Performing Royalty in Contemporary Africa

Sovereignty and governance in contemporary Africa are hotly contested issues with important—even dire—consequences for all those interested in the continent’s markets, resources, people, and welfare. This article focuses not on questions of how authority is assigned or removed but on how it is shaped, worn, and performed for diverse audiences, particularly in the arena of “traditional governance.” Here, the Bafokeng “ethnic corporation” meets Africa’s last absolute monarchy, the Swazi Kingdom, in a juxtaposition of styles, symbols, and strategies that illuminates the difference between an aesthetic of defiant African alterity and an Afromodern capitalist cosmopolitanism. NOTES Acknowledgments. We would like to thank the many people in Bafokeng and Swaziland who hosted us, welcomed us, and made it possible for us to observe and participate in the events we describe here. Special thanks go to Kgosi Leruo Molotlegi, whose intellectual curiosity, commitment to honest inquiry, and generosity made broad and spontaneous engagement with the Bafokeng community such a pleasure. We would also like to thank several colleagues who read and commented on earlier iterations of this article, including Bilal Butt, Walker Depuy, John Comaroff, Nadine Naber, Julia Paley, Damani Partridge, Nick Reo, Elizabeth Roberts, and Miriam Ticktin. Carly Edwards offered expert research assistance and formatting; Keith Brown offered helpful insights in the final stages of editing. We are also grateful for input from an unusually wide array of reviewers for this journal due to the way our manuscript’s emphasis shifted, over the course of an editorial transition at Cultural Anthropology. Any errors of fact or interpretation belong solely to the authors. 1. This follows Cattelino’s analysis of the Florida Seminole Nation, in which she argues that cultural sovereignty has to do with the ability of a group to retain or redefine symbols and practices from past in experiments with new social and economic forms (Cattelino 2008). 2. We chose the Swazi case for the useful and rich contrasts it presents. Our observations of the Bafokeng King’s interactions with the Asantehene of Ghana, the “Maori King” (Kiingi Tuheitia of the Turangawaewae Marae) of New Zealand, and tribal leaders from the Florida Seminole Nation also reliably bear out our analysis but were omitted due to space constraints.