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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | From autochthony to violence? Discursive and coercive social practices of the Mai-Mai in Fizi, eastern DR Congo |
Author: | Verweijen, Judith |
Year: | 2015 |
Periodical: | African Studies Review (ISSN 1555-2462) |
Volume: | 58 |
Issue: | 2 |
Pages: | 157-180 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Congo (Democratic Republic of) |
Subjects: | militias political violence self-determination |
External link: | https://doi.org/10.1017/asr.2015.42 |
Abstract: | This article explores the links between autochthony discourses and physical violence through a case study of a Mai-Mai group in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. While this group garners support by employing such discourses and related tropes of autodéfense (self-defense), there are clear limits to the capacity of these narratives to mobilize for and legitimize violent action. Furthermore, much of the violence committed by the Mai-Mai is not informed directly by notions of autochthony, but is rather geared toward the consolidation of power. This observation should act as a caution against the a priori coding of violence according to the ways it is discursively framed by its protagonists. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract] |