Abstract
This chapter explores the messy politics of the ‘biometric turn’ in Africa, critically engaging with the notion that it constitutes a radical departure from the administrative past. Drawing on qualitative data collected between 2010 and 2017 in Mauritania, it seeks to complicate the conventional narrative that depicts the conversion of civil registration systems to biometrics as an apolitical, seamless transition from a ‘documentary’ state to a ‘biometric state.' Focusing on the critical moment in which the government tried to impose the new registration procedures, I show how Mauritanian citizens negotiated their inclusion in the so-called Secure National ID Registry. This chapter documents how the Mauritanian public’s engagement with the modus operandi of the new programme affected its implementation, arguing ultimately that the biometric system is neither experienced uniformly in all African countries nor divorced from local political contexts and histories.
Original language | English (US) |
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Title of host publication | Identification and Citizenship in Africa |
Subtitle of host publication | Biometrics, the Documentary State and Bureaucratic Writings of the Self |
Publisher | Taylor and Francis |
Pages | 203-220 |
Number of pages | 18 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781000380033 |
ISBN (Print) | 9780367513085 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 10 2021 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Sciences(all)