In this revealing new book, authors Morten Bøås and Kevin Dunn explore the phenomenon of autochthony in contemporary African politics. Autochthony discourses enable the speaker to establish a direct claim to territory by the assertion of being an original inhabitant a native-literally a ' son of the soil'. In contemporary Africa, questions concerning origin are currently among the most crucial and contested issues in political life, as they directly relate to the politics of place, belonging, identity and contested citizenship. Thus land claims and autochthony disputes are the hallmark of political crises in many places on the African continent.