Epidemics and intra-communal contestations

Ekeh, 'les Guinéens'and Ebola in West Africa

Bibliographic Data

ID4252250
AuthorsAto Kwamena Onoma (0000-0002-2033-6324, Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume56
Issue4
Pages595-617
Publication date2018-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Modern African Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-278X • E-ISSN: 1469-7777
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0022278x18000563
OpenAlexW2902877301
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited92

As the Ebola epidemic ravaged the Mano River Basin in 2014, there was concern in Senegal that the resident Peul community of Guinean origins will cause the spread of the disease to Senegal. These fears went unrealized as the Peul migrants embraced many of the epidemic control and prevention measures, which often distanced them from primordial publics in Guinea. While partly motivated by concern over the dangers of Ebola, Peul migrants embraced these measures also because the epidemic and measures advocated to curb it allowed them to assert greater autonomy in their often-fractious relations with primordial publics in their places of origin in Guinea. Their embrace of these measures suggests a rethink of the emphasis on intercommunal strife, intra-communal conviviality and trenchant state-society chasms, which pervades much work on the political economy of postcolonial Africa and which draws significant inspiration from the work of Peter Ekeh

Autonomy · Development economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Publics · Sociology · Work (physics · African Studies and Ethnography · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Law · Viral Infections and Outbreaks Research