koné: Community schools in Mali: actors’ strategies and the fortunes of education.
Prof. Carola Lentz: Local commitments, national aspirations: the history of an African elite.
Prof. Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan
Dr. Steve Tonah: Delivering basic education in rural Ghana.

Justice

Contrary to the education sector, the judiciary is small in terms of personnel employed as well as in terms of its share of national budgets. While the education sector could be considered paradigmatic for African development administration, the judiciary is an essential part of what might be called ‘sovereignty administration’. Its proper functioning is an essential part of all attempts to institutionalise democracy and the rule of law in African countries. Contrary to education, it has only recently become a priority of state reform and donor intervention.

Dr. Imorou Abou-Bakari: Magistrates in Benin: Socialisation and everyday life of a profession.
Anamzoya Alhassan Sulemana: The role of the judicial system in conflict resolution in northern Ghana.
Dr. Nassirou Bako Arifari: The structuring effects of political scandals on the justice system in Benin.
Jan Budniok: Ghanaian judges: career trajectories and self-understanding.
Dr. Moussa Djire: Justices of the peace (justices de paix) and courts of first instance (tribunaux de première instance) between immobilism and reform.
Mamadou Fomba: The profession of magistrate in Mali.
Oumarou Hamani: Functioning and regulation of the judiciary in Niger.
Tchantipo Saï Sotima: Justice functioning in northern Benin. A case study of the first instance court of Natitingou.
Dr. Mahaman Tidjani Alou: The social history of a legal profession: magistrates and judges in Niger.