Violence, emotional communities, and political action in Colombia

Abstract

Jimeno, Varela, and Castillo’s chapter explores the experience over time of Kitek Kiwe, an organization of mainly Nasa indigenous campesinos, formed after a massacre, forced displacement from their place of origin, and resettlement in another part of Cauca, Colombia. The authors carried out extensive collaborative research for almost a decade, including ethnography, accompaniment, the making of a documentary, among others. Their detailed ethnographies helped the team to understand the social and subjective recovery entailed in the reconstruction of emotional bonds with society through the creation of emotional communities. These communities of meaning include the interweaving of memory-narratives, personal testimony as victims, and the creation of deeply affective moral guiding principles. Grief transcends indignation and enables organization and public mobilization around truth and justice.