Unmasking the State

Making Guinea Modern

Nonfiction, History, Africa, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Anthropology
Cover of the book Unmasking the State by Mike McGovern, University of Chicago Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Mike McGovern ISBN: 9780226925110
Publisher: University of Chicago Press Publication: November 29, 2012
Imprint: University of Chicago Press Language: English
Author: Mike McGovern
ISBN: 9780226925110
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication: November 29, 2012
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Language: English

When the Republic of Guinea gained independence in 1958, one of the first policies of the new state was a village-to-village eradication of masks and other ritual objects it deemed “fetishes.” The Demystification Program, as it was called, was so urgent it even preceded the building of a national road system. In Unmasking the State, Mike McGovern attempts to understand why this program was so important to the emerging state and examines the complex role it had in creating a unified national identity. In doing so, he tells a dramatic story of cat and mouse where minority groups cling desperately to their important— and outlawed—customs.

 

Primarily focused on the communities in the country’s southeastern rainforest region—people known as Forestiers—the Demystification Program operated via a paradox. At the same time it banned rituals from Forestiers’ day-to-day lives, it appropriated them into a state-sponsored program of folklorization. McGovern points to an important purpose for this: by objectifying this polytheistic group’s rituals, the state created a viable counterexample against which the Muslim majority could define proper modernity. Describing the intertwined relationship between national and local identity making, McGovern showcases the coercive power and the unintended consequences involved when states attempt to engineer culture.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

When the Republic of Guinea gained independence in 1958, one of the first policies of the new state was a village-to-village eradication of masks and other ritual objects it deemed “fetishes.” The Demystification Program, as it was called, was so urgent it even preceded the building of a national road system. In Unmasking the State, Mike McGovern attempts to understand why this program was so important to the emerging state and examines the complex role it had in creating a unified national identity. In doing so, he tells a dramatic story of cat and mouse where minority groups cling desperately to their important— and outlawed—customs.

 

Primarily focused on the communities in the country’s southeastern rainforest region—people known as Forestiers—the Demystification Program operated via a paradox. At the same time it banned rituals from Forestiers’ day-to-day lives, it appropriated them into a state-sponsored program of folklorization. McGovern points to an important purpose for this: by objectifying this polytheistic group’s rituals, the state created a viable counterexample against which the Muslim majority could define proper modernity. Describing the intertwined relationship between national and local identity making, McGovern showcases the coercive power and the unintended consequences involved when states attempt to engineer culture.

More books from University of Chicago Press

Cover of the book The Hidden Game of Baseball by Mike McGovern
Cover of the book Custer's Last Stand by Mike McGovern
Cover of the book Comeback by Mike McGovern
Cover of the book River Jordan by Mike McGovern
Cover of the book A Genealogy of Terror in Eighteenth-Century France by Mike McGovern
Cover of the book Stigma and Culture by Mike McGovern
Cover of the book Building the American Republic, Volume 1 by Mike McGovern
Cover of the book Sewn in the Sweatshops of Marx by Mike McGovern
Cover of the book Poetry in a World of Things by Mike McGovern
Cover of the book Consumed by Mike McGovern
Cover of the book The Good Project by Mike McGovern
Cover of the book NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2018 by Mike McGovern
Cover of the book Invisible Hands by Mike McGovern
Cover of the book Witchcraft, Intimacy, and Trust by Mike McGovern
Cover of the book Resisting Abstraction by Mike McGovern
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy