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Paper short abstract:

This paper uses the concept of home-making to investigate how refugees navigate daily life in the refugee settlement Kiryandongo, Uganda. Specifically, a lens of affect is used to understand people’s interactions with land, livelihoods, the host-community, and continued mobility in displacement.

Paper long abstract:

The number of displaced individuals across the globe is increasing. Many refugees are hosted in East Africa, with Uganda being the number one refugee-hosting nation in the region and in Africa as a whole. For many of these refugees, this situation is one of protractedness as well as continued movement. Yet, this dynamic is not always acknowledged in policymaking and development work, as a linearity is often assumed in which refugees will eventually ‘return home’. In this paper, instead, home-making in displacement is used as the central concept to investigate how refugees navigate daily life in the refugee settlement Kiryandongo in (north)western Uganda. Specifically, a lens of affect (i.e. looking at engagement in social relationships such as friendships and romantic relationships) is used to understand people’s interactions with land, livelihoods, and continued mobility in displacement. By seeing home-making as a quotidian as well as political practice that necessarily involves engagement with policy and interaction between refugees and host communities, this study contributes to thinking about broader questions surrounding refugee policies and peaceful cohabitation between refugees and host communities.

The findings of this research will be based on six months of ethnographic fieldwork in Kiryandongo and the neighboring town of Bweyale. This will involve observations, in-depth qualitative interviews, focus group discussions, and workshops with development practitioners and academics. Interviews will be held with refugees, members of the host community, local leaders, and development professionals in and around the refugee settlement.

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This study is a contribution to theorizing the opinion of peripheral populations on French intervention in the Ivorian rebellion. He seeks to study the impact of the rebellion on the image of France in rural Côte D’Ivoire.

Paper long abstract:

Débutée en 2002, la rébellion ivoirienne se solde en 2011 par une grave crise qui fait plus de 3000 morts. Elle s’est concentrée sur les grandes villes notamment Korhogo, Bouaké et Abidjan la capitale ivoirienne. Elle a enregistré l’intervention de plusieurs États. Mais celle de la France a été remarquable. Son engagement autant militaire que diplomatique a fait la une des journaux et a suscité de nombreux articles et ouvrages scientifiques. Cependant, en raison de leur éloignement des théâtres d’opérations, les opinions et les ressentis des populations rurales sont passés sous silence. Cet article vise à étudier l’impact de la rébellion sur l’image de la France en milieu rural ivoirien. Il se fonde sur une méthodologie alliant les données bibliographiques et les données de terrain. La littérature sur la crise ivoirienne et la rébellion armée sert de base théorique. L’essentiel du travail pratique s’appuie sur des données empiriques et des entretiens qualitatifs réalisés dans cinq villages du département de Gagnoa, au centre-ouest de la Côte d’Ivoire considéré comme le fief du président déchu par la rébellion avec l’aide de l’armée française. La comparaison des données permet d’aboutir à des résultats provisoires. Il ressort que la force française présente dans le pays a été considérée au même titre que les forces rebelles. Ainsi la France se présente comme cette puissance colonisatrice dont l’objectif est de maintenir le pays sous domination. Cette étude est une contribution importante à la théorisation de l’opinion des populations rurales sur l’intervention des armées étrangères en Afrique.

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The Ivorian rebellion, which started in 2002, ended in a serious crisis in 2011, resulting in over 3000 deaths. The rebellion focused on large cities including Korhogo, Bouaké and Abidjan, the Ivorian capital. It recorded the intervention of several States. But, that of France was remarkable. Its military and diplomatic involvement made the headlines and sparked numerous articles and scientific works. However, due to their distance from theaters of operations, the opinions and feelings of rural populations have been overlooked. The aim of this article is to study the impact of the rebellion on the image of France in rural Cote d’Ivoire. It is based on a methodology combining bibliographic and field data. The literature on the Ivorian crisis and armed rebellion serves as a theoretical basis. Most of the practical work is based on empirical data and qualitative interviews carried out in five villages in the department of Gagnoa, in the center-west of Côte d'Ivoire considered to be the stronghold of the president deposed by the rebellion with the help of the French army. Comparison of data allows provisional results to be obtained. It appears that the French army present in the country was considered in the same way as the rebel forces. Thus, France presents itself as this colonizing power whose objective is to keep the country under domination. This study is an important contribution to theorizing of rural population’s opinion on the intervention of foreign armies in Africa.

