Mediations of Violence in Africa: Fashioning New Futures from Contested Pasts (Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies, 5)

This book analyses the violence of recent African wars from the perspectives of African people who experienced and witnessed it. Central to it are the words of (male) Somali poets, Zulu singers, impoverished Kenyan youth, and white South African war veterans, as well as men and women trying to refashion their lives and relationships in post-war Mozambique and Rwanda. Purposefully interdisciplinary, this volume brings together scholarly approaches ranging from cultural and medical anthropology, social/cultural history, and cultural and performance studies. Making Memories Of Mogadishu In Somali Poetry About The Civil War / Lidwien Kapteijns -- The Road, The Song And The Citizen : Singing After Violence In Kwazulu-natal / Liz Gunner -- Maisha Bora, Kwa Nani? A Cool Life, For Whom? Mediations Of Masculinity, Ethnicity, And Violence In A Nairobi Slum / Naomi Van Stapele -- Testimonies Of Suffering And Recasting The Meanings Of Memories Of Violence In Post-war Mozambique / Victor Igreja -- Suffering And Healing In The Aftermath Of War And Genocide In Rwanda : Mediations Through Community-based Sociotherapy / Annemiek Richters -- The Balsak In The Roof : Bush War Experiences And Mediations As Related By White South African Conscripts / Diana Gibson. Edited By Lidwien Kapteijns, Annemiek Richters. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. This publication analyses the violence of recent African wars from the perspectives of African people who experienced and witnessed it. Central to it are the words of (male) Somali poets, Zulu singers, impoverished Kenyan youth, and white South African war veterans, as well as men and women trying to refashion their lives and relationships in post-war Mozambique and Rwanda. This volume brings together scholarly approaches ranging from cultural and medical anthropology, social/cultural history, and cultural and performance studies Drawing on the words of African poets, singers, war veterans, and other witnesses and survivors of recent wars in Africa, this book shows how those who experienced the violence of war interpret that violence and shape and come to terms with its consequences.