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Epidemics and intra-communal contestations: Ekeh, ‘les Guinéens’ and Ebola in West Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 November 2018

Ato Kwamena Onoma
Ato Kwamena Onoma*
Affiliation:
Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop x Canal IV, P.O. Box 3304 Dakar, CP 18524, Senegal
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

As the Ebola epidemic ravaged the Mano River Basin in 2014, there was concern in Senegal that the resident Peul community of Guinean origins will cause the spread of the disease to Senegal. These fears went unrealized as the Peul migrants embraced many of the epidemic control and prevention measures, which often distanced them from primordial publics in Guinea. While partly motivated by concern over the dangers of Ebola, Peul migrants embraced these measures also because the epidemic and measures advocated to curb it allowed them to assert greater autonomy in their often-fractious relations with primordial publics in their places of origin in Guinea. Their embrace of these measures suggests a rethink of the emphasis on intercommunal strife, intra-communal conviviality and trenchant state-society chasms, which pervades much work on the political economy of postcolonial Africa and which draws significant inspiration from the work of Peter Ekeh.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 56 , Issue 4 , December 2018 , pp. 595 - 617
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

I thank Aissatou Sow and Serigne Cheikh Ka for their excellent work as research assistants on this project. I also thank the two anonymous reviewers of the Journal of Modern African Studies for their insightful remarks.

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Interviews

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Interview 3, a Senegalese professor of Guinean origin, Guediawaye, 17.2.2016.Google Scholar
Interview 8, a Senegalese businessman of Guinean origin, Pikine Nord, 13.3.2016.Google Scholar
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Interview 21, a Senegalese university student of Guinean origins, 6.4.2016.Google Scholar
Interview 24, a Senegalese businessman of Guinean origin, Guediawaye, 20.5.2016.Google Scholar
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Interview 27, a Senegalese businessman of Guinean origins, Guediawaye, 26.5.2016.Google Scholar
Interview 28, a Guinean migrant businesswoman, Parcelles Assainies, 29.5.2016.Google Scholar
Interview 29, a Guinean migrant businessman, Guediawaye, 30.5.2016.Google Scholar
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Interview 34, a Guinean migrant businesswoman, Guediawaye, 9.6.2016.Google Scholar
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Interview 37, a Senegalese businessman of Guinean origins, Pikine, 15.6.2016.Google Scholar
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Interview 40, a Senegalese businessman of Guinean origins, Pikine, 19.6.2016.Google Scholar
Interview 41, a Senegalese businessman of Guinean origins, Pikine, 20.6.2016.Google Scholar