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Contribution short abstract:

Based on ongoing ethnographic research, the paper examines some of the undercommons of biometric citizenship in Sierra Leone that entail prolific practices of critique addressing global exclusions and mobility control as well as potentials of living and feeling otherwise.

Contribution long abstract:

In Sierra Leone, citizenship has historically been at the forefront of controversies around rights, resources and belonging. At the same time, holding the Sierra Leonean passport as one of the least powerful ones worldwide can in some instances be considered more of a burden than a property. As a postcolonial and imperial tool, it delegates its owners to one of the last ranks in livelihood and freedom of movement globally. These tensions have become more apparent with the formalization of non-/citizen status in the wake of the global push for “legal identity for all” (Sustainable Development Goal 16.9). Sierra Leone introduced a biometric civil register in 2017, followed by a digital ID card in 2023. This project has received major funding from the European Union which thereby seeks to control irregular migration from West Africa to Europe.

Based on ongoing ethnographic research, the paper examines some of the undercommons of biometric citizenship in Sierra Leone. People subvert such nation-state identification linked to digital identifies for example by doing without it, mobilizing intermediaries or playing with identities. The paper then examines the prolific practices of critique and potentials of living and feeling otherwise associated with these undercommons. They may temporarily achieve to dissolve these dichotomies between local belonging and global exclusion.