Liminal Bodies and Spaces: Farianas’ Gendered Contestations in Northeast Colombia

Abstract

This article is a narration about the contradictory feelings of occupying a space of transition between carrying a gun, and building ‘a new life’, as women ex-guerrillera, in the context of the post-peace agreement in Colombia. It draws upon two ethnographic fieldworks conducted in the northeastern region of Colombia in 2019 and 2022. It analyses the political, spatio-temporal, and embodied dynamics of their reincorporation, drawing on two key concepts that speak to this feeling of occupying a space ‘in-between’ war and ‘civilian society’: liminality and borderlands. The article mobilises liminality as an analytical and empirical tool to delve into those dynamics and show the gendered contestations that precisely arise from this ‘in-betweenness’ that eludes dichotomous analyses of war and peace.