Politics and ritual infanticide: a reading of political instability in Guinea-Bissau from political theory

Abstract

This analysis takes on the ritual infanticide of the criança-irân as an explanatory framework for the recurrent political instability in Guinea-Bissau, using the concepts of humanness and political community. The infanticide is a ritual practice connected to the belief in the existence of spirit-children: some babies are believed to be spirits (irân) encased in human flesh. Thus, these beings are neither human nor spirits. This culturally embedded conceptualisation of humanness challenges liberal and communitarian notions on human nature, personhood, and individualism, along with their articulations on the structure of the political community. In my analysis, I consider how this understanding collide with the underpinning of the state – formally, a semi-presidential republic modelled upon the demo-liberal model. I emphasise how the state lacks an organised, coherent, and continued reaction to the practice and the belief. The state’s inertia evades the liberal predicaments and legal provisions, which criminalise any infanticide as unlawful termination of a human life. However, politicians, rulers and academics are aware of the phenomenon, and even share the belief in the existence of these “hybrid” humans. Hence, the analysis questions which the relevance and the resilience of endogenous conceptualisation of humanness and political community underpinning the state’s response, and their articulations on the strengthening of a stable political sphere.