Conjuring the Modern in Africa: Durability and Rupture in Histories of Public Healing between the Great Lakes of East Africa

Abstract

The valuable emphasis on modernity in colonial and postcolonial African studies has profoundly divided precolonial African history from what comes after. But the depth and complexity of African aspirations for moral community and the forms of collective action they inspire, often in the face of severe material constraints, exceed the explanatory power of narratives of modernity oriented toward the history of capital, colony, and commerce. Long-term regional histories of durable bundles of meaning and practice grounded in Africa address these matters in part by working across tight spaces of ethnicity and beyond shallow chronologies. In particular, a history of public healing reveals compelling notions of public health and forms of power that cut across the colonial period but were transformed by colonialism. Public healing has wrestled with shifting boundaries between a porous social body's moral communities and the starker outline of an embodied, autonomous individual. Modes of power and authority central to politics and to healing practices, public or private, have moved uneasily but productively against each other over the last millennium, as agricultural systems changed, as centralized states formed, and as commodified economies grew. Over the last century, they have moved against the forms of power and authority embodied in a colonial state or in biomedicine. In the context of public healing between the African Great Lakes, the historical complexity of relations between these entangled aspects of life reveals a heterotemporal modern Africa beyond the hybrid or the alternative forms of modernity so prevalent in the literature. Since the 1990s, work in African colonial history has emphasized African appropriations of European forms of knowledge and practice in a single field of culture inflected by political economy. These ethnographically dense explorations of what has been called “the colonial situation” push beyond a paradigm of “encounter” into a contingent history of colonial and postcolonial modernity. One scholar, Nancy Rose Hunt, finds valuable sources for her analytical categories in a precolonial Central African history of bodies, gender, aspiration, and mobility by focusing on “colonial middle figures” such as nurses.1 The historian Florence Bernault argues that a single field of violent struggle over power enveloped Europeans and Africans in a common set of practices related to the body, some of which have roots in precolonial African histories.2 Jean Comaroff and John Comaroff also focus on middle figures and power, but precolonial historical trajectories play an inconsistent role in their analysis. Sometimes, they condense them in the moment just before Europeans arrived in the interior of southern Africa.3 Other times, they speak of a steadfast continuity in the trajectory of African practices: “the will to assimilate the knowledges of alien cultures was inherent in the epistemes and ethnopractice of these peoples even before the arrival of the Europeans, and has remained so ever since.” Mostly, the Comaroffs explore the ways in which precolonial African cultural practices were utterly transformed by encounters with Europeans.4 Must their valuable focus on transformation sustain an analytical divide between the “much more” of what came before and all that did get drawn into “the colonial encounter”? If some of the terms on which the colonial transformations unfolded have their roots in what came before, their earlier histories need study.5 Steven Feierman doubts that framing colonial history in terms of appropriation opens up “how patterns of action and forms of signifying practice within African societies came to be understood as fragmented and partial” and reveals “the process by which important cultural domains came to disappear.”6 He worries that the specificities of colonial-cultural mixtures tend to make historical sense in terms of layered narratives that “originate in Europe,” particularly the narratives of capitalism and of Protestantism and the implicit, general sense of their historical relations to each other. They offer “a certain coherence” of historical imagination concerning the African past, even though “we can expect” each of these stories “to exist in creative tension with larger historical narratives … the central question is, which larger narratives?”7 The missing narratives regional histories of and and explanatory be regional history a role to play historical knowledge in the to to which of of what Africans did and what they they were they to the of One of these creative in that entangled with the modernity of the moral communities which Africans their aspirations and address of which to comes to in regional historical with African has that European narratives of and colony, and the European they and in to the life practices that the political and the but the of a historical of public healing by as the to sense of African modernity. has been with But even a of reveals that the between the modern and can be The colonial by Africans was the that Europeans and Africans to their as in colonial and divide by that African were of and of historical on Africa from these One studies the just before and colonial colonial and postcolonial The the to the century, African economies and societies were drawn into a of and some histories of in Africa cut across these but even they to the The work of in African and Steven the of these of Africa to each other and to the history of Africa before the the of and the for transformation in in the He of historical in what the African political a of that in and and in their The that African societies before were the for the of the But also argues that between the and the the of colonial the African a the peoples of the to their and to of the But they to their and to of the by them for a which be as as of action was The particularly violent of the the of the of an African political But and in Central African the for colonial In Steven Feierman argues that the creative of a Feierman the role of in the creative of by He understood as of and of cultural material to The creative and of by an colonial reveals certain such as forms of political in play across the between and postcolonial a of they a political in a by a The social of in will that in political the of social and of struggle within The of in precolonial cultural as and by but as part of and of in to in and a They up the of African and in colonial and postcolonial as part of an of moral the work of bundles of durable to of material by African and