Informal Practices of Accountability in Urban Africa

Political accountability has since the late 20th century emerged as a central tenet of democracy. Accountability is typically understood as individuals being called to account for their actions, and in politics this refers to representatives informing their constituents about their activities in office. Political accountability provides the key mechanism for citizens to make sure representatives do their jobs, and it often involves sanctioning leaders out of office, ensuring transparency of government funds, and incorporating the ideas of citizens into political decision making. Across Africa, accountability is usually seen as lacking in African political systems, contributing to a missing, though crucial, element of democratic governance in the region. The study of accountability in African cities is particularly understudied, as rapid urbanization, proliferation of informal settlements, and growing populations of the urban poor lead to new political communities being formed, to shifting forms of identity and claims to citizenship, and to new relationships between leaders and followers. How citizens actually hold their leaders to account in urban Africa is largely unknown and is a key question that guides this article. The article examines informal practices of accountability that extend beyond elections and formal institutions to include the social practices and collective endeavors between residents and their leaders in the context of daily life. Examples of these informal practices include appealing to leaders’ moral standing in daily activities such as town hall meetings, nighttime chats, and house visits, as well as civic activism and street protests.