A Nervous State : Violence, Remedies, and Reverie in Colonial Congo

In __A Nervous State__, Nancy Rose Hunt considers the afterlives of violence and harm in King Leopold’s Congo Free State. Discarding catastrophe as narrative form, she instead brings alive a history of colonial nervousness. This mood suffused medical investigations, security operations, and vernacular healing movements. With a heuristic of two colonial states—one "nervous," one biopolitical—the analysis alternates between medical research into birthrates, gonorrhea, and childlessness and the securitization of subaltern "therapeutic insurgencies." By the time of Belgian Congo’s famed postwar developmentalist schemes, a shining infertility clinic stood near a bleak penal colony, both sited where a notorious Leopoldian rubber company once enabled rape and mutilation. Hunt’s history bursts with layers of perceptibility and song, conveying everyday surfaces and daydreams of subalterns and colonials alike. Congolese endured and evaded forced labor and medical and security screening. Quick-witted, they stirred unease through healing, wonder, memory, and dance. This capacious medical history sheds light on Congolese sexual and musical economies, on practices of distraction, urbanity, and hedonism. Drawing on theoretical concepts from Georges Canguilhem, Georges Balandier, and Gaston Bachelard, Hunt provides a bold new framework for teasing out the complexities of colonial history. Cover 1 Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 8 Abbreviations 10 Acknowledgments 12 Introduction 20 Not Aftermath 21 Nervousness 24 Modes of Presence 26 States and Persons 27 Therapeutic Insurgency 30 Infertility, Zest, Hedonism 31 A Shrunken Milieu 35 Multitudes, Reverie, Dread 38 Archives and Futures 40 The Chapters 41 Chapter 1. Registers of Violence 46 Nearness with Casement 51 Dhanis, Abir, and “Bassankussu” 53 Nervous Laughter 58 Sexual and Visual Economies 60 Rape and Specters of Sterility 66 Ikakota and Memories 67 Ekuma and Suicide 72 The Biopolitical Meets Bandits 74 Conclusion 78 Chapter 2. Maria N’koi 80 “A Special Situation” 84 Column on the March 86 Relegation Time 89 Copal Charms and Sales 91 White Hens 94 History, Clichés, Tellings 95 Wartime Reverie 99 Sleeping Sickness and Extinction 101 Pathology and a Magistrate’s Story 102 Afterlives, Njondo, Trees 104 Conclusion 111 Chapter 3. Emergency Time 114 Pan-Nègre Traces, White Trash, Rebels by Fire 115 Touring Doctors and Gonorrhea Logics 117 The Slump 120 Flags and Garveyite Reverie 123 Roads, the Overworked, Pueperal Infection 129 Flight, Copal, Nganda 132 Yebola and “Neurasthenia” 135 Reproductive Disappointment, Lianja, and Baby Theft 139 Amicale and Distraction 144 Song and Sexual Economies 147 Conclusion 149 Chapter 4. Shock Talk and Flywhisks 154 Losilo Pamphlet 156 A Research Mission 157 Likili 160 Nervous Diagnostics 162 Degeneration 165 Rebeka Botungu and Trees 166 Brussels Scolds 168 Fear of Massacre 169 Anachrony and Sight 171 State Critic 175 A Nervous Chiefdom 176 Tears and Rape in Wangata Hearing 178 Science in the Bush and Somatization 180 Conclusion 182 Chapter 5. A Penal Colony, an Infertility Clinic 186 Kimbangu, Kitawala, a Remedy 188 Doctors and Wartime Duress 190 Letters, Mpadi Escapes, and the Nervous Van Campenhout 192 The Songo Experiment and “Joy” 196 Ekafera 204 Penicillin Arrives 207 Penal Colony as “Hoax” 211 “Worse Than Death Itself ” 214 The New Befale 217 Dr. Allard’s Infertility Device 220 Conclusion 222 Chapter 6. Motion 226 Drama in Loma 229 Dreaming 232 A Belgian Cyclist, a Lucienne Delyle Song 233 Urbanity and Anachronisms 237 Bars and Venereal Debates 239 Three Figures: Mata, Munga, Bowane 244 Ekuma’s Fanfare 250 Conclusion 253 Conclusion: Field Coda and Other Endings 256 Field Coda 257 Latitude in a Shrunken Milieu 259 Naming Disaster 261 Remembering 262 Harm and Female Imaging 263 Hedonism and Sexual Economies 265 Reproductive Disappointment and Somatization 267 Harm and HIV Logics 269 Exit Time 271 Notes 274 Bibliography 328 Index 362 In A Nervous State, Nancy Rose Hunt Considers The Afterlives Of Violence And Harm In King Leopold's Congo Free State. Discarding Catastrophe As Narrative Form, She Instead Brings Alive A History Of Colonial Nervousness. This Mood Suffused Medical Investigations, Security Operations, And Vernacular Healing Movements. With A Heuristic Of Two Colonial States--one Nervous, One Biopolitical--the Analysis Alternates Between Medical Research Into Birthrates, Gonorrhea, And Childlessness And The Securitization Of Subaltern Therapeutic Insurgencies. By The Time Of Belgian Congo's Famed Postwar Developmentalist Schemes, A Shining Infertility Clinic Stood Near A Bleak Penal Colony, Both Sited Where A Notorious Leopoldian Rubber Company Once Enabled Rape And Mutilation. Hunt's History Bursts With Layers Of Perceptibility And Song, Conveying Everyday Surfaces And Daydreams Of Subalterns And Colonials Alike. Congolese Endured And Evaded Forced Labor And Medical And Security Screening. Quick-witted, They Stirred Unease Through Healing, Wonder, Memory, And Dance. This Capacious Medical History Sheds Light On Congolese Sexual And Musical Economies, On Practices Of Distraction, Urbanity, And Hedonism. Drawing On Theoretical Concepts From Georges Canguilhem, Georges Balandier, And Gaston Bachelard, Hunt Provides A Bold New Framework For Teasing Out The Complexities Of Colonial History.--back Cover. Registers Of Violence -- Maria N'koi -- Emergency Time -- Shock Talk And Flywhisks -- A Penal Colony, An Infertility Clinic -- Motion. Nancy Rose Hunt. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 309-342) And Index. Nancy Rose Hunt tells the affective history of the convergence of biopolitics and colonial violence in the Belgian Congo. By showing how the shifts and interactions between the biopolitical state and the nervous state drove the colonial government's actions toward the Congolese, Hunt provides a new model for theorizing colonialism