INTRODUCTION CONTROL AND EXCESS: HISTORIES OF VIOLENCE IN AFRICA

Violence is a murky issue to research and to theorize: this introduction suggests that it has also often been approached differently by anthropologists and historians. In the pages that follow, we reflect on the ways in which both disciplines have worked to interpret violent events in Africa, whethe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Africa (London. 1928) 2015-08, Vol.85 (3), p.385-394
Main Authors: Bernault, Florence, Deutsch, Jan-Georg
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
African history
Histories of violence
History
Social aspects
Violence
War
Wars
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Summary:Violence is a murky issue to research and to theorize: this introduction suggests that it has also often been approached differently by anthropologists and historians. In the pages that follow, we reflect on the ways in which both disciplines have worked to interpret violent events in Africa, whether in the deep past, during the colonial era or in more recent periods. To better contextualize these disciplinary advances, we intersperse them with brief reviews of general theories on violence. The three articles featured in this special section, while dealing with very dissimilar case studies, provide common insights on three main themes. The first engages with the paradox of the contingency and continuity of violence, and with the unevenness of perpetrators, victims and targets. The second deals with the refractive meanings attached to violent events. The third probes, underneath the apparent turmoil of violent acts, the deep moral and cultural frameworks of action that underwrite them. We have composed this introduction around these main questions.
ISSN:0001-9720
1750-0184
DOI:10.1017/S0001972015000248