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Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
The Ivorian Crisis
Political and Historical Contextualisation
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
Introduction
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
The Ivorian Crisis
“This war, it’s a war of identification … [I]n the new formula of identification, when you go to get your card, you have to tell them the name of your village, so they can go and find out if you’re really from that region. Because if I take the case of our Dioula brothers, when they arrive, as soon as they find a city like Yamoussouko and they settle there, have children there, do everything there, they don’t return to their country of origin. And then they say they are Ivoirians. We saw that it isn’t right, that we have to be able to tell who is Ivoirian, who isn’t Ivoirian. That’s why they’re making war on us” (Interview in Banégas & Marshall-Fratani 2006, quoted in Marshall-Fratani 2006:26)
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
Introduction
The Ivorian exception
Wars in the region (Mano River Union countries)Economic success of plantation economy
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
Introduction
From political rhetoric to armed struggle
Ivoirité thetoricPolitics of scale (Thomas Bassett)
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
Introduction
Between war and peace (?)
”Allons aux éléctions – vite, vite, vite…”
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
Introduction
Preparing for elections
Voter registrationIdentity papersPopulation censusIdentity politics…?
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
Introduction
The War of Who is WhoHistorical parallels
“For the political leaders of the Forces Nouvelles, longstanding collaborators of Laurent Gbagbo throughout the 1990s, the turning point was not principally the question of xenophobia, or Ouattara’s nationality, or the victimization of northerners by state security forces … but the FPI’s program of national identification” (Marshall-Fratani 2006:26).
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
The Ivorian Crisis
Lecture I:
”The Recent Political History of Côte d’Ivoire – an
overview”
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
A Recent Political History
The firm leadership of Félix Houphouët-Boigny
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
A Recent Political History
The Houphouët-Boigny Compromise
Export economyEconomic policies open towards the WestEncouraging labour migration (mainly Burkina Faso)BUT: Akan favouritism; divide & rule
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
A Recent Political History
Succession struggles
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
Succession struggles
Henri Konan Bédié (PDCI)
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
Succession struggles
Alassane Dramane Ouattara (RDR)
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
Succession struggles
President Laurent Gbagbo (FPI)
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
A Recent Political History
December 1999 Coup d’étatGeneral Robert Guéï in power2000 electionsLaurent Gbagbo President
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
A Recent Political History
The Ivorian Crisis
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
The Ivorian Crisis
19 September 2002
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
The Ivorian Crisis
Guillaume Soro
Secretary General of the Forces Nouvelles
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
The Ivorian Crisis
The Role of France:
Peace keeper… war maker …?
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
The Ivorian Crisis
The Ouagadougou Political Accords
President Blaise Compaoré (Burkina Faso) as mediator
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
The Ivorian Crisis
Guillaume Soro
Prime Minister of Côte d’Ivoire
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
The Ivorian Crisis
The Administrative Identification Process:
Pending transition
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
The Ivorian Crisis
The War of Who is Who: Categorical clarity
dead certainty (Appadurai 1998)’good guys’ and ’bad guys’ (Hagberg & Bjarnesen)On sait qui est qui (Förster, forthcoming)
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
Conclusion
Familiar faces on the Political Scene
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
Familiar Faces
Henri Konan Bédié (PDCI)
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
Familiar Faces
Alassane Dramane Ouattara (RDR)
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
Familiar Faces
President Laurent Gbagbo (FPI)
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
Familiar Faces
Guillaume Soro
Secretary General of the Forces Nouvelles
Prime Minister of Côte d’Ivoire
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
Next Thursday: Contemporary Ivorian Identifications seen from Korhogo Town
“Il faut des changements!”
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
The Ivorian Crisis
Lecture II:
”The Sociopolitical Context of the Ivorian Crisis – an
introduction”
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
Chauveau & Richards (2008)
”West African Insurgencies in Agrarian Perspective”
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
Chauveau & Richards (2008)
”… current economic and political crises feed on a particular historical trajectory … and it is here that the effects of these crises have surfaced in intra-familial, intergenerational and intercommunity tensions” (2008:533)
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
Chauveau & Richards (2008)
”By linking intra-familial and intergenerational tensions on one side and intercommunity tensions on the other side, an answer seems to lie in purified tradition, leading to the victimization of the strangers. A political discourse of ’autochtony’ ensues, seized upon by various political interests for their own purposes” (2008:534)
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
Chauveau & Richards (2008)
”Culture by itself causes nothing. Ethnic identity claims (and other cultural epiphenomena) are always products of organization, and competition among organization” (2008:546)
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
Chauveau & Richards (2008)
”Addressing the complexity and intensity of struggles over agrarian resources is (we believe) basic to the attainment of peace” (2008:547)
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
Carolyn Nordstrom (2004)
”Shadows of War”
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
Carolyn Nordstrom (2004)
”… ethnography is an excellent way to study the invisibilities of power – invisibility that is in part constructed by convincing people not to study the shadows … Ethnography gives substance and site to all human endeavour, merely by caring about the day to day of human existence” (2004:15)
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
Carolyn Nordstrom (2004)
”… we live in a world of refined movement. In studying war, and especially in studying the shadows, I direct my research not at a set place, but at fluid targets. The shadows as I define them in this book are, at core, about movement … This is part of the way in which they are rendered invisible …” (2008:37)
Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University
The Ivorian Crisis
Discussion