This article investigates domestic pedagogies of peace and conflict, as teaching and learning about violence in families affected by genocide and war may contribute to how ordinary people break cycles of conflict or enable its continuities. We draw on focused ethnographic research with two communities affected by genocide and violence: Rwandans and Banyamulenge refugees living in Rwanda. We found distinct patterns in respective communities, with Banyamulenge teaching concrete knowledge about past experiences and its implications for identity and survival; and Rwandans largely avoiding sharing of knowledge about the genocide within families but warning for general carefulness. In both communities, children interpreted the teachings in their own ways. We argue that domestic pedagogies of peace and conflict may shape war–peace dynamics, though not in linear ways.
In 2023, Manipur, Northeast India, witnessed “ethnic conflict” between the “majority” Meitei community and “tribal” Kukis. Some commentators framed it as religious, identifying Meiteis as Hindus and Kukis as Christians, while others linked it to “narco-terrorists” engaged in trafficking and poppy cultivation along the Indo-Myanmar border. This study uses digital anthropology and frame analysis to examine social media content on the conflict. Two frames emerged: one emphasizing antagonism between ethnic or ethno-religious groups; the other calling for peace. Widely shared content by journalists and activists labeled the conflict “ethnic,” identifying actors in ethnic terms. The study contributes to scholarship on ethno-political conflict and the online discourse–offline violence relationship, showing how framing enemy “others” reinforces ethnic group competition as a self-evident explanation for conflict.
Khayyat, Munira. 2022. A Landscape of War: Ecologies of Resistance and Survival in South Lebanon. Oakland: University of California Press.
It is tempting to interpret the eruption of armed violence in various parts of the world as a break with the past. However, in this special section, we call for attention to “conflict continuities” to understand contemporary violence. Challenging the conventional focus on causes or consequences, we argue that past violent conflict may serve to generate new conflict, in reworked forms. We foreground the psychosocial dynamics of conflict, particularly as they affect social relations and worldviews, often reproduced through cultural narratives. The special section brings together five studies from across Africa. In different ways, they reveal how conflicts are remembered, reiterated, and reproduced in narratives that circulate in families, communities, and national-level politics, thus embodying a generative force for new conflict and struggle.
How do Nigeria’s socioeconomic challenges influence the revival of memories of the Nigeria–Biafra war among survivors and their descendants? How do these recollections affect their daily life experiences? This article examines the motivations of the descendants of war survivors and how local “memory entrepreneurs” have become “cult heroes” with a messianic presence throughout Igboland, Nigeria. The study explores how multiple anxieties contribute to the mobilization of memories from the war. It employs a multi-sited ethnographic methodology, utilizing the “go-along method,” reviews of print and social media platforms, and the physical documentation of protests to explore the emergence of contemporary Biafran struggles. By contributing to the understanding of everyday life and civil society in postcolonial African societies, this article enhances our understanding of conflict continuities in Nigeria.
