I am a Senior Lecturer in African & Development Studies at the Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh. I am a scholar of East Africa, working between anthropology and history, political economy and science & technology studies. My prior publications — on topics such as infrastructure & humanitarianism, biometrics & bureaucracy, mobile money & statecraft — are available here.
I wrote a book entitled Money, Value, and the State: Sovereignty and Citizenship in East Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2024). It examines decolonisation in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda as a problem of economic self-determination and valuation, covering topics like central banking and smuggling. You can learn more about the book here. A paperback can be purchased from Cambridge, Amazon, or Bookshop.org.
I am also writing a book with Emma Park that will perhaps be called Parastatal: Intimacy and Rent in Digital Kenya. It examines the cultural and political economy of Kenya’s largest corporation, Safaricom. It foregrounds the ‘zones of indistinction’ between corporate and state, the formation of markets for debt and data, and the mass-mediation of intimacy. In an era of ‘caring capitalism’ and ‘private sector development,’ we think the Kenyan case has much to reveal about other regions, too.
With Chris Mizes, I edited a collection of ethnographic studies of finance in Ghana, Togo, Ethiopia, Cote d’Ivoire, and Cameroon. “Capitalizing Africa: High Finance from Below” explores the social worlds of finance, foregrounding moral disagreements and technical instruments. Through the notion of ‘capitalization’, we explore how value in motion is inaugurated, propelled and sustained.
My earlier work focused on humanitarianism and development, tracing the intersection of ethical ideas and material infrastructures in South Africa and Kenya, as well as the transformations of ‘expertise’ within the development industry.
In mid-2020, I co-convened a series of conversations on data politics and data economies in eastern Africa. I have also written about the expansion of surveillance on the continent, and I occasionally advise international organisations on the topics of digital data, AI, and surveillance.
More information about these and other research is available here.
Kevin P. Donovan 