Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T06:59:24.008Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Caring through crime: ethical ambivalence and the cocaine trade in Bissau

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2017

Henrik Vigh
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines the way young men in Bissau, the capital of Guinea-Bissau, make sense of and engage in the transnational cocaine trade, which has established itself on the Upper Guinea coast. It describes Guinea-Bissau's emergence as a regional centre for the trafficking of cocaine from Latin America to Europe, and shows how the illegality and volatility of the commerce are socially assessed and valued. The drug connection impacts on the lives of the young men in the city in a variety of ways. While it is seen to have brought with it a range of political and societal insecurities and uncertainties, it is also perceived to offer potential livelihoods and prospects. On the one hand, cocaine is positioned as an ethically dubious commodity; on the other, its revenue and concomitant social effects are seen as morally reasonable and required. The article therefore centres on the ethical dimensions of the trade, as seen from the perspective of the youth in question, and argues that it needs to be understood in terms of situational obligations rather than abstract ideals. It approaches ethics from a relational point of view and shows how the moral evaluation and ascription of the cocaine trade are defined inter-subjectively and understood in relation to social responsibility, care and accountability.

Résumé

Cet article examine comment de jeunes hommes de Bissau, la capitale de Guinée-Bissau, donnent un sens et participent au commerce transnational de la cocaïne qui s'est établi sur la côte de la Haute-Guinée. Il décrit l’émergence de la Guinée-Bissau en tant centre régional du trafic de cocaïne d'Amérique du Sud vers l'Europe, et montre comment l'illégalité et la volatilité de ce commerce sont socialement évaluées et estimées. Le trafic de drogue impacte la vie des jeunes de la ville de manières diverses. Il est perçu comme ayant apporté des insécurités et incertitudes politiques et sociétales diverses, mais aussi comme ayant le potentiel d'offrir des moyens de subsistance et des perspectives. D'un côté, on juge que la cocaïne est une marchandise éthiquement douteuse ; de l'autre, on considère que les revenus qu'elle génère et les effets sociaux concomitants sont moralement raisonnables et nécessaires. L'article se concentre donc sur les dimensions éthiques de ce commerce, perçues du point de vue des jeunes en question, et soutient qu'il faut le comprendre en termes d'obligations situationnelles plutôt que d'idéaux abstraits. Il aborde l’éthique d'un point de vue relationnel et montre comment l’évaluation et l'attribution morales du commerce de la cocaïne sont définies de manière intersubjective et interprétées au regard de la responsabilité, de la prise en charge et de l'imputabilité sociales.

