Introduction control and excess: histories of violence in Africa

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Periodical article

Title:	Introduction control and excess: histories of violence in Africa
Authors:	Bernault, Florence Deutsch, Jan Georg
Year:	2015
Periodical:	Africa: Journal of the International African Institute (ISSN 0001-9720)
Volume:	85
Issue:	3
Pages:	385-394
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Africa
Subjects:	violence political violence
External link:	https://doi.org/10.1017/S0001972015000248
Abstract:	This introduction to three articles on history and violence in this issue of 'Africa' suggests that violence has often been approached differently by anthropologists and historians. The authors 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, they intersperse them with brief reviews of general theories on violence. The three articles featured in the special section 'History and violence', 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. This introduction is composed around these main questions. Bibliogr. [ASC Leiden abstract]