Abstract

Africa’s inherited colonial borders have been central in debates on decolonisation for reasons that include challenges posed to African mobilities and identities, suggesting that there is a crisis of ideas about the border. This article draws on critical border studies (CBS) to examine the agency and negotiating capabilities of border residents using Leklebi and Wli, on the Ghana–Togo border, as case studies. How are discourses and practices of the border embedded in the contemporary everyday life of the borderland residents? What do their bordering practices reveal about their borderscapes? Are borderscapes being created or negotiated dependent on context? It argues that in these borderlands, borderscapes and bordering are conceived and expressed contextually not only through the lens of the postcolonial territorial border but also through the precolonial migration histories as well as precolonial concepts of political space. It contributes to border studies by highlighting the importance of historical and cultural factors in bordering and borderscapes. An understanding of such complexities may, in a significant way, help us to rethink or reconsider the arbitrariness of borders.

摘要

非洲继承的殖民边界一直是关于非殖民化辩论的核心，其原因包括对非洲的流动性和身份构成的挑战，这表明存在关于边界的思想危机。本文利用关键边境研究 (CBS)，以加纳-多哥边境的 Leklebi 和 Wli 为例，研究边境居民的代理和谈判能力。边疆的话语和实践如何嵌入边疆居民的当代日常生活？他们的边界实践揭示了他们边界景观的什么？边界景观的创建或协商是否取决于上下文？它认为，在这些边境地区，边界景观和边界不仅通过后殖民领土边界的镜头，而且通过前殖民移民历史以及前殖民政治空间概念在语境中被构思和表达。它通过强调历史和文化因素在边界和边界景观中的重要性来促进边界研究。对这种复杂性的理解可能在很大程度上帮助我们重新思考或重新考虑边界的任意性。