Type
Ethical fields in Africa
Information
Africa , Volume 87 , Issue 3 , August 2017 , pp. 479 - 495
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allmark, P. (1995) ‘Can there be an ethics of care?’, Journal of Medical Ethics 21 (1): 19–24.Google Scholar
Barros, M. de and Gomes, P. G. (2014) ‘Percepções e contestações: leituras a partir das narrativas sobre o narcotráfico na música Rap da Guiné-Bissau’, Buala, 24 January <http://www.buala.org/pt/palcos/percepcoes-e-contestacoes-leituras-a-partir-das-narrativas-sobre-o-narcotrafico-na-musica-rap>..>Google Scholar
Bayart, J.-F. (1993) The State in Africa: the politics of the belly. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Blum, L. A. (1988) ‘Gilligan and Kohlberg: implications for moral theory’, Ethics 98: 472–91.Google Scholar
Blundo, G. and Olivier de Sardan, J.-P. (2006) Everyday Corruption and the State: citizens and public officials in Africa. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Bradshaw, A. (1995) ‘What are nurses doing to patients? A review of theories of nursing past and present’, Journal of Clinical Nursing 4: 81–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Connell, R. W. (1998) ‘Masculinities and globalization’, Men and Masculinities 1 (1): 3–23.Google Scholar
Csete, J. and Sánchez, C. (2013) ‘Telling the story of drugs in West Africa: the newest front in a losing war’. Policy Brief 1. Swansea: Global Drugs Policy Observatory, Swansea University.Google Scholar
Einarsdóttir, J. (2007) ‘Partnership and post-war Guinea-Bissau’, African Journal of International Affairs 10 (1–2): 93–112.Google Scholar
Eisenstadt, S. N. (1973) Traditional Patrimonialism and Modern Neopatrimonialism. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Gilligan, C. (1982) In a Different Voice: psychological theory and women's development. London: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Harman, G. (1999) ‘Moral philosophy meets social psychology: virtue ethics and the fundamental attribution error’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 99: 315–31.Google Scholar
Heidegger, M. (1995 [1920–21]) Phänomenologie des Religiösen Lebens. Gesamtausgabe vol. 60. Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann.Google Scholar
Helpman, J., Jones, G. and Kaufman, D. (2000) ‘Seize the state, seize the day’. Policy Research Working Paper 2444. Washington DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
ILO (2013) ‘Tackling the jobs crisis in Portugal: report prepared by the ILO inter-departmental task force on crisis countries for the high-level conference on “Tackling the jobs crisis in Portugal” (Lisbon, 4 November 2013)’. Geneva: International Labour Organization (ILO) <http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_228208.pdf>..>Google Scholar
Inkpen, R., Collier, P. and Riley, M. (2007) ‘Topographic relations: developing a heuristic device for conceptualising networked relations’, Area 39 (4): 536–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, M. (2011) Life Within Limits: well-being in a world of want. Durham NC and London: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Jackson, M. (2013) The Wherewithal of Life: ethics, migration, and the question of well-being. Berkeley and Los Angeles CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Lambek, M. (2000) ‘The anthropology of religion and the quarrel between poetry and philosophy’, Current Anthropology 41 (3): 309–20.Google Scholar
Lambek, M. (2010) ‘Introduction’ in Lambek, M. (ed.), Ordinary Ethics: anthropology, language, and action. New York NY: Fordham University Press.Google Scholar
Lemarchand, R. (1972) ‘Political clientelism and ethnicity in tropical Africa: competing solidarities in nation-building’, American Political Science Review 66 (1): 68–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Løgstrup, K. E. (1956) Den Etiske Fordring. Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandel Nordisk Forlag.Google Scholar
Olivier de Sardan, J.-P. (1999) ‘A moral economy of corruption in Africa?’, Journal of Modern African Studies 3 (1): 25–52.Google Scholar
Pattison, G. (2013) Heidegger on Death: a critical theological essay. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Perry, D. L. (2005) ‘Wolof women, economic liberalization, and the crisis of masculinity in rural Senegal’, Ethnology 44 (3): 207–26.Google Scholar
Reno, W. (1995) ‘Reinvention of an African patrimonial state: Charles Taylor's Liberia’, Third World Quarterly 16 (1): 109–20.Google Scholar
Ross, L. (1977) ‘The intuitive psychologist and his shortcomings’ in Berkowitz, L. (ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. Volume 10. New York NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Shaw, M. (2015) ‘Drug trafficking in Guinea-Bissau, 1998–2014: the evolution of an elite protection network’, Journal of Modern African Studies 53 (3): 339–64.Google Scholar
Shepherd, A., Scott, L., Mariotti, C., Kessy, F., Gaiha, R., da Corta, L., Hanifnia, K., Kaicker, N., Lenhardt, A., Lwanga-Ntale, C., Sen, B., Sijapati, B., Strawson, T., Thapa, G., Underhill, H. and Wild, L. (2014) The Chronic Poverty Report 2014–2015: the road to zero extreme poverty. London: Chronic Poverty Advisory Network (CPAN) and Overseas Development Institute <http://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/8834.pdf>.Google Scholar
Stark, O. and Lucas, R. E. (1988) ‘Migration, remittances, and the family’, Economic Development and Cultural Change 36 (3): 465–81.Google Scholar
Taylor, E. J. (1999) ‘The new economics of labour migration and the role of remittances in the migration process’, International Migration 37 (1): 63–88.Google Scholar
Throop, C. J. (2012) ‘Moral sentiments’ in Fassin, D. (ed.), A Companion to Moral Anthropology. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Vigh, H. (2006) Navigating Terrains of War: youth and soldiering in Guinea-Bissau. Oxford: Berghahn.Google Scholar
Vigh, H. (2011) ‘Vigilance: on negative potentiality and social invisibility’, Social Analysis 55 (4): 93–114.Google Scholar
Vigh, H. (2012) ‘Critical states and cocaine connections’ in Utas, M. (ed.), African Conflicts and Informal Power: big men and networks. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Vigh, H. (2014) ‘La marge au centre: sur les réseaux, la cocaïne et le crime transnational à Bissau’, Socio: La Nouvelle Revue des Sciences Sociales 3: 289–313.Google Scholar
Vigh, H. (2015) ‘Mobile misfortune’, Culture Unbound 7: 233–53.Google Scholar
Vigh, H. (2016) ‘Life's trampoline: on nullification and cocaine migration in Bissau’ in Cole, J. and Groes-Green, C. (eds), Affective Circuits and African Migration. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Williams, P. (2002) ‘Transnational organized crime and the state’, Cambridge Studies in International Relations 85: 161–82.Google Scholar
Zigon, J. (2007) ‘Moral breakdown and the ethical demand: a theoretical framework for an anthropology of moralities’, Anthropological Theory 7 (2): 131–50.Google Scholar