RICR No. 852
Le temps pour comprendre la violence de guerre: l'exemple de l'Afrique
Reading time 5 min de lecture
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Abstract
AbstractThis article examines the violence of war from a temporal point of view, looking at various contemporary conflicts from a long-term perspective involving three kinds of time: “historical” time, “traditional” time and “mythical” time. It thus provides some elements that help explain the length of these conflicts, but also their deeper nature. In particular, it casts douht on the appropriateness of the term “ethnic war”, which has been used to characterize some of them. The hypothetical model presented here focuses on Africa, but it could also he applied to conflict zones in other parts of the world.