Hunting Game: Raiding Politics in the Central African Republic: 61 (The International African Library, Series Number 61)
Cambridge University Press, 3/5/2020
EAN 9781108478779, ISBN10: 1108478778
Hardcover, 270 pages, 22.9 x 15.9 x 2.5 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
Northeastern Central African Republic - a vast space bordering Chad, Darfur, and South Sudan - is a quintessential 'stateless' space, where the government has little presence and armed actors operate freely. In this first ethnographic and historical study of Central African raiding, Louisa Lombard investigates practices of forceful acquisition, a distinctive political repertoire in which claims to social status are linked to the ability to take (from wild spaces, or from others) and are frequently overturned. People have developed raiding skills to survive and live in a stateless borderland for over 150 years. From the trans-Saharan slave trade, to colonial forced labour regimes, big game hunting and coercive conservation, to rebellion, raiding has flourished where people's status in relation to each other is unclear and where institutional guidance is absent. Hunting Game offers rich comparative insights into the vibrant, if not always salutary, role that forceful acquisition plays in the world today.
1. Introduction
force, status, and uncertainty in arts of acquisition
2. Zariba contests and collaborations
3. Manhunt
the dominance of acquisition in an unfortunate colony
4. Big game hunting and regulatory sociality
5. The limits of law in coercive conservation
6. Camouflage skills
7. Denunciation and liberty
8. Rebellion
force and hopes for status and entitlement
9. Conclusion
sovereignty and distribution amid forceful acquisition.