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| | | | Welcome to the twelfth edition
of the CERTIZENS Newsletter. | |
| | | | | | | Dear colleagues and friends of CERTIZENS
Wishing you all a very peaceful, creative and purposeful year ahead.
This, our twelfth CERTIZENS Newsletter, takes
a somewhat different form than usual, as will be the case for any future
issues. The change is due to the next half year until June 2025 being the final
formal period of our research project. Among other things, this means having
fewer resources (especially labour time) to cover the wider spectrum of
information included in previous issues.
In this current issue, we have chosen to focus more directly on some of the
CERTIZENS- specific highlights of the recent past and forthcoming period. Firstly,
we draw attention to a very productive PhD study period in Copenhagen in
September/October 2024 by our four Africa-based PhDs. We then proudly feature the
focus and findings of almost all of the ten CERTIZENS-supported MA and MPhil students
who have completed or nearly completed their theses, as well as a recent
publication by one of our Ugandan PhDs. And finally we remind readers of the
forthcoming CERTIZENS West Africa Regional Workshop to be held in Accra in April
2025, with the opportunity for up to ten regionally-based scholars in West
Africa to apply for a travel grant by the 27 January deadline.
In the coming half year and beyond – for as long as we're able to sustain the
Newsletter – our intention is to: feature the research focus and findings and
emerging publications both of our five PhDs as they head towards graduating, as
well as that of the four senior researchers within the project; and to
highlight any relevant news, events and opportunities relevant to CERTIZENS
themes and questions. We'd also be happy to feature any new relevant
publications or short blog pieces from among those in the broader research
community focused on aspects of the dynamics of IDs/identification, citizenship and state making in Africa. If
you wish to use this space for that purpose, please contact me at: aha@teol.ku.dk
Amanda Hammar,
CERTIZENS Project Leader
Copenhagen, January 2025
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|  | | | | Four CERTIZENS PhDs students from Ghana and Uganda spent six weeks in
Copenhagen in September and October 2024 staying at the Danish Fellowship
Centre and working with CERTIZENS colleagues at the Centre of African Studies,
University of Copenhagen. From left to
right: Isaac Owusu Nsiah, Martin Buhamizo, Milcah Abasabyona, Agnes Doe Agbanyo
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| CERTIZENS PhD
candidates from Uganda and Ghana on study visit in Copenhagen
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| | | | CERTIZENS and the Danida Fellowship Centre (DFC) granted a six-week
study fellowship in Copenhagen to our four PhD candidates from Ghana and Uganda,
all of whom are in the late stages of their thesis writing, to support them in
the completion of their PhD studies.
Milcah Abasabyona, one of the PhD candidates from Uganda, summarized
three main reasons why her stay in Copenhagen was of great benefit in this
particular stage of her work:
The regular individual and group supervision sessions
with CERTIZENS PI, Professor Amanda Hammar, ensured greater clarity for example
on how to clearly develop a
conceptual-analytical framework which is core for a detailed and coherent PhD
thesis.A conducive work environment with resources such as a
well-stocked (online) library positively aided the writing process.The social support system and intellectual engagement with
fellow PhDs enhanced the exchange of ideas and feedback.
CERTIZENS – and the PhDs in particular – thank
DFC for their support in the administration, organization and funding of this
unique opportunity.
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| CERTIZENS Master
Students present their thesis findings
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| | | | We congratulate our
ten CERTIZENS-supported Masters students from Makerere University and the
University of Ghana on successfully completing their degrees. Their respective thesis
projects span a wide range of topics related to CERTIZENS' core theme of
identification and citizenship in Africa. Some students approached their case
studies from a historical perspective (Jonathan Mwesige, Moses Muluba), while
others focused on gender issues (Gifty Cobbinah, Carol Nyangoma Mukisa, Rafiatu
Abdul Rauf). Several explored the role of identification in migrant populations
(Paul Morris Musoke, Nageeba Hassan Tegulwa) and its connection to
marginalization (Ramatu Issah). Additionally, one student concentrated on bureaucratic
dimensions of selected identification regimes (Mary Stella Byona).
