Hope against Hope: Changing Emotions in the Burundian Crisis

Summary, in English

Through the lens of Burundians who have been displaced by the recent crisis in Burundi and their anticipations of possible futures for themselves and their country, expressed in the emotions of hope, anxiety and despair, this paper explores the shift from a situation characterized by upheaval towards the crystallization of authoritarian rule in Burundi. Through ethnographic research amongst Burundian refugees in Rwanda I examine how these individuals negotiate such uncertain and unpredictable circumstances as well as how emotions of hope, anxiety and despair would change accordingly. I argue that the political closure in Burundi has produced a gradual shift from productive anxiety in the Kierkegaardian sense towards despair and a feeling of existential closure. In such situations, when uncertainty gives way to a certainty that there are no futures, the present becomes detached from the flow of time and decisions become impossible to make. In such situations, the Burundians in Rwanda can only live for the moment and hope against hope, often evoking a distinction between their hopelessness as human beings and the hope that they compelled to have as Christians.

• Author: Simon Turner
• Publishing year: 2020-09-01
• Language: English
• Pages: 715-732
• Publication/Series: The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, JRAI
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 4
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.13364
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Topic: Social Anthropology
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 1359-0987