Power, predation, and postwar state formation: the public discourse of ritual child rape in Liberia

Abstract

In interviews on sexual violence in postwar Liberia, nearly every respondent reported that the primary cause of rape against young children was witchcraft, for the purpose of gaining wealth and power. Qualitative findings construct a semiotic triangle in which: (i) Child rape and wealth reflect upon witchcraft by highlighting its accumulative rather than distributive nature; (ii) Child rape and witchcraft cast aspersions on power, including liberal governance and (iii) Rape is a metaphysical theft of power, a perspective that converges with some feminist analyses. Understanding this discourse can lead to better research on sexual violence in conflict-affected countries.

Keywords:

• Sexual violence
• children and youth
• conflict and security
• gender and feminism
• West Africa
• Liberia

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the ‘Agents of GBV Focus’ research teammates as well as the interview participants for their involvement, and to thank the editors and two anonymous peer reviewers for their constructive advice.

Notes

1. Bruthus, “Zero Tolerance for Liberian Rapists.”

2. Isis-WICCE, A Situation Analysis.

3. Tayler-Smith et al. “Sexual Violence in Post-conflict Liberia.”

4. Medie, “Fighting Gender-based Violence.”

5. Abramowitz, Searching for Normal; Abramowitz and Moran, “International Human Rights, Gender-based Violence”; and Higate and Henry, Insecure Spaces.

6. Tayler-Smith et al. “Sexual Violence in Post-conflict Liberia.”

7. Hunnicutt, “Varieties of Patriarchy”; and Ellsberg et al., “Prevention of Violence.”

8. Geschiere, “Witchcraft and the Limits of the Law.”

9. Scott, Weapons of the Weak.

10. Geschiere, Modernity of Witchcraft, 200.

11. Shaw, “The Production of Witchcraft”, Memories of the Slave Trade; and van de Grijspaarde et al., “Who Believes in Witches?”

12. Mbembe, On the Postcolony; Murrey, “Invisible Power, Visible Dispossession”; and Piot, Remotely Global.

13. Ellis, Mask of Anarchy; “Mystical Weapons”; “Liberia 1989–1994”; and Utas, “Sweet Battlefields.”

14. Hoffman, The War Machines; and Keen, Conflict & Collusion.

15. McLean et al., “Community-based Reports”; and Thornhill, “Academic Questions about Ebola.”

16. For example, some neighbourhoods had side streets that turned out to be distinctly less safe than main roads. A truly randomised sample method would have brought us into these areas against our instincts. In one neighbourhood that my research teammate and I knew very well, a resident approached us to advise us that our current location was dangerous and we should walk back to the main road.

17. Ellsberg and Heise, Researching Violence against Women; and Campbell, Emotionally Involved.

18. Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies; and Harding and Norberg, “New Feminist Approaches.”

19. Abramowitz, “The Poor Have Become Rich.”

20. Bruthus, “Zero Tolerance for Liberian Rapists.”

21. Jewkes,Martin, and Penn-Kekana, “The Virgin Cleansing Myth.”

22. Fassin, Humanitarian Reason, 171.

23. Fassin also points out that in South Africa and international media, lurid stories of obscene acts by black men invoke racialised tropes of fear and exoticism. While I agree with this characterisation of how international journalism tends to gaze upon Africa, racist tropes in the Liberian context are markedly different than post-apartheid South Africa due to the countries’ different histories.

24. Abramowitz, Searching for Normal.

25. Hunnicutt, “Varieties of Patriarchy”; and Ellsberg et al., “Prevention of Violence.”

26. Shaw, Memories of the Slave Trade; and Ferme, Underneath of Things.

27. Appadurai, Fear of Small Numbers.

28. Ellis, Mask of Anarchy.

29. Shaw, “Production of Witchcraft”; and Cooper, House at Sugar Beach.

30. Geschiere, Modernity of Witchcraft; Piot, Remotely Global, and Shaw, “Production of Witchcraft.”

31. van de Grijspaarde et al., “Who Believes in Witches?,” 29.

32. Ibid.

33. Geschiere, Modernity of Witchcraft; and Comaroff and Comaroff, “Law and Disorder in the Postcolony.”

34. Mbembe, On the Postcolony; and Piot, Remotely Global.

35. Ferme, Underneath of Things, 184.

36. Piot, Remotely Global, 68.

37. Moran, Violence of Democracy.

38. Baines, “Body Politics and the Rwandan Crisis”; Das, Life and Words; Enloe, Maneuvers; and Turshen, What Women Do in Wartime.

39. Amadiume, Reinventing Africa; Anderson, Diabah, and Mensah, “Powerful Women in Powerless Language”; Ampofo et al., “Women’s and Gender Studies”; Ogundipe-Leslie, Re-Creating Ourselves; and Andrade, “Gender and ‘the Public Sphere’ in Africa.”

40. Thornhill, “‘You Must Sit on the Old Mat to Ply the New One’.”

41. Richards, Fighting for the Rainforest, 114.

42. My teenage host brother, an artist and former member of the Liberian Dance Troupe from Buduburum Refugee Camp, offered another perspective while watching the film: ‘I like John Rambo. But not as my role model’ (Unpublished Facebook comment, February 23, 2013).

43. Hoffman, “Like Beasts in the Bush.”

44. Benhabib, “Political Geographies in a Global World.”

45. Hunnicutt, “Varieties of Patriarchy.”

46. Das, “Sexual Violence, Discursive Formations.”

47. Shaw, “Production of Witchcraft,” 857.

48. Geschiere, Modernity of Witchcraft, 200.

49. Shaw, “Production of Witchcraft,” 857.

50. Ellis, Mask of Anarchy; and Ferme, The underneath of Things.

51. UNMIL, “Research on Prevalence and Attitudes to Rape in Liberia.”

52. Geschiere, Modernity of Witchcraft.

53. Leeson and Coyne, “Sassywood.”

54. Sarkar, “Exploring GBV Prevention in Liberia.”

55. Duffield, Global Governance and the New Wars; and Paris, “Saving Liberal Peacebuilding.”

56. Pailey, “Birthplace, Bloodline and Beyond.”