Paper short abstract:

This paper explores resistances of Guinean people towards measures against the Ebola fever. I will use political anthropology to analyse a situation that reveals a strong and ancient mistrust for the State and an increasing loss of legitimation of local political and moral authorities.

Paper long abstract:

One of the most striking aspects of the recent epidemics of Ebola in West Africa, and in particularly in Guinea, was the abundance of attitudes of reticence and resistance of urban and rural communities, determined not to respect the recommendations of the authorities, or to impede their action even through violence. Resistances were mostly based on the idea that the desease did not exist and was the result of a conspiracy organized by the State against with the help of the International Institutions. This epidemics was the occasion to discover and analyse a widespread mistrust towards the authorities, and, more generally, the intellectual élites, perceived, according to Bayart's description (2009) , as corrupted and uninterested in the well-being of local people. After a year of fieldwork on resistances as a consultant of WHO, I will try to present the historical and socio-political reasons of the common feeling of mistrust, deception and abandon, directed both towards the State and local political and moral authorities, perceived as partners of the Government and increasingly delegitimized. I will also show how the epidemics has been the occasion, for many unheeded communities , to finally express their needs and claims. Finally, I will analyse how Ebola has disrupted the social ties and hierarchies of many rural areas, eroding gerontocracy to the advantage of new social actors, taking part of networks relating villages and towns, able to provide information, control rumours and influence public opinion.