Displacing the State

by Smith, James Howard; Hackett, Rosalind I. J.; Appleby, R. Scott

• ISBN13: 9780268030957
• ISBN10: 0268030952
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-12-30
• Publisher: Univ of Notre Dame Pr

Summary

In colonial Africa, Christianity has often supported, sustained, and legitimated a violent process of governance. More recently, however, following decades of violence and oppression, churches and religious organizations have mobilized African publics against corrupt and abusive regimes and facilitated new forms of reconciliation and cooperation. It is the purpose of Displacing the State: Religion and Conflict in Neoliberal Africato illustrate the nature of religion's ambivalent power in Africa while suggesting new directions in the study of religion, conflict, and peace studies, with a specific focus on sub-Saharan Africa. As the editors make clear, most of the literature on conflict and peacebuilding in Africa has been concerned with dramatic conflicts such as genocide and war. In these studies, ;conflict ; usually means a violent clash between parties with opposing interests, while ;peace ; implies reconciliation and cooperation between these parties, usually with a view to achieving a social order predicated on the idea of the sovereign national state whose hegemony is viewed as normative. The contributors argue that this perspective is inadequate for understanding the nature, depth, and persistence of conflict in Africa. In contrast, the chapters in this volume adopt an ethnographic approach, often focusing on mundane manifestations of both conflict and peace, and in so doing draw attention to the ambiguities and ambivalences of conflict and peace in everyday life. The volume therefore focuses our attention on the extent to which everyday conflict contributes to subsequently larger and more highly visible clashes. Displacing the Statemakes two important contributions to the study of religion, conflict, and peacebuilding. First, it shows how peace is conceptualized and negotiated in daily life, often in ways that are counterintuitive and anything but peaceful. Second, the volume uses African case studies to confront assumptions about the nature of the relationships among religion, conflict, and peace. ;Seldom have recent studies of African culture and politics directly treated 'religion and conflict' as such; Displacing the Stateremedies that omission. The authors collectively explore the ways religions and religious movements employ media, gender roles, social organizations, and translocal cultural values to challenge, reform, and otherwise shape political culture and social structures. Their insightful contributions are sure to push the ongoing scholarly debate on the complex relationships among ethnicity, religion, governance, and conflict in Africa. ; - R. Scott Appleby, John M. Regan Jr. Director, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Religious Dimensions of Conflict and Peace in Neoliberal Africa: An Introduction	p. 1
Historical Sources of Religious Conflict and Peace
Forgiveness with Consequences: Scriptures, Qene, and Traditions of Restorative Justice in Nineteenth-Century Ethiopia	p. 27
Making Peace with the Devil: The Political Life of Devil Worship Rumors in Kenya	p. 49
New Religious Movements, Enduring Social Tensions
The Mungiki Movement: A Source of Religio-Political Conflict in Kenya	p. 85
Magic as Identity Maker: Conflict and Militia Formation in Eastern Congo	p. 112
Religion, Politics, and Gender in Zimbabwe: The Masowe Apostles and Chimurenga Religion	p. 136
New Religious Public Spheres and the Crisis of Regulation
"Devil Bustin' Satellites": How Media Liberalization in Africa Generates Religious Intolerance and Conflict	p. 163
Mediating Armageddon: Popular Christian Video Films as a Source of Conflict in Nigeria	p. 209
"The Domestic Relations Bill" and Inter-Religious Conflict in Uganda: A Muslim Reading of Personal Law and Religious Pluralism in a Postcolonial Society	p. 240
List of Contributors	p. 281
Index	p. 285
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