Masterless Men

Riots, Patronage, and the Politics of the Surplus Population in Kinshasa

Bibliographic Data

ID2228256
AuthorsJoe Trapido (corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume62
Issue2
Pages198-217
Publication date2021-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCurrent Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0011-3204 • E-ISSN: 1537-5382
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/713765
OpenAlexW3004955803
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited43

On the basis of fieldwork in Kinshasa, this essay makes a link between riots, the recent anthropology of "surplus populations," and\ndistributive politics in low-income countries, especially Africa. Tracing the history of a political demonstration turned riot, it shows\nhow distribution structures the interactions between rich and poor in the city. Situating the riot in a context in which subjects are\ndependent on the market for goods but are not able to sell their labor, the essay shows the riot to be a rational intervention in a\nplace where elites do not see popular support as especially important and where occupying space and controlling circulation and\ndistribution are the primary political-economic imperatives

Circulation (fluid dynamics · Context (archaeology · Development economics · Distribution (mathematics · Economics · Intervention (counseling · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Space (punctuation) · Gender Studies · History · Law · Water Governance and Infrastructure

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