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Acknowledgements
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Acknowledgements This book is dedicated to Charles Tilly who, according to close sources, was reading my manuscript and e-mailing me from the hospital. Tilly was involved in in this project until the end of his life. He remains for me not only an academic mentor, but also an example of a great man and a fine human being. This book would not have been possible without the patience and dedication of Nicholas De Genova. De Genova is an expert on migrations and ethnicity in the United States and Mexico. He went out of his way, however, to deal with African issues in order to make sure that my research was moving in the right theoretical and ethnographic direction. I also benefited incommensurably from Lesley Sharp’s intellectual and methodological inputs. Professor Sharp brought to my analysis her unique expertise on African studies and helped me to find the correct wording for the complex and paradoxical situations my research sought to engage. By his insistence on details, Brian Larkin forced me to base my theoretical demonstration on detailed ethnographic experiences. Professor Larkin made very valuable remarks on the organization of this book’s argument. Professor Stefaan Marysse of the University of Antwerp in Belgium was very instrumental in reshaping the question of state formation in Africa. I would like to thank Janet MacGaffey for providing an anthropological construct for my work. This research is therefore based upon the anthropological tradition which she pioneered in the early 1970s. Also, her seminal work on the “second economy” during the autocratic regime of the kleptomaniac, President Mobutu, supported and sustained by the Cold War logic, demonstrated how specific groups like the Nande traders were a contrast to the dominant political elite whose predation destroyed the national wealth. This book is built on that anthropological tradition and brings it a step further by showing how these Nande traders adapted to ever changing conditions even in cases of extreme violence and civil war where trading was even more difficult to pursue than under the predatory regime of Mobutu. I owe Professor MacGaffey an intellectual debt and promise to carry on her legacy. Business of Civil War: New Forms of Life in the Debris of the DRC x This work also benefited from the friendship of Professor Bruce Knauft who has been a key interlocutor and supporter of my work since I joined the Institute of Critical International Studies at Emory as a Graduate Fellow in the Fall of 2007. Bruce went out of his way to expand my horizon and to encourage the exploration of new ethnographic venues in the Kivus. I also thank Sarah Peterson who patiently copyedited the entire manuscript. My gratitude also goes to my Gent colleague on the field in Butembo, Tim Raeymaekers, for the academic insights which he brought during our conversations . Tim deserves lot of credit, and I am really very grateful to have met him during my fieldwork and he is extensively quoted in the text. This study is also a dedication to many people who welcomed me in Butembo. First of all, the Roman Catholic priests in charge of the Catholic University of Graben who agreed to accommodate me on a simple verbal recommendation from a Jesuit friend. My gratitude goes to Fathers Valérien Katsinge and Sole. Second, the Kaniki family who welcomed me into their home as one of them. Third, to Pascal Kamabu whose friendship has been a driving force along the way. Many colleagues in Butembo have been very helpful to the maturation of my research: Malikwisha, Mandiki, Robert Kamabu, Esperance Mulyata, Marcel Nganza, the late Kambale Kisoni, Bayoli, Maitre Cathy, the Mulyata family, Marc Kaniki, the Nganza family, and the Kamabu family. The work would never have been completed without the support of friends in the United States and the DRC. Among them are Cornelius Mbuluku, JeanLouis Peta, Cleo Basobakanako, Prisca Malu Malu, Jean-Bosco Adumanisa, Elisabeth Gelber, Joseph Caruso, Mahmood Mamdani, the late Harvey Pitkin, Beatrice Luvwefwa, Steve Miller, Howard Miller, Mbambu Miller, Aimee Miller, the McDaniels, George MacCain, Mike Foley, Toon Schermer, Eliane Letessier, Paul Devilard, Bob Albertijn, the late Archbishop Early, Charles Verezen, Jacques Bellière, the late Father Marcel Proost, Jan Roux, Xavier Bahaya, Vincent MaluMalu , Rita Malu-Malu, Yvette Malu-Malu, Lizette Malu-Malu, Emmanuel Elungu, Emmanuel Ugwejeh, Rigobert Kyungu, Cyprien Bwangila, Stephanie Mbemba, Yves de Kergaradec, Lydie Mvunzi, Donatien Mushamalirwa, Bienvenue Mayemba, the Samu family, Aimee Lengo, Francoise Opsomer, Gerard Triaille, Philippe Opsomer, Sister Mambu, Lieve...