Cryptopolitics

Victoria Bernal is a cultural anthropologist and Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. Her articles and chapters have appeared in various collections as well as in anthropological, African Studies, and interdisciplinary journals including American Ethnologist, Cultural Anthropology, American Anthropologist, Global Networks, Comparative Studies in Society and History, African Studies Review, and Political and Legal Anthropology Review.

• List of FiguresIntroduction: Cryptopolitics and Digital Media in AfricaKatrien Pype, Victoria Bernal, and Daivi Rodima-TaylorChapter 1. Four Ways of Not Saying Something in Digital Kinshasa: Or, On the Substance of Shadow ConversationsKatrien PypeChapter 2. The Power to Conceal in an Age of Social MediaSimon TurnerChapter 3. KOT, Digital Practices and the Performance of Politics in KenyaGeorge OgolaChapter 4. The “Muslim Mali” Game: Revisiting the religious-security-post-colonial nexus in Malian popular cultureMarie Deridder and Olivier ServaisChapter 5. Algorithmic Power in a Contested Digital Public: Crypto-politics and Identity in the Somali ConflictPeter ChonkaChapter 6. The Cryptopolitics of Digital MutualityDaivi Rodima-TaylorChapter 7. “This Dictatorship is a Joke: Eritrean Politics as Tragicomedy”Victoria BernalChapter 8. Digital Security in an African “Sanctuary City”Lisa PoggialiConclusion: Studying CryptopoliticsDaivi Rodima-Taylor, Katrien Pype, and Victoria BernalIndex

“The strength of the book lies in its demonstration of how political and social practices are always anchored in local sociality, as well as understanding that the roles of social media in contemporary Africa are important to understand what is going on.” • Jo Helle-Valle, Oslo Metropolitan University