Riots in Matonge and… the indifference of public authority

Bibliographic Data

ID17818808
AuthorsSarah Demart (0000-0002-9550-5591, University of Liège, corresponding author)
TranslatorsGail Ann Fagen
Year2016
Publication date2016-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBrussels Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2031-0293 • E-ISSN: 2031-0293
PublisherInstitut de Recherche Interdisciplinaire sur Bruxelles (PUBLISHER • BE)
DOI10.4000/brussels.1168
OpenAlexW2572164873
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited12

Twenty years after the first “North African” riots, in the winter of 2011‐2012 Brussels was the scene of “Congolese” demonstrations which some media and political officials qualified as riots. The idea that political conflicts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) had been transposed to Belgium took hold, while the material damage, despite especially heavy riot suppression measures, seemed to have solidly entrenched the image of the violent demonstrator who only understood the language of the nightstick. Based on an ethnographic study of these demonstrations and research in Congolese communities over the past 10 years, the author takes another look at these two weeks of urban violence to ask, on the one hand whether these demonstrations could be actually qualified as riots, and on the other whether the differential treatment by the State compared to the North African riots may be the expression of a significant ethnicization of public policies

Political science · Public authority · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Political Conflict and Governance · Public Administration