We proudly present
their research findings, key insights and reflections on various dimensions of the
relationship between IDs and citizenship in Africa, on our CERTIZENS website.
Please click on the pictures below to access the respective individual
summaries of their work.
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| | | |  | ICT and E-Passport Management in Uganda Immigration Office: A Case Study of the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control (2008-2023) | |
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| | | |  | Digitisation and Certification in the Informal Sector: Case Study of Head Porters in Ghana | |
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| | | |  | Citizenship and Marginalization: A Comparative Analysis of the Experiences of Fulani and Zabarma Groups in the North Tongu District of the Volta Region of Ghana
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| | | |  | Factors Influencing Birth Registration Among the Migrant Karamajong in Jinja District | |
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| | | |  | Separatist Movement and Identification Documents: A case of Toro District, 1954-1982 | |
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| | | |  | Examining Women's Experiences in the Process of Accessing and Utilizing National Identification Documents in Labour Migration: A Case of Women Labour Migrants in Uganda
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| | | |  | Unfolding Diverse Citizen Response to Birth Registration in Iganga District, Uganda (1904-2021) | |
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| | | |  | Understanding the Gendered Experiences of the Use and Control of the Ghana Card in Kumbuyili in the Sagnerigu District in the Northern Region, Ghana | |
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| | | |  | Refugee Identity Card and Its Impact on the Somali Refugee's Personal Security
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|  | | | | | | | Legal Identification Documents: Threats and Opportunities for the Ghetto
Youth in Kampala Slums
Milcah Abasabyona
Journal of Science and Sustainable Development, 9 (1), 2022 (published Oct.
2024)
Abstract: This paper
explores how a new hierarchy of legal Identification Documents (IDs) in Uganda,
topped by the National Identification Document (NID), interchangeably referred
to as the national identity card, Endanga-Muntu, or a national ID
in this paper, has diminished the value of a wider range of forms of
recognition. It also examines how this new hierarchy has generated structural
discrimination and escalated selective inequalities among differentiated
citizens, leading to disenfranchisement. Using a case of the ghetto youths in
Kampala slums of Kamwokya and Bwaise, this paper argues that the range of
legal IDs within Uganda's overall national registration ecosystem over time
have included multiple and overlapping identification mechanisms, such as birth
registration cards, local council village cards, residence IDs, baptism cards,
voter's card, tax payment slip, driver's license, citizens' passport, written
A4 paper letters, marriage certificates, and others, acceptable in various
formal and informal spaces until the recent introduction of a NID which
manifests both as a threat and an opportunity to the ghetto youths.
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|  | | | | CERTIZENS to hold a
West Africa Regional Workshop in Accra, 7-9 April 2025
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| | | | The three-day Workshop
on ‘Changing ID Systems in West Africa: Policies, Practices and
Contestations in the Reshaping of States and Citizens', is interested in
bringing together scholars especially based in the West Africa region working
on changing ID ecosystems and their effects on both states and citizens and the
relationship between them. This complements a similar workshop held in Kampala
in January 2024 focused on East Africa.
Our keynote
speaker will be Professor Laurent Fourchard, Professor of political
science and history at the National Foundation for Political Science (CERI),
Sciences Po Paris. He is author of, among other publications, the monograph Classify,
Exclude and Police: Urban Lives in South Africa and Nigeria (Wiley 2021),
and the book chapter ‘Bureaucracy and the politics of identification in
Nigeria. Issuing certificates of indigene and investigating citizens'
ancestral origins' (2021).
We look forward to an
exciting set of conversations at this Workshop, as well as future networking
and collaborations related to this crucial and growing knowledge field.
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| | | | The deadline for abstract submissions for the Workshop is on midnight on Monday 27 January 2025. We continue to welcome submissions of paper abstracts for up to ten funded participants specifically from the West Africa region. The Workshop aims to combine CERTIZENS' own researchers from Ghana, Uganda and Denmark and both younger and more established scholars from the region.
Call for Submission on our website
We appreciate the circulation of our call to interested and relevant researchers. | | | | |
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