Paper short abstract:

The case study will analyze the agency of individuals affected by the Casamance conflict. How do inhabitants of a region that experiences a low intensity conflict for three decades position themselves in the face of a situation of neither war nor peace?

Paper long abstract:

The Casamance is an example of a peculiar dialectic. Here both the insistence on violence and the negotiation of peace are rational tactics: Peace brokers and violent actors do ensure their economic survival mutually. On one hand this equilibrium gives the local population means to lessen their grievances, but on the other it impedes any final peace agreement. Consequently the locals are both constrained and empowered by the conflict. How do they positions themselves in this situation? Which actions, motivations, beliefs, loyalties, identifications can be observed among the Casamançais in respect to the conflict?

The situation of neither-war-nor-peace has been mostly discussed on the (macro)-political level. Less is known about the question of agency on a local level. The paper will address the question how individuals in the area act, respectively portray their situation: 1) on one hand they do present themselves as being a victim of manipulation and coercion from various sides: by secessionists, the army, peace brokers and the Senegalese state. 2) On the other hand locals do point out their autonomy. This is expressed openly nowadays, because the conflict has entered a stage where both conflicting forces - the army and the maquisards alike - are competing for the civilian's loyalty. 3) What is not mentioned openly: frères dans la brouse are habitually switching from maquis to civil life and vice versa; some rebels are sponsored by the state.

Paper short abstract:

This paper maps out the way youth in Cameroon see elite politics under multiparty politics in Cameroon today, as largely a 'gerontocratic' play-field in which the old (and mostly men) control access not only to entry into this field, as well as explores how these youth seek to navigate this field.

Paper long abstract:

This paper maps out the way youth in Cameroon see elite politics under multiparty politics in Cameroon today, as largely a 'gerontocratic' play-field in which the old (and mostly men) control access not only to entry into this field but also to other crucial resources necessary for the full transition to adulthood such as jobs, contracts, etc, as well as explores how these youth seek to insert themselves in this field. How are the youth offering themselves and or are appropriated by their political elite and what motivations lie behind the desire of each to seek the other's support? This paper draws on field-work in Cameroon, among the people of Manyu in the South-West Region, focusing on the role of Manyu youth in the activities undertaken by its political elite between November 2010 and July 2011. These political activities, largely characterised by a fervent public performative element in which these elites encounter people from their ethnic group in various parts of the country in a 'town-hall' style, aimed at mobilizing support for the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM) of President Paul Biya. In examining these encounters the paper highlights the ways youth present themselves as well as makes a commentary on the elite-society relations in Cameroon in general, the precariousness of youth itself as an identity, and the role of local idioms of kinship and belonging as crucial resources upon which these youth draw to make claims on their political elite and or seek pathways into these elite networks of power and wealth, and adulthood.

Paper short abstract:

This communication presents the results of a study - based on written documents related to child soldiers in the DRC - which highlights the figures of childhood within the discourse of humanitarian child protection actors, and explores the evolution of recommended policies and programs.

Paper long abstract:

Through this communication, I will present the results of a research I realized recently on child protection in the framework of humanitarian aid and development intervention, on the specific case of "child soldiers" in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Based on an analysis of key documents elaborated by international and national organizations involved in child protection - such as international and national legal framework, United Nations security council resolutions, International Criminal Court trial minutes, DDR National Programme, programmatic guidelines, training manuals, assessment and evaluation reports, etc. - the study highlights the various stakes and values that frame the interventions, the representations of war and childhood to which the stakeholders refer, as well as the recommended policies and programs. The exploration of actor's discourses is done on two modes: one that bears a synchronic perspective and shows the paradigms of intervention, another one that bears a diachronic perspective and shows the evolution of policies and programs according to their level of success or failure and to the local and global socio-political contexts. Emerge from these discourse: on one hand, evolutive figures of childhood associated with representations of child soldiers, and stakes and values of child protection actors (from the vulnerability attached to the figure of victim to the agency allowed by a rights-based approach); on the other hand, diverse evolutive modalities of intervention that form a "praxis" of children's rights in this specific context.

Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on the motivations and strategies of young, male gang members in a Nairobi ghetto to join and/or leave ethnic-based gangs during moments of political violence. I take a close look at their agency and aim to move beyond the agency/structure dichotomy.

Paper long abstract:

Since late 1990s Mathare Valley, Nairobi, have witnessed the rise and fall of ethnic-based gangs such as the Mungiki (with a strong Kikuyu profile) and the Taliban (with a strong Luo profile). The emergence of these gangs occurred in the wake of mounting political violence which led to casting them as 'Big Men' militias. Instead of viewing the young men (and women) involved simply as 'thugs for hire', I take a close look at their agency and aim to move beyond the agency/structure dichotomy. In this paper I explore their personal motivations, strategies and legitimisations that I argue are intimately linked to processes of identification and directed at present needs. A good case in point is the alcohol brewing gang 'Sare'. This gang became divided during the 2007/2008 post-election violence when some of its members joined the Taliban while others were attacked by members from the Taliban. Interestingly, after the dust had settled alleged victims and perpetrators re-joined their old gang Sare. The momentary split of Sare also did not only follow alleged ethnic positions since 'Luo' gang members of Sare were also attacked by the Taliban. I show how and why many young men in Mathare Valley joined and/or left ethnic-based gangs during particular moments of violence and why they almost always returned to their former gang afterwards. I thus aim to study the groupness of gangs as variable and contingent, and debunk the role of ethnicity as sole determinant in processes of mobilisation into political violence.