Suchergebnisse

"This article analyses recent political developments in Burkina Faso, particularly the failed coup d'état in September 2015. The coup was led by the former president's security forces (RSP), comprised of 1,300 heavily equipped and well-trained soldiers. The RSP took the president and government hostage and declared the coup d'état. The coup was condemned by most Burkinabe, civil society organisations, trade unions, and political parties, as well as by the international community. Across the country, people mobilised in popular resistance and civil disobedience. RSP soldiers patrolled and shot live rounds into neighbourhoods, while residents built barricades. Resistance mounted in Ouagadougou and elsewhere in the country, and after a few days it became clear that the coup would fail. In this article, I describe the courage and determination of the Burkinabe people in the face of the coupists and thereby show that popular resistance and revolutionary struggle are part and parcel of Burkinabe political culture. In conclusion, I discuss the prospects for a veritable democratic breakthrough in Burkina Faso." (author's abstract)

This article analyses recent political developments in Burkina Faso, particularly the failed coup d'état in September 2015. The coup was led by the former president's security forces (RSP), comprised of 1,300 heavily equipped and well-trained soldiers. The RSP took the president and government hostage and declared the coup d'état. The coup was condemned by most Burkinabe, civil society organisations, trade unions, and political parties, as well as by the international community. Across the country, people mobilised in popular resistance and civil disobedience. RSP soldiers patrolled and shot live rounds into neighbourhoods, while residents built barricades. Resistance mounted in Ouagadougou and elsewhere in the country, and after a few days it became clear that the coup would fail. In this article, I describe the courage and determination of the Burkinabe people in the face of the coupists and thereby show that popular resistance and revolutionary struggle are part and parcel of Burkinabe political culture. In conclusion, I discuss the prospects for a veritable democratic breakthrough in Burkina Faso.

Résumé Même si, contrairement à la France et à d'autres pays européens, la Suède n'a pas été une puissance colonisatrice, elle a été impliquée dans nombre de projets de développement. L'article retrace l'histoire des rapports entre anthropologie théorique et anthropologie appliquée, d'autant plus complexe que de nombreux chercheurs ont travaillé dans le cadre d'agences de développement et même dans des unités créées au sein de départements universitaires. Partant de l'analyse d'une enquête au Mali, l'article montre que peuvent se créer des passerelles entre une anthropologie réflexive et une anthropologie appliquée.

This article analyses the ways in which socio-political opposition is expressed by looking into the morally loaded discourse of political legitimacy in Burkina Faso that emerged after the assassination of the journalist Norbert Zongo in December 1998. Through the analysis of different political statements, newspapers and various comments from the 'street', it locates the struggle against impunity in a social and political undercurrent in Burkinabe society. In this context, notions of the public space are central, because the public space defines both the boundaries of public debate and the behaviour of key political actors. Two recurrent themes in Burkinabe political discourse, namely ideas of truth and courage, and the legitimacy of White people, illustrate the various ways in which socio-political opposition seeks to define the public space within which politics is to be practised and the behaviour to be observed by those acting there. But the struggle against impunity also takes place on a symbolic level at which key symbols are appropriated, interpreted and incorporated into political discourse.

This study is about dispute settlement in the Comoé Province, Burkina Faso. It focuses on ways in which four principal categories of actors-Karaboro agriculturalists, Fulbe agro-pastoralists, Tiefo Masters of the Earth, and local government officials-handle disputes related to landed resources. The study is based on four years of multi-sited fieldwork between 1988 and 1996, as well as studies of literature and archival material. To understand processes of peace and justice in dispute settlement, the study provides detailed accounts of internal socio-political and cultural dynamics within and between the main groups of actors as well as an ethnography of two cases of violent conflict. The main argument is that dispute settlement prevails in a social field of relations and rights. It is, on the one hand, a matter of mobilising key social relations in order to promote peace, to forgive and make future co-habitation possible. Host-stranger relations as well as those of neighbourhood and friendship are, for example, put to the fore. On the other hand, it is also a matter of claiming rights and attend to what different actors perceive as justice. Rights are articulated in different organisational structures such as the Land and Tenure Reorganisation, the Trade Union of Graziers and the Hunting Organisation. While external actors claim rights in public discourse, in practice they are likely to mobilise relations to 'arrange an affair'. Local actors promote ideologically the maintenance of social relations (for peace and prosperity) in dispute settlement, but look for their rights in practice. Disputes are thus located between peace and justice, but in the shadow of violent conflict. The study concludes that dispute settlement between Karaboro agriculturalists and Fulbe agro-pastoralists should not only be understood as a political run by different actors to gain in disputes, but needs to be situated within the domain of what is regarded as morally and socially 'acceptable' to public opinion beyond ethnic and socio-political boundaries.