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There are divided positions on the necessity or otherwise of the 2023 coup d’état in Niger Republic. This research is an attempt to present the dominant positions of the politically excluded and marginalised about the coup d’état, and the political development of Niger Republic in general.

Paper long abstract:

This research seeks to interrogate the dominant positions of the political outliers about the 2023 coup d’état in Niger Republic. The coup d’état took place against the backdrop of the condemnation of the resurgence of military take-over of government within West Africa. The sub-regional grouping, the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) condemned the act of democratic backsliding, and made concrete pronouncements about the immediate return to democratic governance in Niger Republic. The military administration however rebuffed the sub-regional organisation’s threats and consolidated its hold on power. This research attempts to empirically investigate the dominant positions of the “periphery” in the dynamics of political power contestations in Niger Republic. In this research, the periphery is composed of the politically excluded and marginalised rural dwellers that are far removed from the political intrigues and shenanigans of the elites in Niamey. The major research questions include; (1).Was the military intervention justified, given the socio-economic and political conditions under the President Bazoum administration? (2). How did the politically marginalised perceive the position of ECOWAS with respect to the coup d’état? (3). What is the position of the politically marginalised about the performance of the military administration so far, in respect of the loss of socio-political rights, and the current state of the economy? In response to these questions, we would engage the qualitative methodology through data gathered from both primary (interviews and questionnaires) and secondary (academic and government publications) sources. The data will be thematically and content analysed to produce the findings.

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Based on ethnographic research in Cameroon, this presentation examines how and why people do not mobilise in the context of political crisis, despite radical beliefs.

Paper long abstract:

The Anglophone Crisis is a de-facto armed conflict between the Cameroonian state and a separatist movement demanding independence for the country’s Anglophone minority regions. In my dissertation project, I examine the trajectories of civil and militant activists in the Anglophone Crisis and discuss the factors shaping their mobilisation. A key aspect of that project is critically engaging with the common assumption that mobilisation is predicated on ideological conviction or radicalisation. On the contrary, I find social position, circumstance, and perceived agency to be more impactful on the If and How of political mobilisation in the Anglophone Crisis than any specific level of separatist conviction.

In this presentation, I want to draw attention to the flip side of that observation: Ideological conviction can and does exist irrespective of mobilisation. During three phases of ethnographic research between 2018 and 2023, I interviewed many Anglophones who, despite holding radical political beliefs, including separatist sentiments, did not mobilise or have withdrawn from political action. To make sense of their engaged in-action, I want to, firstly, share explanations of “non-practicing” separatists for their chosen strategy of laying low and, secondly, highlight examples of private engagement with the Anglophone separatist movement that easily go overlooked. I argue that, due to digital and social connections, peripheral perspectives on the Anglophone Crisis are, in many cases, just as informed and just as radical as those found among front-line humanitarian workers, protest leaders, and (ex) fighters.

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Paper short abstract:

My focus is the perception and perspectives from young people but also members of the older generation from the urban population - Malians, Burkinabe, Nigeriens, Ivorians- in Bouaké and Abidjan regarding the actions carried out by the putschists and the international repression of these actions.

Paper long abstract:

Coup in Côte d'Ivoire in 1999. Coups in Mali in 2020 and 2021. Coup in Guinea in 2021. Coups in Burkina Faso in 2022. Coup in Niger and Gabon in 2023. These coups are part of the “collapsed security” according to Tim Glawion (2020).

The reason given by the putschists is mainly to safeguard the security and integrity of these different countries. In this Fight, these putschists believe that former allies like France no longer suit them. This is why they are turning to new allies like Russia, which is not the taste of Western countries. It must be mentioned that these repeated putsches are not to the taste of the regional organizations to which the coup countries belong. Which leads to a standoff between the putschists and ECOWAS for example.

In this presentation, I am therefore interested in the perception and perspectives from young people but also members of the older generation from the urban population - Malians, Burkinabe, Nigeriens, Ivorians- in Bouaké and Abidjan regarding the actions carried out by the putschists and the international repression of these actions by the ECOWAS and Western countries. How do these populations perceive the breakdown of certain partnerships with France in Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso? How do these populations perceive the new partnerships with Russia? What role do Ivorian journalists play in evaluating these events?

I will use my planned stay in Côte d´Ivoire in March to collect answers to all these questions that concern this presentation through interviews.

