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8 - Myths Set in Motion: The Moral Economy of Mai Mai Governance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2015

By
Kasper Hoffmann
Edited by
Ana Arjona ,
Nelson Kasfir  and
Zachariah Mampilly
Ana Arjona
Affiliation:
Northwestern University, Illinois
Nelson Kasfir
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College, New Hampshire
Zachariah Mampilly
Affiliation:
Vassar College, New York
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Summary

Abstract

Rebels may set myths into motion when they govern civilians. Rebels who want to overturn the socio-political order often incorporate its values, beliefs, representations, and practices into their governance of civilians. In doing so they govern through some of the myths underpinning that order. Many of these operate on an unreflective level among both rebels and local residents. Deploying these enables rebels to cultivate legitimacy among civilians whose support they solicit. But the novelty of rule by rebels is that it recasts existing values and beliefs into new political narratives that shape rebel governance profoundly. Drawing on a mixture of nationalist, pre-colonial, and Christian values and beliefs, General Padiri’s Mai Mai militia group from South Kivu in eastern Congo produced a mythical narrative, forged around divine authority and the bipolar relation between autochthony and foreignness. This syncretic mythical narrative resonated deeply within the local society. It endowed Padiri with charismatic authority and enabled a highly centralized, authoritarian, and coercive form of rebel governance.

… very frequently the “world images” that have been created by “ideas” have, like switchmen, determined the tracks along which action has been pushed by the dynamic of interest.

(Weber 1948: 280)

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Chapter
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Rebel Governance in Civil War , pp. 158 - 179
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

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