Diagnosing the Crisis in the Republic of Congo

Eaton, David W.

doi:10.1353/afr.2006.0003

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…He implies that ''within a world much larger and less knowable than ourselves we create a flawed and partial account.'' 38 But it is not just the Western public that ''needs'' simplified discourses; humanitarian workers on the ground in the DRC also point out the poor quality of available information on the conflict, the blurred lines between victims and perpetrators, the lack of preparation time, poor quality relationships between international and Congolese counterparts, inaccessibility of unstable areas, and an inability to understand the local languages. 39 While counternarratives are always present, they are rarely heard in ways or contexts that allow them to support contestation of the…”

Section: Celebrity Humanitarians and Narrative Repercussions In Drcmentioning

confidence: 99%

Celebritizing Conflict: How Ben Affleck Sells the Congo to Americans

Richey¹,

Budabin²

2016

hum

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From serving as UN ambassadors to appearing as spokespersons for major NGO campaigns, global celebrities have become increasingly important actors in promoting humanitarian causes in Africa. Yet the growing visibility and proliferation of celebrity humanitarianism has been critiqued for legitimating and promoting neoliberal capitalism and global inequality. This article, using emerging literature on celebrities in north-south relations, analyzes the celebrity discourses and practices of professional entertainer Ben Affleck and his engagement in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in order to understand how celebrities intersect with and popularize representations of poverty, conflict, and development in Africa. We conclude that the celebritization of African conflicts in the DRC—as understood from the interventions of Affleck—remain linked to the needs of marketing causes, celebrities, and products, and considerably removed from the voices of Congolese on whose stories these interventions rely. As a result, the constraints of celebrity humanitarianism in an age of media saturation limit the possibilities that individual celebrities might have in engaging in alternative, more complex, and less sound-bite friendly discourses.

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Section: Celebrity Humanitarians and Narrative Repercussions In Drcmentioning

confidence: 99%

Celebritizing Conflict: How Ben Affleck Sells the Congo to Americans

Richey¹,

Budabin²

2016

hum

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“…As Nze put it: Nze here evokes occult agency, that is, 'representations that heavily emphasize human actions but that, at the same time, hide the actors and their acts from view' (Geschiere 1997: 22). In the realm of politics, secrecy and power, the apparent and the concealed are always related (Eaton 2006). Moreover, human intentions always lurk behind cases of political misfortune.…”

Section: 'He Broke the Stone Wall With His Force' 17mentioning

confidence: 99%

Spirits, Power and the Political Imagination in Late-Colonial Gabon

Cinnamon¹

2012

Africa

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ABSTRACTThrough narratives of an anti-‘fetish’ movement that swept through north-eastern Gabon in the mid-1950s, the present article traces the contours of converging political and religious imaginations in that country in the years preceding independence. Fang speakers in the region make explicit connections between the arrival of post-Second World War electoral politics, the anti-fetish movements, and perceptions of political weakening and marginalization of their region on the eve of independence. Rival politicians and the colonial administration played key roles in the movement, which brought in a Congolese ritual expert, Emane Boncoeur, and his two powerful spirits, Mademoiselle and Mimbare. These spirits, later recuperated in a wide range of healing practices, continue to operate today throughout northern Gabon and Rio Muni. In local imaginaries, these spirits played central roles in the birth of both regional and national politics, paradoxically strengthening the colonial administration and Gabonese auxiliaries in an era of pre-independence liberalization. Thus, regional political events in the 1950s rehearsed later configurations of power, including presidential politics, on the national stage.

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“…Excellent dancers even become angry and refuse to participate any longer. This migratory phenomenon is part of the rural exodus that has been observed in Congo-Brazzaville since 1945 (Bernault 1996: 55) and was swollen by the civil war that broke out in 1997 and devastated the country (Eaton 2006). As the Punu of the district of Nyanga live near the border of Gabon, the war caused a massive flight to this neighbouring country, especially of men, as is often the case in intra-African, conflict-induced migration (Lumembu 2004: 92).…”

Section: Actual Changes In Ikoku Dancingmentioning

confidence: 99%

On Dancing and Fishing: Joy and the Celebration of Fertility Among the Punu of Congo-Brazzaville

Plancke¹

2010

Africa

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Among the Punu of Congo-Brazzaville ikoku dancing is perceived through the concept of joy. In line with the privileging of the emotional experience, this article intends to consider the dance as an emotive institution – that is, a socially organized activity that creates culturally meaningful forms of emotion within which an understanding of self, as well as social identities and relations, are shaped. In ikoku, a succession of dance sessions, embarked on with shame-banishing pride and performed individually or as a couple, awakens a shared joy. Through the dance patterns and idiom, this joyful dancing is connected to the fecundating sexual encounter and to the activity of fishing, linking the dance world to the life-bearing water spirit world. The joining of sexual differentiation and maternal containment that in this way is enacted and deeply experienced by the participants – if the event succeeds in awakening joy – supports basic structures of Punu rural society characterized by the tension between conjugal relations based on a patri-virilocal principle and matriclanic belonging. The emphasis that our analysis places on the dance form itself, and on the shared joy in dawning fertility it evokes, also proves to be fruitful in understanding how ikoku dancing persists in changing contexts – and even in urban ones.

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Diagnosing the Crisis in the Republic of Congo

Cited by 7 publications

References 7 publications

Celebritizing Conflict: How Ben Affleck Sells the Congo to Americans

Celebritizing Conflict: How Ben Affleck Sells the Congo to Americans

Spirits, Power and the Political Imagination in Late-Colonial Gabon

On Dancing and Fishing: Joy and the Celebration of Fertility Among the Punu of Congo-Brazzaville

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