Thomas G. Kirsch

Introduction: new ethical fields and the implicitness/explicitness of ethics in Africa

Throughout history, people on the African continent have experienced momentous transformations of their lifeworlds andways of living, some of them irruptive, uncompromising and cataclysmic, others of a more subtle and negotiable nature. What remains to be dealt with in more detail by anthropologists are the manifold ways in which these transformations are reflected in, and have a bearing on, people’s ethical demeanours, commitments and debates. Given the complexity and variability of these processes, it is not possible or even desirable to give a conclusive answer to this question. Instead, taking account of historical and sociocultural specificities, this special issue features in-depth case studies of ethics as ideals in practice from several countries in sub-Saharan Africa (Botswana, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania). In doing so, the contributions combine a presentation of ethnographic findings with a discussion of a new conceptual approach for a practice-oriented anthropological study of ‘ordinary ethics’ (Lambek 2010). In this introduction,we argue for a ratherfluid notion of ethics that entails people’s convictions, value judgements and sentiments on how to live a morally good and/or just life.We suggest that themaking and unmaking of ethicalfields takes placewithin the context of state politics, the influence of international organizations and the emergence of new publics and localNGOs that provide people with new ideas aboutwhat is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’.We show that these ethicalfields emerge indialectical processes between what we call the ‘implication’ and ‘explication’ of ethics. In what follows, we first briefly reflect on previous anthropological work on ethics in Africa. We then delineate the parameters of our conceptual approach, before finally commenting on how the articles in this special issue broaden our understanding of everyday struggles in contemporary Africa to achieve or to maintain a certain ethical composure, to win relevant others over to committing themselves to particular ethical principles, or to position oneself in relation to the (un)ethical claims of others.

Konsensualität und religiöse Wahrheitspraxis

Unter den Bindekraften des Gesellschaftlichen, mit denen es Kultur- und Sozialwissenschaftler normalerweise zu tun haben – man konnte hier Solidaritat, Arbeitsteilung, Kultur und Herrschaft nennen – nimmt Konsensualitat eine Sonderstellung ein.

Visions and Evidences. Prophetic Scripture and a 'Crisis of Representation' in Zambia

This article examines the role of indigenous concepts of visuality in an attempt by contemporary African Christians in Zambia to stabilize charismatic authority by means of a new prophetic scripture containing drawings of visionary revelations. It is demonstrated here how the chains of referentiality by which church leaders sought to authorize themselves and the scripture involved paradoxes of visuality that eventually led to the demotion of the scripture and its “author.” Since the scripture was said to depict what could also be observed by stargazing, its indexical function became obsolete once people accepted the indexed as reality.