Identity, categorisation, citizenship and the 'Peace Process' in Côte d'Ivoire

Abstract

This thesis explores the practice of categorization of identities and determination of citizenship within the context of the peace process in Côte d’Ivoire. It is based on interviews with government officials, actors from non-government organisations, and long-term immigrants, as well as ethnographic observation work of birth registration systems. These field works took place in the regions of Moyen Cavally between 2009 and 2013. Drawing on this ethnographic observation in the field, along with interviews I carried out, I describe and examine in detail the everyday practice of the provision of citizenship documents, a major aspect of the Ouagadougou Peace Agreement implementation.