Avoiding Poison

Congolese Refugees Seeking Cosmological Continuity in Urban Asylum

in Social Analysis
Author:
Georgina Ramsay University of Newcastle, Australia Georgina.Ramsay@newcastle.edu.au

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DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3167/sa.2016.600307
Keywords:
Congolese refugees; cosmology; humanitarian aid; livelihoods; ontological security; poison; urban refugees; violence
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Abstract

Avoiding poison refers here to practices of securitization that enable refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to exert agency in urban asylum in Uganda. I consider that the stakes of poisoning are not exclusively understood in terms of physiological survival, but are existential, relating to the ways that Congolese refugees imbue purpose in their lives through acts that restore cosmological continuity. Focusing on the cosmological logics through which refugees experience urban asylum, I argue that practices of avoiding poison can be seen as acts of securitization whereby refugees exert agency in precarious contexts of urban asylum.

Contributor Notes

Georgina Ramsay is a Lecturer in the School of Humanities and Social Science at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Her research is conducted in the field of socio-cultural anthropology and focuses on the experiences of refugee women from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, and Rwanda who have settled in both Australia and Uganda.

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Social Analysis

The International Journal of Anthropology

Cover Social Analysis
Article Category:
Research Article
Page Count:
17
Keywords:
Congolese refugees; cosmology; humanitarian aid; livelihoods; ontological security; poison; urban refugees; violence
Print Publication Date:
01 Sep 2016
Online Publication Date:
01 Sep 2016
Copyright:
© Berghahn Books 2016

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