Here I am in SOAS Library, on my reading week, working for my VCD essay.
I look real bad, I know! This past night I only slept three hours. It’s 5:40 p.m. and I’m really tired! And I used my laptop camera, which is not that good.
This is the end of my Library day. I’ve already got enough material to work. Here is a bit of what I wrote:
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Introduction
One million killed in sixteen years of civil war, further earlier thousands of deaths as consequence of ten years of anticolonial war. About five millions were internally displaced, other two million fled to neighbour countries. Thousands more died after peace, from famine and landmines[1]. This was the portrayal of Mozambique at the end of 1992 and the years that follow the peace treatment, sign in Roma.
Forty years of war, which thirteen were anticolonial and twenty seven years were civilian war. Between 1975 and 2002, Angola experienced three ceased fires, but the war only stopped after the death of Jonas Savimbi, leader of UNITA[2], one of the liberation movements. More than one million people were killed, four millions were displaced and other four millions saw themselves separated from their families. This was one of the longest and most violent wars after decolonization.
This essay aims to analyse the use of theories to explain collective political violence, focusing in a particular theory – xxxxxxxxxxxxx. We intend to evaluate its strengths and weaknesses, positioning it in these two conflicts. We also seek to comprehend if this theory allows us to better understand the conflicts in Mozambique and Angola, and if it is useful to prevent future conflicts.
Understanding ‘Collective Political Violence’ (in Angola and Mozambique)
Conflicts are understood as endemic of all kinds of political systems, but the reasons why they happen are wide-ranging. From economic rivalry to religious differences, many are the motives to start a war.
Most of times a trivial act, something that apparently has no meaning, is enough to instigate a major conflict. However, the analyses of this type of agency may not be sufficient to understand the conflict itself. The intentions in the beginning may differ from those that allow the war to keep on being reproduced. Then, war becomes something more difficult to shape. The complexities are so many that, as Christopher Cramer states, wars cannot be reduced to simple categories of causes. They do not occur only because of “… geopolitical tensions and ‘external causes’.” (2005: 17), and other factors must be considered. There is an innumerable diversity of relations between national and international, state and extra-state powers, that don’t allow us to reduce the meaning of war in one particular category.
[1] Kieh, George Klay Jr. 2002.
[2] In Portuguese, UNITA is União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola, and in English National Union for the Total Liberation of Angola.
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Oh! My essay question is: Evaluate the strengths and weakness of a particular theory of violence with reference to two conflicts. I just choose two conflicts that have some meaning for me.
(More than ever, I’m thinking of following an African Studies area. Perhaps I’ll end up somewhere in Africa, studying their political conflicts. I know if I dedicate myselfto Guiné-Bissau it would please Lau. But here there’s so lack of data about that small African country!)
Is it badly written? I really don’t know. I still have more 2200 words to write. I’m not in panic, because I only have to deliver it on December 4th, and I still have a lot of time.
Next week I’m going to show it to Rumi, to Nora and to Elaine, and first to Moussa, because yesterday I told me that he doesn’t mind to read what I write. At least I’ll know if I’m making any sense on what I’m writing.
Dear friends, please read and criticize. I need help on this. It’s so hard to write in English, because they construct their sentences in a very different way that we Portuguese do.
lá fui eu correr desde a Praça D. Pedro IV até ao Rossio. Descendo a Rua do Ouro, virando para o Cais do Sodré via Rua do Arsenal, e desta virando para a Praça do Comércio, percorrendo a Ribeira das Naus e seguindo pela Av. Infante D. Henrique até ao Campo das Cebolas. Aí, foi virar até chegar à Rua da Alfandega e desta até à Rua da Prata. Desta segui até ao Rossio, subi a Av. da Liberdade e, fazendo inversão de marcha, desci a mesma até chegar novamente à Praça D. Pedro IV. Esta foi apenas a primeira volta.
e faço parte da lista de resultados (em http://www.saosilvestredelisboa.com), como última atleta a cortar a meta!
