TY - JOUR

T1 - Bandits Fall from Grace

T2 - Liberation heroes and alter-politics in Bissau

AU - Vigh, Henrik Erdman

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - This article looks at the rise and fall of political legitimacy in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau. Building on long-term fieldwork with impoverished city dwellers, it looks at the legitimacy and sociality surrounding political figures and movements in the country, commencing with the liberation movement (the PAIGC) and ending in the current situation of large-scale drug-trafficking. While the liberation movement was initially portrayed as consisting of noble (Marxist) bandits, the post-independence period has seen the former liberation heroes lose their positive symbolic presence. Established as an alternative to colonial power, the PAIGC fought for the emancipation of the country’s people and the realization of an Afro-Marxist political order emanating from its native population. After independence, however, the validity of the PAIGC’s claim to power started to decay and become distorted. People became disenchanted with politics, which lost its communal esteem. The imagery and discourse surrounding the PAIGC thus changed and the liberation hero’s status moved from that of a social to an anti-social and eventually asocial bandit. The figure became, as such, stripped of its “social” mollifier, leaving behind merely the bandido, to use the Creole term: a predatory figure focussed on individual gain rather than collective well-being.

AB - This article looks at the rise and fall of political legitimacy in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau. Building on long-term fieldwork with impoverished city dwellers, it looks at the legitimacy and sociality surrounding political figures and movements in the country, commencing with the liberation movement (the PAIGC) and ending in the current situation of large-scale drug-trafficking. While the liberation movement was initially portrayed as consisting of noble (Marxist) bandits, the post-independence period has seen the former liberation heroes lose their positive symbolic presence. Established as an alternative to colonial power, the PAIGC fought for the emancipation of the country’s people and the realization of an Afro-Marxist political order emanating from its native population. After independence, however, the validity of the PAIGC’s claim to power started to decay and become distorted. People became disenchanted with politics, which lost its communal esteem. The imagery and discourse surrounding the PAIGC thus changed and the liberation hero’s status moved from that of a social to an anti-social and eventually asocial bandit. The figure became, as such, stripped of its “social” mollifier, leaving behind merely the bandido, to use the Creole term: a predatory figure focussed on individual gain rather than collective well-being.

U2 - 10.4000/terrain.21541

DO - 10.4000/terrain.21541

M3 - Journal article

JO - Terrain

JF - Terrain

SN - 0760-5668

M1 - 74

ER -