Authority that is customary
Kitawala, customary chiefs, and the plurality of power in Congolese history
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2182575 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nicole Eggers (Knoxville College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 24-42 |
| Publication date | 2020-01-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Eastern African Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1753-1055 • E-ISSN: 1753-1063 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/17531055.2019.1708544 |
| OpenAlex | W2997129923 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 26 |
This paper uses the history of the religious/healing movement Kitawala in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a lens to explore the relationship between forms of state-sanctioned “customary” authority and alternative nodes of “authority that is customary.” Focusing on three different case studies from different eras of the colonial and post-colonial history of Kitawala, the article explores the history of how the movement became part of the broad field of authority in Congo – at times cutting across, at times transforming, and at times subverting or fracturing the authority of customary chiefs. The article emphasizes not only how state-appointed customary authorities had to negotiate their position between emergent institutions like Kitawala and the colonial state, but also how Kitawalist communities themselves cultivated ideas and institutions of authority, legitimacy, and morality that were often explicitly critical of the state and its institutions and representatives (whether colonial or customary). The article argues that alternative nodes of authority like those cultivated by Kitawalist communities were and are, even in their innovations, rooted in the dynamic history of Central African ideas and institutions of power and must therefore be considered in histories of customary authority in the region
Colonialism · Democracy · Legitimacy · Negotiation · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sociology · State (computer science · Traditional authority · African Studies and Ethnography · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Law · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies
The Social basis of health and healing in Africa
Political Legitimacy in Middle Africa
Colonizers, Scholars, and the Creation of Invisible Histories
Kongo Political Culture
Explanation and Uncertainty in the Medical World of Ghaambo
Armed groups and the exercise of public authority
Religion and Resistance
A Nervous State
The Great Depression and the Making of the Colonial Economic System in the Belgian Congo
Liberating the Captives
Wealth in People as Wealth in Knowledge
Anioto
Possibility and Constraint
Neo-Traditionalism and the Limits of Invention in British Colonial Africa
Prophètes, politiciens et légitimité politique
Citizen and Subject
Violence, Sacrifice and Chiefship in Central Equatoria, Southern Sudan
Aniotoandnebeli
Contesting the militarization of the places where they met
Mukombozi and Themonganga
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,67 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2025 (6) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |