Cocaine: From Coca Fields to the Streets ed. by Enrique Desmond Arias, and Thomas Grisaffi (review)

Abstract

conceptualized southerners as a community with racial and cultural identity as well as a favorable place in the oppression– liberation discourse. Attempts that “creative intellectuals” made to give a unifying account of events during internal splits and factionalism are discussed in chapter 4. In this context, then, “the Bible provided a foundation from which a people divided by language, politics, and ethnicity could envision themselves as sharing a common heritage through the lens of the ancient (biblical) Kingdom of Cush” (21). In chapter 5, Tounsel engages the “Troubled Promise Land” between the period 2005 to 2018 as the independent South Sudan is embroiled in internal conflict along ethnic lines. Even within this context of internal conflict, “though the traditional enemy from the north was absent, religious thought still functioned as a political technology despite the changed scope of who and what constituted us and them, good and bad, heroes and villains” (22). The crisp style of writing, the arguments, and the engaging discussions in the various chapters make this book a mustread for scholars, students, and individuals interested not only in African studies and history but also in the application of religious thought in political situations.