On power and policy in post-colonial Africa: an introduction

From accounts of indirect rule to African socialism and structural adjustment programs, the socio-economic effects of policies have loomed large in debates regarding colonisation, post-colonial development, and the historical trajectory of African societies. Engaging with the effects of particular policies has deepened our collective understanding of how historical and institutional continuities continue to reverberate in the present, influencing the scope of social transformation while also facilitating particular modes of social, political, and economic organisation. However, an approach that focuses primarily on policy effects has left the social processes through which policy is produced largely unattended. Building on anthropological approaches to the study of policy, this collection aims to contribute to debates on state and society in contemporary Africa through a set of articles that analyse policy processes and outline how the interactions of actors, organisations, and institutions produce and reflect social continuity and change across the colonial and post-colonial periods.