The Roy A. Rappaport Lectures: A Socialist Peace? Explaining the Absence of War in an African Country

A Socialist Peace? Explaining the Absence of War in an African Country

This series of four lectures presents different parts of a book-length analysis of the politics, history and culture of the West African territory that came to be known as the Republic of Guinea. The book grew out of the question many Guineans and West African neighbors of Guinea have asked about why all six of Guinea's neighbors have experienced civil conflict while Guinea has not. This, despite the fact that many people feel that Guinea had more reasons than its neighbors why it "should have" experienced war or separatist insurgency. Guinea's 26-year experience of socialist rule may provide part of the answer. While the socialist government was intrusive and highly coercive, it also forged a sense of national identity and unity qualitatively different from anything existing in neighboring non-socialist countries. The study thus attempts to unravel the paradox of a peace that issues from a state's violence against its own citizens; a socialist habitus that provides the antidote to political schisms the state itself exacerbated.

3. Nuvanuita: Ethnic Cleansing Planned Then Averted

Revisiting the problem of socialist peace through ethnographic argumentation, this lecture focuses on one instance where war intruded into Guinea from across the Liberian border. In this case, actors in the area where I conduct fieldwork had the opportunity to act on longstanding resentments and even plans for ethnic cleansing, but decided not to do so. I analyze the ways that forms of socialist solidarity were revived and invoked during this dangerous period, and the dynamics that played out across the country. This context shows that the ethnographic example presented here was representative of national dynamics, and that they were different in kind from the national modes of understanding and dealing with the emergence of civil war in neighboring countries.