Violence and belonging : the quest for identity in post-colonial Africa / edited by Vigdis Broch-Due.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Broch-Due, Vigdis.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political violence--Africa--Case studies--Congresses.

Political violence.

Poverty--Africa--Congresses.

Poverty.

Politics and government.

Africa--Politics and government--1960---Congresses.

Africa.

Genre:

Case studies.

Conference papers and proceedings.

Physical Description:

x, 261 pages : 1 map ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 2005.

Summary:

"Violence and Belonging" explores the crucial formative role of violence in shaping people's ideas of who they are in uncertain postcolonial contexts where, as resources dwindle and wealth is contested, identities and ideas of belonging become a focal area of conflict and negotiation. Focusing on fieldwork from across the continent, its case studies consider how routine, everyday violence ties in with wider regional and political upheavals, and how individuals experience and legitimize violence in its different forms. The Zimbabwean and Sudanese civil wars, Kenyan Kikuyu domestic conflicts, Rwandan massacres, and South African Truth and Reconciliation processes are among the contexts explored.

Contents:

Violence and belonging, analytical reflections / Vigdis Broch-Due

"Nowadays they can even kill you for that which they feel is theirs": gender and production of ethnic identity in Kikuyu-speaking Central Kenya / Amrik Heyer

Conflicts in context, political violence and anthropological puzzles / Harri Englund

Hunger, violence and the moral economy of war in Zimbabwe / Jocelyn Alexander and Jo Ann McGregor

Violence and the boundaries of belonging, comparing two border disputes in the South African lowveld / Isak Niehaus

Fertile moral links, reconsidering Barabaig violence / Astrid Blystad

"Food itself is fighting with us," a comparative analysis of the impact of Sudan's civil war on south Sudanese civilian populations located in the north and the south / Sharon Elaine Hutchinson

The politics of identity and the remembrance of violence: ethnicity and gender at the installation of a female chief in Zimbabwe / Björn Lindgren

Double-voiced violence in Kenya / John G. Galaty

Escape from genocide, the politics of identity in Rwanda's massacres / Johan Pottier

Women and the politics of identity: voices in the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission / Fiona C Ross

Ambiguous identities: the notion of war and 'significant others' among the Tigreans of Ethiopia / Kjetil Tronvoll.

Notes:

"Most of the chapters of this volume come from a larger collection of papers produced for a conference held in 2000 under the auspices of the Research Programme 'Poverty and Prosperity in Africa: Local and Global Perspectives' at the Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, Sweden"--Pref.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0415290066

0415290074

0203499972

OCLC:

55018789