Biometric identification and registration systems are being proposed by governments and businesses across the world. Surprisingly they are under most rapid, and systematic, development in countries in Africa and Asia. In this groundbreaking book, Keith Breckenridge traces how the origins of the systems being developed in places like India, Mexico, Nigeria and Ghana can be found in a century-long history of biometric government in South Africa, with the South African experience of centralized fingerprint identification unparalleled in its chronological depth and demographic scope. He shows how empire, and particularly the triangular relationship between India, the Witwatersrand and Britain, established the special South African obsession with biometric government, and shaped the international politics that developed around it for the length of the twentieth century. He also examines the political effects of biometric registration systems, revealing their consequences for the basic workings of the institutions of democracy and authoritarianism.

Winner, 2017 Humanities Book Award, Academy of Science of South Africa

‘This fascinating and deeply researched study of the transnational politics of biometric measurement and surveillance places South Africa in a global field force of scientific and technological experimentation. Beginning with Galton and Gandhi, it shows how the power of technology can be deployed for many different reasons, and often with surprising outcomes.’

Saul Dubow - Queen Mary, University of London

‘Keith Breckenridge, one of South Africa’s leading historians, has written a fascinating, highly original social archaeology of the ‘biometric state’ … A magisterial work whose scope covers two centuries and many parts of the planet, it explains, counter-intuitively, why South Africa is the most advanced of such states in the world today, why it is a laboratory, in this respect, for other nations. By dint of its thoughtful scholarship, the book compels us to rethink the future history of states everywhere.’

John Comaroff - Harvard University, Massachusetts

‘A perceptive and provocative study, full of ideas and punchy arguments, that casts new light on the global dimensions and political continuities of South Africa’s identification state before, during and after apartheid. Breckenridge not only disentangles this intricate history but embeds it in a fresh account of how colonial and post-colonial states have been seduced by the siren-song of technological solutions to political problems.’

Jane Caplan - University of Oxford

‘Brilliantly, Breckenridge sees South Africa as a ‘global laboratory for biometric government’. This highly engaging and consequential analysis traces the vital links between colonialism and contemporary surveillance, provocatively placing biometrics and the state in some unfamiliar but compelling relations with each other. The lights keep coming on, to the very end of the book.’

David Lyon - Queen’s University, Ontario