FOOD, PEACE, AND ORGANIZING: LIBERIAN MARKET WOMEN IN PEACETIME A Dissertation by JOELLE MARIE CRUZ Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY August 2012 Major Subject: Communication Food, Peace, and Organizing: Liberian Market Women in Peacetime Copyright 2012 Joelle Marie Cruz FOOD, PEACE, AND ORGANIZING: LIBERIAN MARKET WOMEN IN PEACETIME A Dissertation by JOELLE MARIE CRUZ Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved by: Co-Chairs of Committee, Charles R. Conrad Ashley Currier Committee Members, Antonio C. La Pastina Jennifer Mease Head of Department, James Aune August 2012 Major Subject: Communication iii ABSTRACT Food, Peace and Organizing: Liberian Market Women in Peacetime. (August 2012) Joelle Marie Cruz, B.A., Université Charles-de-Gaulle-Lille 3; M.A., Université Charles-de-Gaulle-Lille 3; M.A., Indiana State University Co-Chairs of Advisory Committee, Dr. Charles R. Conrad Dr. Ashley Currier This dissertation explores Liberian market women’s food distribution activities and specifically focuses on their organizations and practices in postconflict times. During the last few years, Liberian market women have received considerable national and international attention. They have been hailed as heroines because of the significance they played in supplying food to Liberians during the civil war. However, little is known of their micro-world. This paradox constitutes the starting point of my dissertation, which explored market women’s micro-level understandings and practices as related to peacebuilding. I used African feminist ethnography as a theoretical and methodological lens to investigate market women’s organizations and practices surrounding food distribution in the capital city of Monrovia. African feminist ethnography incorporates insights from African feminist theory and feminist ethnography. It gives attention to issues of importance in West Africa like food and violent conflict. It also rejects the framing of African women as victims of war and recognizes their full agency. I conducted 40 in- iv depth semi-structured interviews with market women as well as observations in Fiamah, a daily food market located in central Monrovia. I examined market women’s grassroots organizations called susu groups. Susu groups are informal credit unions that provide money to market women, necessary to purchase food items and maintain the market business. Findings illuminated the significance of wartime memories on postconflict susu group organizing practices. In this sense, memories of disruption and distrust engendered susu groups that were different from their prewar counterparts. Results also pointed at the invisible nature of susu groups, which had to balance their tendency towards secrecy with the pressure to become visible in a postconflict context where questions of organizational transparency dominated. I also investigated how market women made sense of their food distribution position in the peacebuilding era. Findings revealed that the women framed their role as one of community keeping. They emphasized the physical nature of food distribution which also necessitated maneuvering. Ultimately, food distribution gave them a sense of empowerment in postconflict times. These understandings reified class distinctions between market women and Liberian elites. v DEDICATION In loving memory of my dear grandmother, Marie Diallo. Thank you for teaching me a thing or two about compassion, kindness, and grace. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my committee co-chairs, Dr. Charles Conrad and Dr. Ashley Currier for their guidance, support, and feedback throughout the course of this research and my doctoral studies. Dr. Conrad, thank you for being such a supportive mentor and advisor. During the course of these four years, I have received nothing but encouragement from you. You gave me the best piece of advice during the second year of my Ph.D., which was to explore a dissertation topic that really mattered to me. Dr. Currier, you have provided help and assistance in all realms of my course of study and academic career. Thank you for being such an attentive and helpful mentor and encouraging me to become a better scholar. Your thorough feedback has helped me to constantly improve the quality of my work. I am particularly grateful to you for having introduced me to African feminisms, which will undoubtedly continue to shape my academic trajectory in the next years. Dr. Antonio La Pastina, thank you for your great care, feedback, and understanding in all endeavors that I have undertaken during my doctoral studies. Dr. Jennifer Mease, thank you for being such an attentive and helpful mentor. You have always been available when I needed assistance and provided invaluable advice on a variety of topics. I am also deeply indebted to the Communication Department at TAMU for generously supporting my research through the Marcia and Kirk Blackard’63 Fellowship in Communication as well as the Departmental Research Grant. Not only vii has the Department provided financial support, but also allowed me to grow as a scholar by always being open and receptive to my research endeavors. I am particularly grateful to a few professors who have shaped my orientation to research, including Dr. Aisha Durham, Dr. Antonio La Pastina, Dr. Barbara Sharf, and Dr. Kevin Barge. I would also like to express my wholehearted gratitude to the Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities for supporting my research through the Brown-Kruse Graduate Scholar Award and providing me with an office, in which I completed most of my dissertation. Thank you for the reception of several other grants, including the Graduate Travel to Fieldwork Grant and the Graduate Travel to Conference Grant. I am also indebted to the Office of Graduate Studies (OGS) at TAMU for awarding me the TAMU Dissertation Fellowship for the years 2011-2012. This fellowship was crucial in allowing me to finish my dissertation in a timely manner. I am also extending my deep gratitude to my Liberian family, Yoquai Vernont- Lavala, Adelaine Vernont-Lavala, and their two wonderful girls Yasini and Nabia. Thank you for hosting and feeding me during my entire stay in Monrovia. You took me in as family and graciously provided assistance to facilitate my research. I am deeply touched and humbled by all that you have done to help me. Thank you to my dear friend Dekontee Nuah for showing me Monrovia. Finally and most importantly, this project would have never been possible without the support of Fiamah market women and the market superintendent and assistant superintendent. I would like to acknowledge all the wonderful market women, who agreed to share a little bit of their world with a total viii stranger coming from “America.” Thank you to Fiamah superintendent and assistant superintendent as well for granting me access to the research site. Finally, I owe what I have achieved to my support system in Africa, Europe, and America. I would like to thank my creative and free-spirited parents, Lydie Boka-Mené and Joël Cruz for fostering my intellectual curiosity from a young age. Mom, thank you for shaping my critical consciousness early on and for teaching me that we must never stop to be revolted by injustice and inequality. Dad, thank you for buying me as many books as I wanted from the bookstore when I was little and for being my biggest supporter during my doctoral studies. I also want to acknowledge my wonderfully quirky and witty siblings, Emma and Louis. I extend my gratitude to my dear family, the Boka- Menés in Abidjan, who have endured difficult times during the civil war in 2011. I am looking forward to a durable peace in Côte d'Ivoire. Thank you as well to my best friends, Annick Amoa in Paris and Christiane Yelibi in Washington D.C. for their unfaltering support. Finally, I wish to acknowledge my College Station family. I thank my sister Vandy Ramadurai for all her good care and love. I found in you a best friend, who supported me through both good and rough times. I deeply enjoyed our intellectual conversations but most importantly our friendship. Thank you to my good friends in the Math Department at TAMU, including Abraham Martin Del Campo, Sunnie Joshi, and Daniel Redelmeier. Dear Abraham, I always looked forward to our coffee breaks while writing my dissertation. I deeply enjoyed our conversations on life, math, and ix communication. Finally, thanks to my boyfriend Carlton for his love, care, and understanding. x TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT.............................................................................................................. iii DEDICATION .......................................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS.......................................................................................... x LIST OF FIGURES................................................................................................... xii LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION................................................................................ 1 Rationale........................................................................................