The Politics and Anthropology of Combating Corruption in Africa

Abstract

In the context of Africa, political science has made a significant contribution to the continent’s debate on corruption. Because of perceived ethical and methodological limitations, the field of anthropology has made little contribution to an understanding of the concept, let alone how to combat it. As a result, there is an abundance of literature and research that provides strategies for combating corruption that draw on other disciplines, particularly the political perspective. On the one hand, anthropology as a discipline is generally concerned with developing a critical understanding of the rules and norms that govern social behaviour. Politics, on the other hand, focuses primarily on how power is acquired and used in a particular social context. These two disciplines may initially be seen as complementary in understanding the best ways to combat corruption. However, the majority of the anti-corruption literature on the market does not address this complementarity. Therefore, it is not surprising that there is a growing knowledge gap regarding how to effectively combat corruption in Africa. This chapter attempts to investigate the concept of corruption in the context of its political and cultural significance in Africa using political and anthropological lenses in this case. This chapter specifically aims to respond to the question – how is corruption understood or interpreted in everyday African life?