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Political conflict in many parts of the world has been shaped by notions of who rightfully belongs to a place. The concept of autochthony—that a true, original people are born of a land and belong to it above all others—has animated struggles across postcolonial Africa. But is this sense of rootedness from time immemorial necessary to assertions of original being and thus political supremacy? Belonging, Identity, and Conflict in the Central African Republic examines how political conflict unfolds when the language of autochthony is detached from historical land claims. 

Focusing on violent struggles in the Central African Republic between 2012 and 2019, Gino Vlavonou explores the social practices, discursive strategies, and government policies that emerged in the relentless project of African state building. Conflict pitted Christian-animist communities, loosely organized as vigilante groups under the name anti-Balaka, against Muslim rebels known as the Séléka. Fighters of the anti-Balaka claimed that they were autochthonous, the “true Central Africans,” reframing their Muslim neighbors as foreigners to be expelled. While the country had previously witnessed episodes of violence, both peoples had lived together relatively peacefully and intermarried. The speed and ferocity with which identity was weaponized puzzled many observers. To understand this phenomenon, Vlavonou probes autochthony as a category of identity that differs from ethnicity in important ways. He argues that elites and ordinary citizens alike mobilize the language of original belonging as “identity capital,” a resource to be deployed. The value of that capital is lodged in what people say and do every day to give meaning to their identity, and its content changes across time and space. 

This book is a groundbreaking ethnography that challenges Western assumptions about gender roles, parenting, and the biological necessity of maternal exclusivity. Based on extensive fieldwork among the Aka hunter-gatherers of the Central African rainforest, Hewlett documents what remains the highest level of direct paternal proximity ever recorded in a human society, with Aka fathers staying within arm's reach of their infants for nearly 47% of the day. Rather than filling the traditional Western role of a distant "rough-and-tumble" playmate, Aka fathers operate in a highly egalitarian system where they actively cuddle, soothe, and gently care for their babies while mothers hunt. By examining the cultural, ecological, and social frameworks that encourage this deep paternal intimacy, Hewlett provides a vital cross-cultural perspective on human evolution and attachment theory, proving that intensive fatherly care is a natural and highly successful strategy for raising secure children.