| Summary: | Since the 1920s, associations formed by rural migrants in Africa's towns and cities have sought to advance the position of their communities through political representation and socioeconomic development. From the late 1950s onward, however, the role of these groups in processes of migration and urbanization has continued to puzzle observers of social change. This paper assesses two central axes of migrant association representation in their role as mediators between the State and the household: internal, to their members and to the community for whom they claim to speak, and external, to the wider sphere of governmental and nongovernmental agencies. The material presented is based on fieldwork conducted in Mali, Sudan and Ethiopia between 1993 and 1995. The examples are taken from a range of minority and majority ethnic and religious groups, with contrasting historical patterns of rural-urban migration. Each case study is set in the context of State compression and retrenchment with significant implications for State-society relations and local initiative. Together, these cases illustrate the important role of State discourse in shaping the responses of associations to rural development issues.
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