Negotiating National Identity and Local Belonging in Contemporary Liberia

Based on the biographical narrative of Mamadou, a young Mandingo man living in the Liberian/Guinean border region, I discuss the negotiation of a national and local belonging in the aftermath of the Liberian civil war (1989–2003). Following the end of the war, identity and citizenship claims have become contested and politicized to the extent that they might lead to renewed violence. Both in local representations and in socio-political analyses, the Mandingo in the north of Liberia are denied citizenship based on questions of autochthony. Mamadou’s narrative counters these collective representations and highlights his local integration, through his ability to invoke kinship idioms and joking relations, his understanding of interpersonal skills related to landlord-stranger reciprocity relations and his understanding of government documents as indices of national citizenship.