Kufala! Translating witchcraft in an Angolan-Chinese labor dispute

Bibliographic Data

ID2227665
AuthorsCheryl Mei‐ting Schmitz (0000-0001-5357-4444, East China Normal University, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume10
Issue2
Pages473-486
Publication date2020-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHau Journal of Ethnographic Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2049-1115 • E-ISSN: 2575-1433
PublisherHAU-N.E.T (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1086/709482
OpenAlexW3017067301
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited36

Drawing on fieldwork conducted at a Chinese state-owned enterprise brought to Angola in the postwar reconstruction boom, this article devotes sustained attention to a labor dispute between an Angolan laid-off worker and his former Chinese employers. Called upon to interpret between the worker and his bosses, neither of whom spoke directly or transparently, the ethnographer found herself implicated in a prolonged negotiation of attempted kindness and unavoidable cruelty. Through repeated translations and circumlocutions, both parties attempted to preserve sociality despite being structurally positioned in an exploitative relationship. Translating this exchange into an ethnographic narrative, this paper explores how the indirectness both of speech and of witchcraft failed as social relations broke down

Art · Boom · Criminology · Cruelty · Ethnography · Kindness · Literature · Narrative · Negotiation · Political science · Social science · Sociality · Sociology · Anthropology · China's Global Influence and Migration · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Chinese history and philosophy · Law

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