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The crisis in the Central African Republic is contributing to the reactivation of a longstanding mixture of memories, fears, and resentments among the population, which have been exacerbated by the more recent violence. Thus, the opposition between autochthonous Central Africans and foreign Muslims echoes the complex relations that have connected the Central African populations and the Muslim traders along the former slave-trading frontiers of Chad and Sudan since the nineteenth century. But the political exploitation of this historical and geographical border, and the exploitation of ethnic and religious identities, is reinforced by the widespread perception of an economic and cultural impoverishment. This impoverishment is seen as the effect of political forces and communities that have been exploiting the wealth of the country from the nineteenth century to the present day, leaving the population weaker and dispossessed of its past strength and wealth. In this piece, I examine the politics of a widely reported, infamous act of cannibalism in Bangui in January and show how it expresses the re-invigoration of a conception of power and strength that many Central Africans have felt their long history of exploitation has eviscerated. Continuer la lecture de « “Cannibalism” and Power: Violence, Mass Media, and the Conflict in the Central African Republic »

Après une nouvelle «affaire» de subtilisation du sexe au Cameroun, l’anthropologue Julien Bonhomme analyse l’ancrage de ces récits urbains dans la société africaine.
Dans plusieurs pays africains la croyance à la sorcellerie se traduit par des accusations, des stigmatisations, des violences, des procès judiciaires et parfois, par de lourdes condamnations. Des églises aux tribunaux, être désigné comme « sorcier » impute à la personne accusée une capacité de nuire et l’assigne à une déchéance d’humanité. De l’espace villageois à l’espace urbain, de l’espace privé à l’espace public, les flambées de violences accusatrices ont un caractère quasi épidémiologique allant jusqu’à mettre en cause le fonctionnement de l’État et de ses institutions.