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Violence, intimacy and veins of madness in a fraught border city

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2024

Nancy Rose Hunt ,
Eric Batumike ,
Elisée Cirhuza ,
Alice Mugoli  and
Bienvenu Mukungilwa
Nancy Rose Hunt*
Affiliation:
University of Florida, Gainesville FL, USA/University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI, USA
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article considers the intimate, the violent and the psychopathological in Bukavu, an eastern Congolese border city known for rape and war. A phenomenological focus pries open tensions in this ruinous, neoliberal ‘boom town’, frictions related to mental health, patterns of resort, and derangement. Ethnographic portraits from co-produced fieldnotes reveal family and street dynamics and a few adaptive, public figures of madness. Bukavu knows unhinged, delirious, psychotic people and PTSD infrastructures in this ‘trauma zone’. Patterns of psychosis go with ‘vivacity’, a Foucauldian word. The non-scientific term madness points to politics and the everyday, with many mad persons roaming the streets with performances. Intimacy enables rethinking this city, where ways of telling and knowing madness speak to agitation, kinship, strangeness and ordinary matters of sleep, dress and faecal matter.

Résumé

Résumé

Cet article examine l’intime, la violence et la psychopathologie à Bukavu, ville frontalière de l’Est du Congo connue pour être un lieu de viol et de guerre. Une approche phénoménologique fait ressortir les tensions dans cette « ville en plein essor » néolibérale et désastreuse qui sont liées à la santé mentale, aux modèles de recours et au dérangement mental. Les portraits ethnographiques issus de notes de terrain coproduites révèlent des dynamiques de famille et de rue, ainsi que quelques figures publiques adaptatives de la folie. Bukavu connaît des personnes dérangées, délirantes, psychotiques et des infrastructures de SSPT dans cette « zone traumatique ». Les modèles de psychose vont de pair avec la « vivacité », pour utiliser un terme foucaldien. Le terme non scientifique de folie fait référence à la politique et au quotidien, de nombreux fous se donnant en spectacle dans les rues. L’intimité permet de repenser cette ville, où les manières de raconter et de connaître la folie parlent d’agitation, de parenté, d’étrangeté et de sujets ordinaires liés au sommeil, à l’habillement et à la matière fécale.

Resumo

Resumo

Este artigo considera o íntimo, o violento e o psicopatológico em Bukavu, uma cidade fronteiriça do leste do Congo conhecida pelas violações e pela guerra. Um enfoque fenomenológico abre tensões nesta ruinosa e neoliberal ‘cidade em expansão’ que estão relacionadas com a saúde mental, padrões de recurso e desregramento. Retratos etnográficos a partir de notas de campo co-produzidas revelam dinâmicas familiares e de rua e algumas figuras públicas de loucura adaptáveis. Bukavu conhece pessoas desequilibradas, delirantes e psicóticas e infra-estruturas de PTSD nesta ‘zona de trauma’. Os padrões de psicose combinam com a ‘vivacidade’, uma palavra foucaultiana. O termo não científico loucura aponta para a política e para o quotidiano, com muitos loucos a circularem pelas ruas com actuações. A intimidade permite repensar esta cidade, onde as formas de contar e conhecer a loucura falam de agitação, parentesco, estranheza e questões comuns de sono, vestuário e matéria fecal.

Type
Violence and intimacy
Information
Africa , Volume 94 , Issue 1 , February 2024 , pp. 97 - 116
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International African Institute

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