historical and have the of social and political and of in Africa the were the transformations by African and The transformations of meaning and practice in public healing have moral and collective that in Africa In a for the a the of on a with an that in the middle of the in a of with called in a in and what of their and The They a on a for They and to to the of that the of the they the they were that they their they the to an They were that they the in a they their and as a to have the of the a a in a was which and for a and by the moved the in the and them to the of her the them to their and each a of to The Great of by The in and in to in a tight and to have as these in terms from the histories of economies and cultures and with and roots in or But the and their and practices they and the with which they and the explanatory power of the history of the of even they be The of collective action and moral community work in beyond an African history of capitalism the that they the of capitalism in They also beyond the explanatory power of “a that has been the role in a postcolonial histories of healing practice of public of by shifting the of from a focus on and to the historical of and These peoples struggle to their of the in that and their of the The of such a in in as their aspirations with and of and The of the up in narratives to the on the with before, and the of colonial The of a in societies the of and has a life in the have been in a common for in the Great to that and by across from to and have a history in and in the with the and and work of the a historical of and practice that and postcolonial in the between and “a in a modern of These entangled central to to the histories of that a or a If of the of modernity on to history to the by beyond “the and of stories of the also stories of and the history of public healing the and practices that have in “the struggle over the and moral of political and social reveals in the depth of these and practices a of struggle that often in to or a of the on to the power to and to of what a and what in historical “to focus on such were in historical the sources to these the sources have been a in the in the moral community and collective action the of public healing in histories have and they on and and they work with of historical and and even or of studies of the Great focus on and to from other often and the of political as as the that such historical In the of the century, as the of sources in and the complexity of histories of the The of can be as as regional histories of and material and The and of material culture over and social but cultural by from often a in from the context In the practice of argues that in the to and historical In the Great have a of and their with have their of the of these in a of power and authority drawn from the the and of the in as figures of or in histories to speak of in narratives of the of and and of but of In some of the Feierman has that the of such and that a of in the of forms of and continuity in of the other historical even But from and from and often and just The of a on other of and of or can be to in other histories and of the One by related the of of and the and in and The to the of earlier a historical of the and in and by their across the and the of communities over earlier be on the of their in the and on a set of the of If a with the and the or meaning in a set of to be that all were from their common such as of of If the of the in meaning that a or a of a field to a of a set of related that the to that was the to a of and in and the to a of and in and The of these on the of the of the in the of within The of Great in play the historical of the the of the of the history of healing practice in the of a of historical on common in and on the of forms and The in the or part of the of the meaning “to be to be to the But a to a and the such a as a and meaning in a of to of Great The and were by Great histories in the that and on to The to also they forms of But they the meaning from action and in In other the of in a the durable and of the social of which have over and a single can be the of and the of and and The and of of meaning to by the terms in the work in continuity and of Great in some of these exist or of sources of historical and in and such narratives of the and they also to and transformation in such as collective and moral These and some of the in which they have push the of the and the modern in over social and moral community the of on what the of and the of relations and political life that to argues that the to life in and in of social the of the and the of in a on the of The power of “to in their to the of power and the of and If “the that and of the of social and of moral community and their and of be as that to their aspirations in play in a against their as to moral a on the of to have been a into a of and of with a a and their the they their that moral communities exist a a or history or or history and beyond But the to on social and historical of and life in the of in the “a hybrid a of a moral against the of In the 1990s, to a cultural of their a moral from an postcolonial of these on and of moral with of a cultural with and relations of authority and with which that practice and power and as They and but they so in a public by and The practices of social in to a of the and The of the and the authority of the regional historical trajectories of the that to health and to practice healing the of moral moral and the and sources for these of action in be with the social of health and healing practices in African can the history of public healing central to larger in the history of the Great in African history histories of the of the of a social in African history other of the body, of the of relations between life and of notions of and They histories of as as in public as they histories of the that and sustain African histories of healing with these larger but they with of across cultures and forms of action with “the social of and on precolonial healing in Africa has on the of to In between of and of of just but of by the and of or in of and southern Africa often as the work of an a a was of to a public all were understood in just which the of a of by a or a the the or and a These of the of public health and to the figures of a of from figures to larger communities with of beyond of or The of certain and in the of public often understood to work in these a be the of public in which was to and these have been before the and on with to in to came from from and from the and and as for of their But other to of a field of or to from material just of their of their by the of a or and of other of and