A Joking Nation: Conflict Resolution in Senegal

Abstract

Le conflit qui oppose le Mouvement des forces démocratiques de Casamance et l'État sénégalais a fait l'objet de médiation par diverses institutions, chacune ayant pour but de mettre fin au conflit. Cet article porte sur l'une de ces interventions qui se prétend issue de la tradition de la parenté à plaisanterie entre les Diolas et les Sérères. Il examine comment la parenté à plaisanterie entre les Jolas et les Sérères devient "instrumentalisée" en tant que méthode de gestion du conflit armé. L'article montre comment une pratique culturelle est transformée pour devenir un instrument de politique et donc, comment la tradition devient politisée. En passant, l'auteur montre qui la logique de l'instrumentalisation s'inscrit dans un imaginaire sénégalais portant sûr l'état-nation. L'action inscrit le conflit dans un discours nationaliste et fait l'impasse sur l'économie politique qui est au fond du conflit. Il s'agit donc d'une contribution au débat actuel sur la résolution autochtone des conflits. Les méthodes traditionnelles de résolution des conflits ne devraient pas être comprises en tant que tradition a-historique mais plutôt en tant que geste de ré-interpréta-tion du conflit par les organisations non-gouvernementales et l'État. 391This article is based on fifteen months fieldwork that took place in 1994 and 1995 and on subsequent visits

Scale: Discourse and Dimensions of Social Life

“…Recent literature on Serer indicates that in relation to Tukulor or Joola-other Senegalese ethnic groups-an interethnic pair can be assimilated to the joking relationship, so that two people of different ethnicity, say one Serer and one Tukulor, can draw on the same kinds of conventional joking, accusing one another of being the dependent "slave, " as occurs with paired clans. Along with Smith (2006) and De Jong (2005), I take this pattern-or at least the conspicuousness of it-to be fairly recent, an extension of the joking relationship "up" in scale from patriclan to ethnic category. The pragmatics seem to be largely political, activated when, for example, a Tukulor official is posted to a Serer region, or, in the 1990s, when Joola communities in the far south of Senegal were showing sympathy for a separatist movement.…”

Planned development interventions and contested development in the Casamance Region, Senegal: an enquiry into the ongoing struggles for autonomy and progres by the Casamance peasantry

“…The next sections of this chapter will pay attention to interpretations of the conflict based on actor-oriented and post-modernist perspectives of the Casamance conflict which situate the conflicting dynamics in the Casamance region, within the complex and contradictory relationships between the State and the Casamance society (De Jong, 2005). The analysis focuses therefore on the profile of the actors involved, the nature of their engagements, the power dynamics that they entail; and the extent to which the protagonists deploy different types of resources at their disposal in order to pursue their own objectives.…”

“…• The state, which has the greatest capacity to generate symbolic violence, represents the ultimate generator of 'imagined communities'. According to De Jong (2005), the founding father of modern Senegal imagined a precolonial Senegalese nation which resulted from historical and cultural exchanges, and materialised in the cultural unity of the country, anchored in the virtues of 'enracinement and ouverture '. 21 This common historic heritage is therefore seen as the foundation of modern Senegalese society.…”

“…The Casamance conflict has received a lot attention in the academic literature since it started in the Southern region of Senegal more than 30 years ago. Many scholars who examined the issue, focused on the history, geography, political, economic, social and cultural different dimensions of the Casamance crisis (Lambert, 1998;Foucher, 2002); Evans (2005); Marut (2005Marut ( , 2010; De Jong (2003); De Jong et al (2005). These studies identified the deep causes of the situation and explored them in the context of the type of agricultural and economic system which developed in the region and which would explain the current situation of poverty, underdevelopment and conflict in the Casamance.…”

“…The Casamance conflict has received a lot attention in the academic literature since its emergence in the Southern region of Senegal more than 30 years ago. The different publications consulted focussed on the historical geographical, political, economic, social and cultural dimensions of the Casamance crisis (Lambert, 1998;Foucher, 2002); Evans (2005) Marut, (2005Marut, ( , 2010; De Jong, (2003); De Jong et al, (2005). The various authors acknowledge the complex ways in which these different historical, political and economic factors interacted and contributed to the making of one of the longest and protracted conflict in Africa in a country well known for its political stability and democratic regime (Fall, 2010;Gehrold and Neu (2010).…”