Making Sense of Political Violence in Postcolonial Africa

We have just ended a century replete with violence. The twentieth century was possibly more violent than any other in recorded history. Just think of world wars and revolutions, and of colonial conquests and anti-colonial resistance, and, indeed, of revolutions and counter-revolutions. Yet even if the expanse of this violence is staggering, it makes sense to us. If we are to make political violence thinkable, we need to understand the process by which victims and perpetrators become polarized as group identities. Who do perpetrators of violence think they are? And who do they think they will eliminate through violence? Even if the identities propelled through violence are drawn from outside the domain of politics--such as race (from biology) or ethnicity or religion (from culture)--we need to denaturalize these identities by outlining their history and illuminating their links with organized forms of power.