in called or in European were often central to the from the power to work the boundaries between the and the on the of the that to or to The on which were to were matters of and as as of They were a of and a of the historian has that and to “the of the and social of which were in with the of historical to the in the relations between these But the of was and of precolonial Africa can aspects of the role of in these they the of in the of practices, and that for of a The called some of these The in from to and from to also a of in a of of the Central African to a set of public healing practices, and that to and of communities and of from or social and to make sense of in or of to of them with a for their and into a larger community of In or or a of or and and their and and often and or by a or to the of The of and public and in healing across the of the to the of and the public healing of and beyond or a of the that to The of the be understood as to the of material and and as “the of of and The of these healing practices in of and from a that practices in Africa as the of in terms of and moral in they the of the by that and that the culture of that an to her has an they the and the of in terms of social relations and moral moral with the the of The of and as and political and over and up what to and what to as “a or the in The of an African regional history of and in the between the of and to that history to and practices the history of public healing between the Great and have been in play from times, as by the historical of the to the the “to be by or to a in a that in all of Great The meaning an from the which “to or in a Great and the of by a to the of or They a from to the did the and the been from the as health for the health of communities by a or set of and with the health of with or their The in the social of knowledge to health and healing with the power of in public forms of healing such as and of these forms of healing in the and the of their and and and often by practice on in the meaning of “to or The and for these was from a that “to or “to a to that of these the of or and to or for in and in aspects of a healing between the Great in the Great as a were and they were to the of an a or a on and Great peoples health and the a of them the power to or which also for “to They an even to But they understood a to be particularly in or of the larger of healing The or that and over the last exceed the in the but they a within which and healing practices of in Great These which have been as of the of and the and material with which communities of public They other to and or in the and and to the middle of the as the which these communities of and their and and public also be from a meaning over or to also be from a meaning over or to The histories of for and the relations between of health and of that healing practices in creative tension with social and political These domains of life or of the aspirations of and in social life the of were by their to and so They were the for and the moral and social that In the of the and and to the of on the of to a of that in such as or and of They the and of these a of agricultural and to that to the of in a and to systems to communities of the to forms of such as and systems on of which they called or as of the or in a They were in the of a and the of of from that of to of a or of an on the knowledge that from or as or in that their for the of communities larger a single or called in the of the and for them and in their and for all be they of the or sources that or were such in the millennium, of that to for such as and for over to to as for to by was a to which the and authority to over and of the of a by a and to a by that a in or social of the of of have of and the moment of or to their community as in of public healing to their to a to the in which they such as in to the the of and as a of on the and in the in the and into larger of related by with that the of the and of regional in such as and The in the on in the of by In the for and from their the power of the The in transformation were the and the of which the and the with their communities of societies with to of into the of of the of the millennium, the community into communities of and such as in and came to of and the of the of to a by that to and for the health of of and the of the they to their they into their political economies the material sources of that the The of some to for a of the in the Great that from these by be across the a that the of single to or power to other were in and the power to of and the authority of in and to a the authority of by of and of They these of to the material in and that the that the of and just and to a as a to in and with of and relations such as and on the between a and these to of the and sources and categories of their and so of and in a the have that their in categories of the and of The of some figures with the of public The in a the between and with and or of The was the of such as or the power in the of a with the general healing of in In over their power over the they and to the of struggle on their The of with public healing central to the of healing from to forms important was the for healing and and for and on was on the from the that and a between and the of the the a that as a a continuity between in the and figures such as the central of with and the of in collective The power in by and her to and the of the of the the and of and these as a of or was and of all the of that and They did so the of the millennium, as the of a period of over the to “the of up in the interior of the of a general in the they a moral and social that have been to as as southern These in a of healing practice in the middle of the millennium, the century, as and societies to into communities that as and and working with and as an of they called These from of just or or the did their to have a or a with These they or in in to have been to a of over The of the the of the which the of an with or of was earlier in the millennium, the of the life of the with and histories that speak a period of in the between and that a century, the of the and the of was agricultural systems to for in the face of social and political that of which were of to and collective was the context in which that they the of social life the of important to the that their and the to them the of to but also to the and of their them a to the of their power to a larger beyond the of to power of public by the Other with the of public These in ways in of the but they a durable set of which political the and these and the speak for came to of the The historia

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