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Paper short abstract:

Using data from a phone survey pilot project in Niger and Gabon, we answer 3 questions: How do people evaluate the populist claims of current military rulers? What are their expectations in terms of return to civil rule? How do the countries differ in the scope and direction of political change?

Paper long abstract:

Africa’s new wave of coup needs to be situated in a changing international environment and an internal legitimacy crisis. The latest round of the Afrobarometer Survey shows that an increasing number of Africans is ready to tolerate military rule if civil leaders abuse their power. Pictures of crowds cheering military leaders in Niger, Mali, or Gabon seem to confirm this. We have, however, very little data on how populations really perceive the military coups, what they expect from them, and what strategies of legitimation military rulers employ themselves. What is apparent is that the initial narratives justifying military interventions differ. While the three Sahelian countries build on anti-French populism, rulers in Guinea or Gabon focus on internal politics.

This paper presents findings from a pilot project financed by the SCRIPTS Cluster of Excellence at FU Berlin. Using data from a phone survey conducted in Niger and Gabon, we give first insights into public opinion on some interrelated questions: Did disappointment with previous governments influence the perception of military coups? How do people evaluate the populist claims of the current military rulers? What are their expectations in terms of governance and transition to civil rule? How do these countries differ in the scope and direction of political change?

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Paper short abstract:

African interventions are often characterized as less coercive and more legitimate compared to ‘Western’ interveners. This paper (1) explores perceptions of coercion beyond the spotlight; and (2) delineates citizens’ logics of making sense of and (de-)legitimizing the use of (non-)military coercion.

Paper long abstract:

The African Union (AU) and, in particular, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have gained prominence in addressing political crises and violent conflicts. In contrast to old allies, intervention research characterizes African interventions as less or even non-coercive enjoying more legitimacy among those at the ‘receiving’ end. However, this reading has recently become challenged, not last by the announcement of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger to withdraw from ECOWAS. But beyond the political and social elites, how coercive are African interventions perceived to be? And, what constitutes coercion for whom and under what conditions? Drawing on ethnographic elements, interview and focus group research in The Gambia conducted between 2021 and 2023, this paper delves into the experiences of Gambians beyond the spotlight and how they regard the ECOWAS interventions post-2016. In doing so, this paper (1) delineates the relational and intricate nature of perceptions of coercion in the context of interventions. Evolving from the (non-)interactions between interveners at the centres of power and those intervened upon at the margins, these perceptions manifest in a manner that is contingent upon temporal, spatial, and positional parameters. Subsequently, the paper (2) foregrounds the nuanced logics through which Gambian citizens make sense of and legitimize the use of coercion, both in military and non-military forms, challenging its dominant negative reading. In conclusion, this paper suggests coercion as an analytical lens and perception research as a methodological tool to elucidate the varied repercussions of African interventions beyond the spotlight.

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Paper short abstract:

Our article sets out to analyze the effects of digital technology on users of Facebook, using Ball-Rokeach & DeFleur's theory of media dependency (1976) in a socio-anthropological existentialism to elucidate the political participation of actors located outside the circles of power.

Paper long abstract:

Boyadjian et al, (2017) observe the possibility of categorizing Internet users through the language register employed in digital content. In other words, via terms such as "vehicule" or "car" in a sentence, the Internet users social origine identification can be envisaged, if only approximately. By focusing on the popular uprising that led to the overthrow of Blaise COMPAORE's regime, our article aims to highlight the psychosociological effects of the media, using Ball-Rokeach & DeFleur's media dependency theory (1976) to explore the political socio-anthropological existentialism of political protest actors.

Our interest in the model lies in the theoretical possibility for the study of media effects on an audience. Indeed, we can postulate that if popular mobilization in Burkina Faso was strong in 2014, it is because a digital dependency predestined protesters against Blaise COMPAORE's regime to connect with each other. In this prism, social networks served as vectors for important information dissemination relating to the political powers'actions of the time, so that the audience found itself under its influence from a cognitive, affective and/or behavioral level(s). The theory in no way deals with the effects of the media in a psychopathological sense through "dependency", but aims to show firstly an information usefullness for the individual, then to analyze attitudes, feelings linked to certain values and then the active or inactive role of the individual with regard to a piece of information. Although aimed at traditional media, it is applicable to alternative media, which provide access to a diversity of information sources.