A Brazzaville Friendship

Abstract

This article tells a story of a friendship between an American ethnographer and a young man of Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo, at a time of economic crisis and factional warfare. Over time, our mutual misreadings of our relationship led to conflict, undermining the shifting narratives through which we understood and represented our actions. Feelings and gestures of good will, generosity and loyalty were made ambiguous in light of accompanying tactics of domination and expropriation. Perceived betrayals revealed and mobilized institutions - church, state, militia - which each of us believed could protect his interests. Our friendship became something more difficult, and thereby illuminated configurations of power both in this fieldwork encounter and in larger Congolese society.