Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: Turning the table on Gellner : alternative discourses of civil society in Africa / Ebenezer Obadare -- Escape from tyranny : civil society and democratic struggles in Africa / Darren Kew and Modupe Oshikoya -- Civil society and religion / Shobana Shankar -- Theorizing media as/and civil society in Africa / Wendy Willems -- "Good" state, "bad" state : loss and longing in postcolonial Zimbabwe / Julia Gallagher -- NGO accountability in Africa / Ronelle Burger and Dineo Seabe -- Civil society in the Maghreb : lessons from the Arab Spring / James Sater -- Civil society organizations and the state in East Africa : from the colonial to the modern era / Priscilla Wamucii -- Civil society and the politics of belonging in South Africa / Daniel Hammett -- Building civil society in West Africa : notes from the field / Titilope Mamattah -- Imagining civil society in Zimbabwe and "most of the world" / Kirk Helliker -- Viral messaging, satire, and spaces of resistance in Nigeria / Carole Enahoro -- Civil society and conflict in West Africa / Niklas Hultin -- Neoliberalism and the forms of civil society in Kenya and South Africa / Jacob Mwathi Mati -- Africa rising? : Afro-optimism and uncivil society in an era of academic volatility / Patrick Bond -- Civil society and neoliberalism / Usman A. Tar -- Popular organizations in South Africa : from civics to service delivery protests / Elke Zuern -- "If good food is cooked in one country, we will all eat from it" : women and civil society in Africa / Hannah Britton and Taylor Price -- NGOs, civil society, and development / Badru Bukenya and Sam Hickey -- Civil society and sexual struggles in Africa / Ashley Currier and Joëlle M. Cruz -- Civil society's response to the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa / Richard G. Wamui -- Orature as a site for civil contestation : film and the decolonization of space and place in Tsisti Dangarembga's Kare Kare Zvako (Mother's Day) 2005 / Bunmi Oyinsan -- Civil society and aid in Africa : a case of mistaken identity? / Alan Fowler -- Volunteering, civil service and civil society in Africa / Helen Perold and Lauren Graham -- Philanthropic foundations and civil society in Sub-Saharan Africa / Christiana Lariba Atibil -- Volunteering, civic agency, and citizenship in Africa / Ebenezer Obadare.