0000000000388012
AUTHOR
Christine Fricke
showing 2 related works from this author
Protocol, politics and popular culture: the independence jubilee in Gabon
2013
National days are powerful moments of commemoration that aim at renewing the citizens' bonds to the nation and the state. In order to be successful, public rituals need to draw large audiences, and their ceremonial design therefore has to be adapted to suit the masses, employing elements of popular culture and everyday forms of nationhood. Despite drawing its significance from the declaration of independence in 1960, however, Gabon's independence jubilee was less concerned with history and commemoration than with celebrating the state and the nation in the present. The ceremonial design of Gabon's jubilee featured intensive preparations, official ceremonies, popular festivities and symbolic…
The Uncertainty of Oil
2017
This paper argues that uncertainty is intricately entwined with temporalities and aff ects. Taking the uncertain future of oil in Gabon as my ethnographic example, I trace fi ve versions with which people contemplate depletion: a scenario, a vision / plan, a calculation, a dream, and a desire. I show how these versions not only diff er in their prognosis, but also conjure up diverse histories, temporalities and aff ects that, ultimately, entail fairly distinct forms of uncertainty.