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War and Violence in Africa

War and Violence in Africa . The Myth and the Reality. History of Wars in Africa. Independence movements: mainly peaceful (protests, riots); armed conflict in some countries, mainly those with white settlers

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War and Violence in Africa

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  1. War and Violence in Africa The Myth and the Reality

  2. History of Wars in Africa • Independence movements: mainly peaceful (protests, riots); armed conflict in some countries, mainly those with white settlers • The “Cold” War (1945-1990): proxy wars in Angola, Mozambique, Somalia, Ethiopia; not nuclear weapons, but the AK-47

  3. Rise of “Small Wars” Koidu Diamond Holdings, Kono, Sierra Leone • The use of the AK-47 or other low-tech weapons (machetes) • Confusion who is fighting: the rise of the “sobel” (both intent on living off civilians and capturing economic resources: e.g., diamond mines in Sierra Leone, elephant tusks in eastern Congo) • High civilian casualties: sometimes the direct victim of an attack; more usually, death from displacement, difficulty getting resources: e.g., in Sierra Leone, 15,000 civilians killed and 40% displaced internally or outside the country (out of population of 4m).

  4. Thinking about violence and war anthropologically Key insight #1: Kigali, Rwanda • War and violence express social conflict; if we understand the local social order, we can understand violence as political actions • What was Peter Uvin’s argument about why the genocide happened in Rwanda in 1994?

  5. Thinking about violence anthropologically Child soldiers of RUF • Why did the RUF go to war against the state? Richards argues: “The crisis of patrimonialism” • What does this mean? • How does this relate to big men/big women • Why the focus on youth? • Why take over the diamond mines? • “The movement is a creature of the unresolved contradictions of the post-colonial state” (p. 553)

  6. Thinking about violence anthropologically Key insight #2: Father and child, displaced in Freetown • Brutality and dehumanization occur through culturally symbolic actions • Violence is performative, symbolically communicative • “Civilized”/”barbaric” (or the current terms: “modern” or “developed”) • Why cut off the arms of civilians in Sierra Leone? • Brutal acts then become comprehensible

  7. Thinking about violence anthropologically • Rambo’s “First Blood” (1982) as a key myth for the RUF • POA, p. 552 • Note how global media become re-signified and made meaningful locally

  8. Thinking about violence anthropologically Social harmony = personal health Curing of personal illness = curing of social disorder In the Rwandan genocide of 1994, • Why so many checkpoints? • Why rape? • Why impaling?

  9. Thinking about violence anthropologically Key insight #3 Nomkubulwana, the goddess of rain, harvest, and fertility • Violence and war may not create a new and different social order • Rebellion may express and contain social change • What is a ritual of rebellion, according to Max Gluckman?

  10. Incwala ceremony, Swaziland

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