1. Introduction / John L. Comaroff and Jean Comaroff -- 2. Practicing Citizenship in Imperial Paris / Gary Wilder -- 3. Developing Bushmen: Building Civil(ized) Society in the Kalahari and Beyond / Elizabeth Garland -- 4. Civil Society and Its Presuppositions: Lessons from Uganda / Mikael Karlstrom -- 5. Colonial Constructions: Historicizing Debates on Civil Society in Africa / William Cunningham Bissell -- 6. Staging Politisi: The Dialogics of Publicity and Secrecy in Sierra Leone / Mariane Ferme -- 7. Civil Lives: Leadership and Accomplishment in Botswana / Deborah Durham -- 8. Debating Muslims, Disputed Practices: Struggles for the Realization of an Alternative Moral Order in Niger / Adeline Masquelier -- 9. Curl Up and Dye: Civil Society and the Fashion-Minded Citizen / Amy Stambach -- 10. IBB = 419: Nigerian Democracy and the Politics of Illusion / Andrew Apter.