ABSTRACT
Although in Africa it has become quite fashionable to talk about human rights, including women’s rights as human rights, and there has been considerable progress in changing norms and breaking taboos in respect of some issues, when it comes to the right of women to equal political representation with men, however, there remains considerable resistance, even hostility. Also, whereas it has become the vogue in Africa to highlight the importance of good governance, and there has been a significant increase in the number of countries operating multiparty democracy, when it comes to the issue of inclusive government and access by women to equitable distribution of state resources, little progress has been made in many countries. 1 The political and governance spaces in many African countries are dominated by men, especially the politically powerful and socially influential men. These men, better expressed as “big men,” shape the contours of decision making and policy implementation in their countries, and make the instruments and legal frameworks of governance reflect their own narrow interests. These underlie the nature and character of citizenship in Africa. This chapter thus focuses on the concept and practice of citizenship in Africa using Nigeria and Tanzania as case studies. It hypothesizes that citizenship is central to the survival of contemporary states. This is because most issues of human rights revolve, at both individual and group levels, around the notion of citizenship. However, the practice of citizenship in many countries, especially in many African countries, is problematic. Specifically, the asymmetric power relations between men and women, on the one hand, and between sexual minorities and a dominantly heterosexual society, on the other hand, as well as between ethnic majorities and ethnic minorities, underlie some of the key problems of citizenship in many African countries.
