The Problem of Violence

Local Conflict Settlement in Contemporary Africa

Edited by: Georg Klute, Birgit Embaló. With an introduction by: Georg Klute, Birgit Embaló. With contributions by: Alice Bellagamba, Bakary Camara, Isaïe Dougnon, Birgit Embaló, Idrissa Embaló, Joshua B. Forrest, Cecil Magbaily Fyle, Caterina Gomes Viegas, Mamadú Jao, Christiane Kayser, Reinhart Kößler, Fodé Abulai Mané, Paulina Mendes, Raul Mendes Fernandes, Maria Paula Meneses, Dieter Neubert, Abderrahmane Ngaïde, Stephen Okhonmina, Petr Skalník, Abdoul Aziz Sow, Jordi Tomás, Trutz von Trotha †.

Series: TIAS Topics in Interdisciplinary African Studies Volume 21

2011
8 pp. Roman, 480 pp.
2 colour maps
Text language(s): English, French
Format: 170 x 240 mm
1290 g
Hardcover
€ 69.80

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Violence and weakness seem to be dominant features of state rule in Guinea-Bissau. This holds true for the whole period of state presence, since the beginning of colonial rule at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century up to the present day. The political history of independent Guinea-Bissau is like­wise marked by violence and state weakness. Periods of latent crisis within the country’s political and military elites tend to lead to violent conflict, ending in change of government, mostly through military coups. Although Guinea-Bissau’s political struggle appears to be largely limited to the country’s elite, it affects the population, too, causing at times the loss of numerous civilian lives. The violent character of the state is hardly softened by state services and economic support for the population. On the contrary, seen from the people’s perspective, the state is mostly “absent”.

It is in this context of an “authoritarian and absent state” that a conference on Violence and Non-State Local Conflict Management in West Africa and Beyond took place in Bissau in early De­cember 2008. Forty scholars from more than a dozen African and European countries responded to the conference call and presented their findings. The first challenge the participants were confronted with was to associate theoretical oriented papers and case studies reflecting practical ex­periences. Paraphrasing Kant’s famous saying, Trutz von Trotha asked for the orientation of empirical experiences at theory and for the grounding of theory in empirical evidence. This the editors hope to fulfil with the present volume.

It goes without saying that the contributions differ in priorities and perspectives: from empirical case studies analysing specific conflicts to the study of figurations and dynamics of violence, from modes and institutions of conflict resolution, mostly on the non-state level, theoretical reasoning on the state and alternative non-state sovereignties in contemporary Africa, reflections on ongoing democratisation processes, including their political and cultural contexts, to heterogeneous power claims in African societies in the light of democratic pluralism.

CONTENTS

Georg Klute / Birgit Embaló: Introduction – Violence and Local Modes of Conflict Resolution in Heterarchical Figurations

I. Theoretical Insights – Violence, Degrees of Heterarchy and Dimensions of Local Non-State Order

Trutz von Trotha: The Problem of Violence – Some Theoretical Remarks about ‘Regulative Orders of Violence’, Political Heterarchy, and Dispute Regulation beyond the State

Dieter Neubert: Competing Orders and the Limits of Local Forms of Socio-Political Organisation

II. Political Violence and the Process of Democratisation in Sub-Saharan Africa

Isaïe Dougnon: Les élites, les masses populaires et les forces armées – Les changements politiques et les conflits en Afrique au Sud du Sahara

Cecil Magbaily Fyle: Culture and Nationalism – Ingredients of Statehood and Conflict Resolution in Africa

Abderrahmane Ngaïde: Violences politiques et dérives autoritaires en Mauritanie (1984–2005)

III. Emergence of Heterarchical Political Figurations

Christiane Kayser: Conflict, Ethnicity and Resources – The Governance Challenge of Eastern D.R. Congo

Mamadú Jao: Étude de cas – Résolution du conflit opposant Mandingue de Djabicunda et Peulh de Timbinto en 2005, dans la région de Bafata

IV. Legal Reality in Heterarchical Figurations – Modes of Conflict Resolution and Dimensions of Legal Pluralism

Maria Paula Meneses: Cultural Diversity and the Law – Legal Pluralism in Mozambique

Fodé Abulai Mané: Une nouvelle approche du pluralisme juridique – « la conception juridique individuelle »

Birgit Embaló: Bairro Militar (Bissau) – A Hot Spot of Urban Violence? Challenges of Local Conflict Resolution in Guinea-Bissau

Caterina Gomes Viegas: L’ambiguïté du pouvoir des femmes et les conflits de succession chez les Pepel de Guinée-Bissau

Paulina Mendes: La dimension des praxis mandji dans la dynamique socioculturelle du groupe ethnique Manjak

Jordi Tomàs: Dealing with Conflicts during Religious Ceremonies – Notes on the Joola-huluf Case (Casamance, Senegal)

V. Neo-Traditional Non-State Order or Chieftaincies

Reinhart Kössler: Traditional Leadership, Local Control and the Rule of Law in Southern Africa

Petr Skalník: Inter-ethnic Conflicts in Northern Ghana – Causes, Solutions, Theory

VI. Violent Conflicts – Fields and Local Modes of Resolution

Bakary Camara: L’équation de la gestion de l’eau dans la région du Bafing au Mali – Cas du cercle de Bafoulabé

Abdoul Aziz Sow: Décentralisation, domanialité nationale et gestion des conflits fonciers à l’aune du pluralisme juridique au Sénégal

Idrissa Embaló: Borderland and Violent Political Conflict – The Case of the Casamance/Guinea-Bissau Border

Raul Mendes Fernandes: Dilemmes et conflits aux îles Bijagós

Stephen Okhonmina: The Dynamics of Local Conflicts in its Regional and National Scale – Cases from Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Mali

Joshua B. Forrest: Development Theory, Social Violence, and Conflict Resolution – Guinea-Bissau in Global Context

Alice Bellagamba: “Silence is Medicine!” – The End of Slavery and the Promotion of Social Coexistence in Post-Abolition Gambia

Biographical Notes on the Authors

 

Review in “Portal für Politikwissenschaft”

Under these links you will find further publications authored and (co)edited by Georg Klute, as well as a festschrift to his honour on the occasion of his retirement from the University of Bayreuth in 2018:

Accompanying material:

• Beside the State (ISBN 978-3-89645-254-2)
• The Multiplicity of Orders and Practices (ISBN 978-3-89645-850-6)
• Tuareg-Aufstand in der Wüste (ISBN 978-3-89645-732-5)

Cross-reference:

• Begegnungen und Auseinandersetzungen (ISBN 978-3-89645-190-3)
• Legitimation von Herrschaft und Recht / La légitimation du pouvoir et du droit (ISBN 978-3-927620-83-4)
• On Cruelty · Sur la cruauté · Über Grausamkeit (ISBN 978-3-89645-731-8)
• Violence as Routine (ISBN 978-3-89645-728-8)

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