Making and Unmaking Nations: War, Leadership, and Genocide in Modern Africa by Scott Straus

Author:Scott Straus [Straus, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Violence in Society, Africa, Genocide & War Crimes, Social Science, Central, Political Science, History, Politics
ISBN: 9780801455674
Google: mKWiBwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 23737126
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: 2015-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

In the First Lady’s writings, we see explicitly how the political leadership and intellectuals sought to ground democratic politics in a constructed vision of the past. To be sure, Ba Konaré’s views are not identical to those of her husband. But as an influential member of the Malian political elite and as a prominent intellectual, she is articulating an ideological vision that is rooted in a specific conception of the past, one that favors dialogue, mediation, and inclusivity. Those seem precisely to be the ideas that shaped the policies and approaches of the Konaré administration, even during the most intense periods of violence.

Alongside this vision of the past and of Malian culture sit everyday cultural practices to which Malian elites and the presidential couple have referenced in interviews and in their writings. Principally, they include “joking relationships” and “joking alliances” (in French, “cousinage” or “rapports de parenté”; in Bambara, “sanankuna”). Especially important for mediation, joking alliances occur between clans and ethnic groups. They date back to the Mali Empire of the thirteenth century in which the alliances were formed between family lineages as a way of solidifying peace.152 In contemporary Mali, joking alliances are still in force; they are learned at a young age and are a feature of everyday interaction.153 Groups that are in joking alliances “play” at conflict through teasing, but they do not engage in conflict and are in fact bound not to commit harm against each other. Some scholars see joking alliances as playing an integrative and mediating role in a multiethnic society.154 In an experimental study, Thad Dunning and Lauren Harrison found that joking relationships contributed to cross-cutting political support—subjects evaluated political candidates from other ethnic groups more favorably if they were in a joking relationship with them.155

But the cultural practices in Bambaran culture extend beyond joking alliances and relationships. The idea of mediation is central in Mali; the key figures of mediation are griots or jeli whose role is to recount stories but also to mediate disputes.156 Griots are “people of words” who promote dialogue, and the role of mediation and dialogue are both fundamental to the social relations in Bambara/Malinké societies.157 Griots have played a central role in the construction of Malian national identity. Political leaders, including and especially Modibo Keïta, called on them to recount the Epic of Sunjata on national radio, and their stories were played to music and broadcast regularly on national radio.158

Even beyond joking alliances, griots, dialogue, and mediation, some Malian scholars point to a whole host of values and practices that lend themselves to deescalation. These include values of moderation (sabali), agreement (bèn), and respect for the other (niongo gasi sigui); moderation is a cardinal virtue in Bambaran culture.159 There are other ancient practices and institutions, such as agents of diplomacy and peace (niamakala).160 In effect, concludes Malian historian Konaté, “there is not a break between tradition and modernity in the daily life in Malian societies” with respect to these social practices that lend themselves to mediation, and he sees their impact in the peaceful settlement of the north in the mid-1990s.

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