Bodies, Illicit Mobilities, and Citizenry

Abstract

This chapter's central argument is that there is a paradoxical relationship between the collective African identity and the discourses around citizenship and belonging. Drawing from documentary evidence and data from the media, and with a focus on Nigeria-UK state relations, the chapter demonstrates the paradoxes a collective African identity by interrogating how it is deployed, and the extent to which it inscribes meanings to the policing and politicisation of African bodies in discussions related to anti-trafficking work. By interrogating the existing knowledge infrastructures about the continent in conjunction with the imagery of Africa portrayed in Western media (Africa as a problem, corporeal, abject, and immutable), the chapter problematises notions of the citizenry deployed in justifications of policy interventions and state surveillance within and beyond the African continent.