Ordinary social violence, - i.e. recurrent mental or physical aggression occurring between closely related people - structures social relationships in Africa, and in the world. Studies of violence... Show moreOrdinary social violence, - i.e. recurrent mental or physical aggression occurring between closely related people - structures social relationships in Africa, and in the world. Studies of violence in Africa often refer to ethnic wars and explicit conflicts and do not enter the hidden domain of violence that this book reveals through in-depth anthropological studies from different parts and contexts in Africa. Ordinary violence has its distinctive forms embedded in specific histories and cultures. It is gendered, implicates witchcraft accusations, varies in rural and urban contexts, relates to demographic and socio-economic changes of the past decades and is embedded in the everyday life of many African citizens. The experience of ordinary violence goes beyond the simple notion of victimhood; instead it structures social life and should therefore be a compelling part of the study of social change. Show less
This article is a repsonse to Thandika Mkandawire's article on violence against the African peasantry in Journal of Modern African Studies, vol. 40, no. 2 (2002). In this article, Mkandawire takes... Show moreThis article is a repsonse to Thandika Mkandawire's article on violence against the African peasantry in Journal of Modern African Studies, vol. 40, no. 2 (2002). In this article, Mkandawire takes exception to suggestions by the author concerning the antecedents of the 1990s civil war in Liberia, describing his views as 'essentialist' and 'poorly veiled racist'. The author argues that these tags are inaccurate. He suggests that the method he has used to analyse the violence of the Liberian civil war could be usefully applied to any violent situation in any part of the world. Accordingly, he first considers Mkandawire's suggestion as to why particular forms of violence occur in African wars, explaining why it is generally unsatisfactory, after which he considers an alternative method for examining the question of large-scale violence in Africa. Bibliogr., notes. (Rejoinder by Mkandawire, p. 477-483.) [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
La violence a été omniprésente dans l'Afrique du XXe siècle, et si son impact politique a été vu sous l'angle de l'État, la portée sociale et culturelle de la violence, elle, a été minimisée.... Show moreLa violence a été omniprésente dans l'Afrique du XXe siècle, et si son impact politique a été vu sous l'angle de l'État, la portée sociale et culturelle de la violence, elle, a été minimisée. Or la violence telle qu'elle se manifeste actuellement en Afrique australe (Zimbabwe), occidentale (Liberia, Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire), centrale (Congo(s), Centrafrique), orientale (Éthiopie/Érythrée, Somalie, Soudan) et septentrionale (Algérie) doit uniquement être considérée par rapport à l'Histoire. Il s'agit d'un processus de destruction de la cohésion sociale, de déshumanisation, qui est transmissible. L'impact du colonialisme sur la violence africaine ne doit pas être oublié, comme le montre l'exemple de l'absurdité de la répartition des terres en Namibie, au Zimbabwe et en Afrique du Sud. Le génocide rwandais est un concentré des nombreux facteurs de violence qui, en Afrique, peuvent se rejoindre pour exploser. L'élément de l'impunité, comme dans les cas de viol, pratique qui se répand dans les cas de conflits en Afrique, joue un rôle. Un facteur nouveau, comme lors de l'opération "Restore Hope" en Somalie en 1992, est l'apprentissage de la médiatisation comme arme de guerre. [Résumé ASC Leiden] Show less
The political liberalization process in Cameroon was marked by protracted strike actions on the campus of the University of Yaounde during the period 1990-1996. Political liberalization provided... Show moreThe political liberalization process in Cameroon was marked by protracted strike actions on the campus of the University of Yaounde during the period 1990-1996. Political liberalization provided space for students to organize and voice their multiple grievances about the poor living and study conditions on campus as well as the process of "institutional liberalization", which blocked their pursuit of upward mobility. The unprecedented degree of violence that accompanied the protracted strikes may be attributed not only to the persistent refusal of the university authorities and the regime to enter into any meaningful form of dialogue with the students, but also to the internal divisions among the students along party and ethnoregional lines. The major lines of division were between two groups: the "stranger" students organized in the Students' Parliament and closely allied to the radical opposition; and the "autochthonous" Beti students organized in the Committee for Self-Defense and the Beti militia and closely allied to the regime in power. In their fight with Parliament, the latter groups resorted to violent forms of ethnic exclusion to reestablish control over what they considered to be their university and to maintain their regime in power. (Journal abstract) Show less
La guerre de 1989 … 1997 au Liberia a constitu‚ un observatoire des pratiques de violence, y compris dans le domaine de l'invisible. Certaines techniques utilis‚es par les guerriers, telles l... Show moreLa guerre de 1989 … 1997 au Liberia a constitu‚ un observatoire des pratiques de violence, y compris dans le domaine de l'invisible. Certaines techniques utilis‚es par les guerriers, telles l'utilisation d'amulettes ou les pratiques d'anthropophagie, ont ‚t‚ qualifi‚es par les Lib‚riens de "sorcellerie" (en anglais … la fois 'sorcery' et 'witchcraft'). Ce terme semble avoir chang‚ de sens au fil du XXŠme siŠcle. Cet article ‚tudie ces changements et montre comment la constitution d'un pouvoir oligarchique est all‚e de pair avec la red‚finition de certaines repr‚sentations religieuses. Notes, r‚f., r‚s. en fran‡ais et en anglais (p. 205) Show less
Accounts of South Africa's transition from apartheid differ markedly in the role they attribute to violence. The most influential narratives of negotiations tend to portray the violence of the... Show moreAccounts of South Africa's transition from apartheid differ markedly in the role they attribute to violence. The most influential narratives of negotiations tend to portray the violence of the transition period, including that perpetrated by those networks within and without the security forces which have become known collectively as the Third Force, as a reaction to events, doomed to failure and rather disconnected from the main narrative of history. Newly available evidence shows the degree to which the Third Force was integrated into the policy of the National Party (NP) over a long period (from the 1960s onwards), and played a crucial role in determining the nature and outcome of constitutional negotiations in the period 1990-1994. Concentration on the narrative of negotiations, or any account which fails to give due weight to the perpetrators of organized violence including those who constituted the Third Force, implicitly assigns the violence of 1990-1994 to a position somewhat divorced from, or even antithetical to, the pursuit of negotiations. This has deflected attention from the important question of ascertaining the extent to which the agenda and pace of negotiations, and thus the shape of the eventual political and constitutional outcome, were actually driven by proponents of violence who were able to make their influence felt from outside the conference chamber. Ref., sum Show less
