Raiding Sovereignty in Central African Borderlands by Louisa Nicolaysen Lombard Department of Cultural Anthropology Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Charles Piot, Supervisor ___________________________ Orin Starn ___________________________ William O’Barr ___________________________ Peter Redfield ___________________________ Janet Roitman Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Cultural Anthropology in the Graduate School of Duke University 2012 ABSTRACT Raiding Sovereignty in Central African Borderlands by Louisa Nicolaysen Lombard Department of Cultural Anthropology Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Charles Piot, Supervisor ___________________________ Orin Starn ___________________________ William O’Barr ___________________________ Peter Redfield ___________________________ Janet Roitman An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Cultural Anthropology in the Graduate School of Duke University 2012 Copyright by Louisa Nicolaysen Lombard 2012 Abstract This dissertation focuses on raiding and sovereignty in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) northeastern borderlands, on the margins of Darfur. A vast literature on social evolution has assumed the inevitability of political centralization. But these borderlands show centralization does not always occur. Never claimed by any centralizing forces, the area has instead long been used as a reservoir of resources by neighboring areas’ militarized entrepreneurs, who seek the savanna’s goods. The raiders seize resources but also govern. The dynamics of this zone, much of it a place anthropologists used to refer to as “stateless,” suggest a re-thinking of the modalities of sovereignty. The dissertation proposes conceptualizing sovereignty not as a totalizing, territorialized political order, but through its constituent governing capabilities, which may centralize or not and can combine to create hybrid political systems. The dissertation develops this framework through analysis of three categories of men-in-arms—road blockers, anti-poaching militiamen, and members of rebel groups— and their relationships with international peacebuilding initiatives. It compares roadblocks and “road cutting” (robbery) to show how these men stop traffic and create flexible, personalized entitlements to profit for those who operate them. The dissertation also probes the politics of militarized conservation: in a low-level war that has lasted for 25 years, European Union-funded militiamen fight deadly battles against herders and hunters. Though ostensibly fought to protect CAR’s “national patrimony” (its animals and plants), this war bolsters the sovereign capabilities of non-state actors and has iv resulted in hundreds of deaths in the last few years alone, many of them hidden in the bush. The dissertation then shows how CAR’s recent cycle of rebellion has changed governance in rural areas. Though mobile armed groups have long operated in CAR, they used to work as road cutters and local defense forces and only recently started calling themselves “rebels”—a move that has landed in them in new roles as “governors” of populations. Throughout these various raiders’ projects, the idea of the all-powerful state serves as a reference they use to qualify themselves with sovereign authorities. But their actions as rulers undermine the creation of the unitary political authority they desire and invoke. Failure to appreciate these non-centralized micropolitical processes is a main reason peacebuilding efforts (such as disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration) have failed. v Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ........................................................................................................................... x Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................ xi Preface .................................................................................................................................... xiv Ambivalent multisitedness ..........................................................................................xviii The independent researcher who needs a team ........................................................... xxi The archives .................................................................................................................. xxiii Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... xxv 1. Introduction: Sovereignty in the buffer zone ..................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 The return to sovereignty ............................................................................................ 6 1.2.1 Colonialism and Divisible Sovereignty ........................................................... 13 1.3 Marks of sovereignty ................................................................................................. 22 1.3.1 A typology of marks of sovereignty ................................................................ 30 1.3.1.1 Jurisdiction, as differentiated from dominion ....................................... 30 1.3.1.2 Extraction.................................................................................................. 34 1.3.1.3 Violent coercion ....................................................................................... 35 1.3.1.4 Protection.................................................................................................. 37 1.3.1.5 Diplomacy ................................................................................................ 40 1.3.1.6 Mobility .................................................................................................... 41 1.3.1.7 Invisibility................................................................................................. 42 1.3.1.8 Flexibility .................................................................................................. 44 1.3.2 Chapter overview ............................................................................................. 46 vi 1.4 Why sovereignty? ...................................................................................................... 51 1.5 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 55 2. Mapping the space: An historical geography .................................................................. 57 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 57 2.2 Mapping this space .................................................................................................... 64 2.3 Not the next frontier? ................................................................................................. 70 2.4 Raiding comes to Central Africa ............................................................................... 76 2.5 Raiding in the buffer zone ......................................................................................... 83 2.6 Colonialism ................................................................................................................. 97 2.6.1 Sous-divisions autonomes .................................................................................... 99 2.6.2 Conservation ................................................................................................... 107 2.7 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 120 3. The state of the buffer zone: Non-centralization and brokered/vicarious autonomy amid dreams of welfare..................................................................................... 123 3.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 123 3.2 Independence for the trash-can colony .................................................................. 128 3.3 Flexibility: “As an African, I must be flexible...” ................................................... 143 3.4 Negotiating mining rights: Laws as hurdles or levers .......................................... 155 3.5 Social atomization .................................................................................................... 164 3.6 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 172 4. Capabilities of dispossession: Road blockers and road cutters .................................... 176 4.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 176 4.2 Part one: Navigational tools for Central African roadblocks ............................... 177 4.2.1 Introducing roadblocks .................................................................................. 177 4.2.2 Situating roadblocks