The Franco-Congolese agreement to enshrine the corpse of Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza in a grand memorial tomb in Brazzaville (2006) has been decried by many observers as neo-colonial farce. This article interprets France's agenda to propose a "suave reconquest" of its former colonies, and Sassou Nguesso's forceful mobilization of national and regional support. Beyond the immediate political significance of the episode, however, the article proposes new ideas on the ways in which modern states, North and South, depend on "tournaments of value" that assign polarized worth to persons, and often back up international deals with transactions in sanctified human remains. The tactic, forged in part during the colonial era, illuminates important aspects of today's global imaginaries of domination. Brazza's bones work, in France and Africa, as a carnal fetish that, borrowing form various philosophies of power, merges Western and African beliefs in the body politic.

This article explores the ways in which the British campaign coalition Make Poverty History represented Africa throughout 2005. Focusing particularly on the G8 Gleneagles summit, Make Poverty History (MPH) asserted a series of justice claims which had no geographical reference. Nevertheless, as a result of internal tensions within the coalition, and especially as a result of the ways in which MPH interacted with other political agencies as the summit approached, MPH's messages became increasingly interpolated by references to Africa as a result of the emergence of government, media, and celebrity involvement. The result of this was that global poverty increasingly became an African issue. As 2005 became the "Year of Africa," the justice messages that constituted MPH were largely effaced by the more familiar imperial legacy which represents Africa as a place of indigence in need of outside assistance.

A vibrant debate in the field of transitional justice concerns the relative ability of global, national, and local mechanisms to promote justice after violent conflict. Discussion largely focuses on more formal mechanisms of justice (courts, tribunals, or truth commissions), implying that state institutions and the law are solely responsible for shaping the process of social healing. This article suggests that scholars should take seriously more informal, socio-cultural processes outside the purview of the state, particularly for how they promote social reconstruction at the micro level. Examining the phenomena of spirit possession and ritual cleansing in northern Uganda, I illustrate how such efforts are expressions of injustice and reflect ordinary people’s attempts to seek moral renewal and social repair. This approach is particularly illustrative in cases where ‘intimate enemies’ exist - that is, settings where ordinary people who engaged in violence against one another must live together again.

This article examines a development initiative spearheaded by the members of a transnational diaspora – the creation of a medical hospital in the holy city of Touba in central Senegal. Although the construction of the hospital is decidedly a philanthropic project, Hôpital Matlaboul Fawzaini is better understood as part of the larger place-making project of the Muridiyya and the pursuit of symbolic capital by a particular Mouride "dahira". The "dahira's" project illuminates important processes of forging global connections and transnational localities, and underscores the importance of understanding the complex motivations behind diaspora development. The hospital's history reveals the delicate negotiations between state actors and diaspora organizations, and the complexities of public–private partnerships for development. In a reversal of state withdrawal in the neo-liberal era, a diaspora association was able to wrest new financial commitments from the state by completing a large infrastructure project. Despite this success, we argue that these kinds of projects, which are by nature uneven and sporadic, reflect particular historical conjunctures and do not offer a panacea for the failure of state-led development.

As socio-medical phenomena, epidemics are revealing of the cultures in which they are experienced. The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa exposes antecedent tensions between state and society, and, on a broader canvas, between the global north and south. As a contribution to the emerging literature on the social ramifications of HIV/AIDS, this article examines the saga of the Nigerian physician and immunologist, Dr Jeremiah Abalaka, who like other innovators in sub-Saharan Africa claims to have developed a curative HIV vaccine. Whilst articulating the social conditions that enabled Abalaka to thrive, the article explores the marked differences in the reaction to his "discovery" among state representatives, the scientific establishment, the general public, people living with HIV, and the media. Finally, the article valorizes the emergence of new actors in the African health sector, and the diversity of strategies used by ordinary people to achieve and maintain wellness.

Since 2004, white commercial farmers displaced under Zimbabwe's fast-track land reform programme have established new successful farms near the central Nigerian town of Shonga. This article explores the basis of that success. It addresses three key questions: (1) What has actually happened near Shonga since 2004? (2) What or who is driving the process of agrarian transformation? And (3) What are the long-term consequences for the peasantry since Nigerian agriculture is still largely peasant-based? It argues that contrary to popular myths of ‘enterprising’ white Zimbabwean farmers, the process is driven by a complex group of actors, including the national and regional states. Comparative evidence from similar transplantations of Zimbabwean farmers suggests that active state support is central to the success of Shonga. With respect to the relationship between the commercial farms and the peasantry, it is argued that all the synergies included in the project design to promote a symbiotic development have failed to materialize. As a result, the peasantry faces a process of ‘development by dispossession’.

The global attention focused on sexual violence in the DRC has not only contributed to an image of the Congolese army as a vestige of pre-modern barbarism, populated by rapists, and bearing no resemblance to the world of modern armies; it has also shaped gender and defence reform initiatives. These initiatives have become synonymous with combating sexual violence, reflecting an assumption that the gendered dynamics of the army are already known. Crucial questions such as the ‘feminization’ of the armed forces are consequently neglected. Based on in-depth interviews with soldiers in the Congolese armed forces, this article analyses the discursive strategies male soldiers employ in relation to the feminization of the army. In the light of the need to reform the military and military masculinities, the article discusses how globalized discourses and practices render the Congolese military a highly globalized sphere. It also highlights the particular and local ways in which military identities are produced through gender, and concludes that a simple inclusion of women in the armed forces in order to render men less violent might not have the pacifying effect intended.

Remarkable progress has been made towards the recognition of sexual minority rights in Africa. At the same time, a marked increase in attacks, rhetorical abuse, and restrictive legislation against sexual minorities or ‘homosexuality’ makes activism for sexual rights a risky endeavour in many African countries. Campaigns for sexual rights and ‘coming out’ are frequently perceived as a form of Western cultural imperialism, leading to an exportation of Western gay identities and provoking a patriotic defensiveness. Cultures of quiet acceptance of same-sex relationships or secretive bisexuality are meanwhile also problematic given the high rate of HIV prevalence on much of the continent. This article examines specific initiatives that are using subtle, somewhat covert means to negotiate a path between rights activism and secretive bisexuality. It argues that strategies primarily focused on health concerns that simultaneously yet discreetly promote sexual rights are having some success in challenging prevalent homophobic or ‘silencing’ cultures and discourses.