Rearticulating Citizenship Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic

The book contributes to the literature on COVID-19 by offering a unique perspective on the reconstruction of citizenship in postcolonial Africa following the pandemic, with a particular focus on Tanzania and Uganda.

It explores tensions between state legitimation strategies and citizens’ lived experiences in semi-authoritarian African contexts, revealing how pandemic governance reinforced existing power structures while creating spaces for resistance and adaptation. It scrutinises Tanzania's 'denial' approach and Uganda's strict scientifically justified lockdown, demonstrating how different strategies shaped state-citizen relations. Drawing on a collaborative research project, it offers a novel theoretical framework connecting legitimation and lived experiences in citizenship studies, using empirical insights from presidential speeches, newspaper coverage, and firsthand accounts of vulnerable groups. Through a comprehensive analysis, it illustrates how these neighboring countries adopted divergent pandemic responses, revealing new understandings of crisis governance in hybrid regimes and citizens' navigation of state narratives during emergencies.

This book will appeal to scholars and graduate students in sociology, development studies, political science, citizenship education, and African studies. It also provides essential insights for policymakers, international organizations, and civil society actors working on governance, public health, and citizenship in the Global South, particularly those concerned with crisis response in semi-authoritarian contexts.