Ethnogovernmentality: The making of ethnic territories and subjects in Eastern DR Congo
This article investigates colonial constructions of ethnicity and territory and their effects in the post-independence period in eastern DRC
Abstract
This article investigates colonial constructions of ethnicity and territory and their effects in the post-independence period in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The core argument of the article is that the constructions of ethnicity and territory that are set in motion in struggles over political space in the Congolese conflicts are conditioned by “ethnogovernmentality”, which denotes a heterogeneous ensemble of biopolitical and territorial rationalities and practices of power concerned with the conduct of ethnic populations. Through ethnogovernmentality, colonial authorities sought to impose ordered scientific visions of ethnicity, custom, culture, space, territory, and geography, upon ambivalent cultures and spaces. While ethnogovernmentality failed to produce the stability and order the colonial authorities sought, its ethno-territorial regime of truth and practice has had durable effects on people’s sense of self and on struggles over political space.
This work is part of the Conflict Research Programme managed by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and funded by the UK Department for International Development.
Citation
Kasper Hoffmann. Ethnogovernmentality: The making of ethnic territories and subjects in Eastern DR Congo, Geoforum, 2019 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2019.10.002
Link
Ethnogovernmentality: The making of ethnic territories and subjects in Eastern DR Congo