The Risks of Knowledge

by Cohen, David William; Odhiambo, E. S. Atieno

• ISBN13: 9780821415986
• ISBN10: 0821415980
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-11-01
• Publisher: Ohio Univ Pr

Summary

In February 1990 assailants murdered Kenya's distinguished Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Robert Ouko. The Risks of Knowledge minutely examines the multiple and unfinished investigations into the crime.

Author Biography

David William Cohen is professor of anthropology and history at the University of Michigan.

Table of Contents

Prolegomenon: Robert Ouko, a Life and a Death	ix
Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction	1	(1)
A Death Reported	1	(2)
Dead Bodies in Kenya	3	(4)
A New Habitus	7	(1)
The State	8	(4)
The Ouko Dossier	12	(4)
Indeterminacies	16	(4)
Economies of Knowledge	20	(4)
Social Histories	24	(8)
States of Loss	32	(1)
Investigating a Death in Kenya	33	(13)
Locks and Keys	39	(4)
Commissions	43	(3)
In a Nation of White Cars	46	(24)
Kenyans and Their Women	47	(1)
Kenyans and Their Man	48	(2)
White Cars, Gum Boots, and Multiparty Democracy	50	(3)
Hearing Selina Speak	53	(14)
The Headlining of Selina	67	(3)
Robert Ouko's Pain	70	(20)
A State of Mind in Kenya	72	(1)
``These are the things that are killing me''	73	(5)
Last Days	78	(4)
Prayers for the Oukos	82	(6)
Mandela's Release	88	(2)
The Note	90	(27)
An Inventory of Mbajah's Statements	92	(2)
Troon and Mbajah	94	(1)
A Marriage Game	95	(4)
Mbajah: Reader and Author	99	(8)
Papers Seen and Unseen	107	(8)
The Dramaturgy of Incarceration	115	(2)
Readers of the Found Remains	117	(17)
Remains of the Dead	118	(5)
The Force of Difference	123	(2)
The Temporal Work of a First Observation	125	(5)
The Shifting Stage	130	(4)
``Why, Mr. President?''	134	(24)
``J'accuse!''	136	(1)
Husband and Wife	137	(2)
The Author Anguka	139	(1)
Two Governmental Systems	140	(3)
Indispensability and Dispensability	143	(3)
A Terrifying Triangle	146	(3)
The Presence of Anguka	149	(9)
No Stone Unturned	158	(14)
Ouko: A Biography of African Nationalism	172	(21)
Triumphal Beginnings and False Starts	173	(4)
Lions in Winter	177	(4)
The Sticky Thing Called Development	181	(2)
Molasses	183	(5)
The Second International Sphere	188	(5)
Contradictions of Development	193	(27)
Revival	195	(4)
Roman Holidays	199	(5)
Molasses Narratives	204	(7)
Death by Molasses	211	(7)
``Cleaned his slate''	218	(2)
The Negotiation of a State of Mind	220	(26)
Dramaturgical Moments	222	(3)
A Sister's Brief	225	(6)
Last Conversations	231	(3)
A Church in Kenya	234	(8)
The Possibility of Ouko	242	(4)
``A White Car'' Becomes a Truth	246	(12)
Authentic Voices	250	(4)
Work of Truth, Truth of Work	254	(4)
Conclusion The Risks of Knowledge	258	(15)
Epistemologies	259	(2)
Producing Knowledge	261	(6)
The Pain of Others	267	(3)
The Excision of Ouko	270	(3)
Notes	273	(44)
Bibliography	317	(16)
Index	333