This study is an extension of an earlier interdisciplinary study on the impact of the adoption of high-yielding varieties of maize on poverty reduction in Mupfurudzi resettlement area in Shamva,... Show moreThis study is an extension of an earlier interdisciplinary study on the impact of the adoption of high-yielding varieties of maize on poverty reduction in Mupfurudzi resettlement area in Shamva, Zimbabwe, carried out in 2001. The present study focuses on how farmers in resettlement areas produce and internalize knowledge and technology, and how these processes transform their livelihoods. Although the fact that the resettlement scheme became a melting pot of different knowledge makes the term 'local' problematic, farmers in the area still use and produce knowledge that is considered 'local'. The study examines how gender dynamics, politics, power, conflicts, resistance, religious beliefs and government policies impact on farming knowledge and on farming in general. It also unravels how local knowledge makes use of scientifically based State organized interventions. It dispels the notion that the government is able to direct the production and dissemination of knowledge through its experts. Instead, farmers make strategic use of experts, employing linking and delinking strategies in an attempt to maximize their gains. A recurrent theme in the investigation is the central position of witchcraft and witchcraft accusations. [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
In October 2000, the remains of 'El Negro', a Tswana man who had died 170 years before and who, as a stuffed specimen, had been on display in Europe for over 160 years, were flown from Spain to... Show moreIn October 2000, the remains of 'El Negro', a Tswana man who had died 170 years before and who, as a stuffed specimen, had been on display in Europe for over 160 years, were flown from Spain to Botswana and given a State funeral in the capital Gaborone. In early 2001, as it became clear that the rains were failing in the country, rumours started circulating that linked the coming of El Negro to the absence of rain. This article charts the progress of the rumours relating to El Negro, relates them to the broader issues of Tswana ethnology and contemporary history, and situates them in the context of popular consciousness, previous work conducted on rumour, and 'radio trottoir'. It argues that apart from slips of the tongue and the unconscious linking of El Negro to El Ni¤o - a concept associated with rain and weather - the El Negro rumours came to be linked to all kinds of existing ideas relating to Bushmen, spirits and ancestors, witchcraft and sorcery, and politics. The El Negro rumours gave large sections of the population the opportunity to articulate deep-seated grievances vis-…-vis those in power at various levels. Notes, ref., sum 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
In the considerable number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa in which political institutions have largely broken down, religious discourse can be seen as an attempted remedy by means of a... Show moreIn the considerable number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa in which political institutions have largely broken down, religious discourse can be seen as an attempted remedy by means of a reordering of power. The numerous popular texts on witchcraft and other perceived forms of evil reflect the preoccupations of Africans with the way in which power is exercised in their societies. Since these texts are particularly concerned with the dangers that can arise when power is not properly organized and controlled, they can be considered a commentary on a world in which power is seen as being too often an instrument of evil people who use it to destroy peace and harmony. This article sketches a theory which clarifies the relationship between religion and politics in Africa. It first discusses what religion is, and how it may best be studied. Then it examines a couple of popular religious texts chosen by way of illustration, before passing on to some further observations on the way in which power is organized and perceived in various African societies. Finally, it draws some conclusions about religion as a political idiom. Show less
The author concentrates on virtuality, which he has come to regard as one of the key concepts for characterizing and understanding the forms of globalization in Africa. Chapters 1 and 2 define... Show moreThe author concentrates on virtuality, which he has come to regard as one of the key concepts for characterizing and understanding the forms of globalization in Africa. Chapters 1 and 2 define virtuality and globalization and provisionally indicate their theoretical relationship. The problematic heritage of an anthropological tradition obsessed with locality provides the analytical framework within which virtuality makes an inspiring topic, as argued in Ch. 3. Ch. 4 offers a transition from theory to empirical case studies by examining the problem of meaning in the African urban environment. Ch. 5 evokes an ethnographic situation (urban puberty rites in present-day Zambia) that illustrates particular forms of virtuality as part of the globalization process. Ch. 6 applies the emerging insights into virtuality and the virtual village to Ren‚ Devisch's notion of villagization as a major process of societal transformation in the Zairian capital, Kinshasa. Ch. 7 explores the applicability of the same concepts to recent patterns of witchcraft and healing as studied, at the national level in Cameroon and Malawi, by Peter Geschiere and Matthew Schoffeleers respectively. The author's own earlier work on the Kazanga festival as an instance of virtuality in the rural context of western central Zambia is summarized in Ch. 8, after which a conclusion rounds off the argument. Show less
Dit artikel onderzoekt de grenzen van de bruikbaarheid van het door Mary Douglas ontwikkelde 'grid-group' model aan de hand van het voorbeeld van de ontwikkeling van puriteinse (antihekserij)... Show moreDit artikel onderzoekt de grenzen van de bruikbaarheid van het door Mary Douglas ontwikkelde 'grid-group' model aan de hand van het voorbeeld van de ontwikkeling van puriteinse (antihekserij) bewegingen in Malawi. De auteur stelt, dat de rehabilitatie van het individu als actief, handelend en manipulatief subject, waarmee Douglas in de jaren tachtig haar model verfijnde, onvoldoende is om veranderingsprocessen te kunnen verklaren. Wat ontbreekt is een notie van macht zoals Michel Foucault die heeft ontwikkeld. De centrale vraag van het artikel is op welke wijze er, gegeven het bestaan van bepaalde sociale controle-mechanismen in de samenleving, veranderende percepties van bewegingsvrijheid c.q. disciplinering op gang kunnen komen, gericht op het individuele lid van de samenleving. De winst van de benaderingen van Douglas en Foucault wordt vergeleken voor een analyse van bewegingen zoals de Abadwa Mwatsopano (Wedergeborenen) in Malawi. Hoewel men vanwege de preoccupatie in dergelijke bewegingen met reiniging de bruikbaarheid van Douglas' theorie‰n zou verwachten, blijkt Foucault's concept van een 'technology of the self' meer verklaring te kunnen bieden. Bibliogr., noten Show less
Moral geographies of antiwitchcraft campaigns may be constructed from quite different vantage points and ideological programmes, as well as working upon quite diverse sets of relationships between... Show moreMoral geographies of antiwitchcraft campaigns may be constructed from quite different vantage points and ideological programmes, as well as working upon quite diverse sets of relationships between the traditional and the modern, the young and the old, the diasporic and the diabolical. One vantage point is the village, and the moral geography that is constructed can be interpreted as a way of coming to grips with a partially apprehended modern world. The present author takes the urban world as point of departure in his analysis of the Abadwa Mwatsopano (Born-Agains), a Christian fundamentalist movement whose preachers operate specifically from the three larger cities of Malawi. For the young urban Born-Again preachers, it is the village world which is largely strange and estranging, only partially comprehensible, and threatening. It is not the 'tarmac' leading to the urban world which is the symbol of hope and despair for this younger generation, but witchcraft-related esoteric objects such as the 'zitumwa', that lead back to the village world and that are seen to jeopardize their frail independence in town. The 'crusade' is a counterattack against the evil forces emanating from the 'village' and a way of contesting the gerontocratic authority of the elderly in religious terms Show less
