The Path to Peace

The murderous conflicts that followed presidential elections in Côte d’Ivoire in November 2010 led to an international debacle that ended some six months later. After the killing of 3,000 people [1] and the displacement of approximately one million from their homes [2] (Figure 1), Alassane Ouattara (Figure 2) assumed the presidency based on election results certified by the United Nations against the protests and violent resistance of incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo (Figure 3). Now, over a year later, with news of the discovery of an alleged attempted coup d’état [3], further political violence in western Côte d’Ivoire [4], and belligerent rhetoric by “the political class and media” [5], Côte d’Ivoire faces a challenging climate for what should be a period of national reconstruction and reconciliation [6], [7].

If the search for lasting peace is to be more than mere “bluff” [8]—more than the kind of illusory promise of peace to which Ivoirians have become inured since the coup d’état of 1999—then the parties to the reconciliation process as well as its critics must take stock of the circumstances that led to the conflict and of the dynamics that will help or hinder its resolution. The authors of this collection do just this with regard to a range of aesthetic, economic, gendered, political, religious, and social concerns. The result is a series of meditations on the challenges that Côte d’Ivoire must overcome and the resources and strategies it must exploit if it is to achieve an unprecedented era of peace, justice, and stability.

Acknowledgments

The authors and guest editor thank Charles Piot for inviting us to submit our contributions to the Hot Spots forum and Anne Allison and Alison Kenner for proofreading and posting them with such care. We also thank the anonymous proofreaders who helped edit our work. We express our gratitude to Cati Coe as well who first suggested the idea of this forum on Côte d’Ivoire to Charles Piot. The guest editor would like to thank the authors for their gracious collaboration and patience and the Hot Spots editors for their indulgence and support. He acknowledges the title of Wende Marshall’s book, Potent Mana: Lessons in Power and Healing (SUNY Press, 2011), as the inspiration for the subtitle, "Potent Aesthetics," in this feature's table of contents below. We dedicate this collection to all those who seek justice or comfort for those killed, raped, tortured, injured, displaced, impoverished, or abandoned as a result of Côte d’Ivoire’s ongoing crisis. 25 June 2012.

Essays

I. INTRODUCTION TO THE FORUM

"A History of Crisis in Côte d’Ivoire"
Joseph Hellweg, Department of Religion, Florida State University

II. A JUST AGENDA: POST-CONFLICT LEGALITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

"The Fundamental Need for Impartial Justice"
Matt Wells, Africa Division, Human Rights Watch

"Uncoupling Post-War Côte d’Ivoire and Rwanda"
Scott Straus, Department of Political Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison

III. THE WAGES OF REBELLION, EXILE, AND POVERTY

"The Costs of the Road in a Divided Côte d’Ivoire"
Thomas J. Bassett, Department of Geography, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

"'Diaspo' Youth Culture and the Ivoirian Crisis"
Jesper Bjarnesen, Department of Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University

"'We Talk to Each Other': Korhogo after the End of the Rebellion"
Till Förster, Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Basel

"Up North: Uncertainty, Poverty, and the Issue of Youth"
Marie Nathalie LeBlanc, Department of Sociology, Université du Québec à Montréal

"The Three Binds of the Ivoirian Cocoa Farmer"
Tom Neuhaus, Department of Food Science and Nutrition, California State Polytechnic University

IV. POTENT AESTHETICS: GENDER, RELIGION, AND THE RHETORIC OF EXCLUSION

"Styling the Donzos: Warriors, Women, and Wild Men in a City Parade"
Karel Arnaut, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity

"Female Genital Power in Ritual and Politics: Violation and Deployment in Southern Côte d’Ivoire"
Laura S. Grillo, Core Faculty, Pacifica Graduate Institute

"The Roots of Islamophobia in Côte d’Ivoire"
Robert Launay, Professor of Anthropology, Northwestern University

"An Ivoirian Apocalypse: Spiritual Violence in the Post-Electoral Crisis"
Marie Miran-Guyon, Centre d’études africaines, Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales

"Women’s Songs in Post-crisis Côte d’Ivoire: 'Ask Gbagbo . . .'"
Carol Spindel, Department of English, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

V. BEYOND THE POLITICS OF ILLUSION

"The President and His Double: An Ivoirian Politics of the Counterfeit"
Sasha Newell, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, College of the Holy Cross

"Toward an Anthropology of Legitimacy"
Mike McGovern, Department of Anthropology, Yale University

"The Ivoirian Presidential Debate of November 2010: A Key Symbolic Moment in Producing, Or Undermining, Democracy in Côte d’Ivoire"
Bertin K. Kouadio, Department of International Studies, Wilson College

"In Search of Lost Legality: Justice, Constitutionality, and the Rome Statute in Côte d'Ivoire"
Joseph Hellweg, Department of Religion, Florida State University