In this article, we offer a cross-case examination of the politics of dignity and citizenship in postcolonial Africa. Through a comparative analysis of two cases of youth living in mining communities possessing distinct characteristics, we detail how issues of dignity and citizenship constitute the basis of mobilization from the margins by mostly the poor. Despite the existence of progressive regimes of welfare and social assistance in both cases, we argue that dignity and citizenship concerns of the poor remain largely downplayed or negated by those in positions of authority, which creates a violent setting. As our analysis will show, this negation has often fostered new geographies of governmentality aimed largely at not addressing these citizenship (or dignity) concerns but to dramatize and perform such concerns. The public performance of such negated concerns is not in any way directed at eliciting public sympathy but merely an act of highlighting the limitations of modern forms of conventional politics especially in advanced economies of the South, such as Morocco and South Africa.