Controlling Anger: The Sociology of Gisu Violence

This text deals with social control and explores this problem as one of self-control, linking it with the construction of male gender identity. It is set in the immediate post-independence period in Uganda and deals with the local effects of a collapse of state authority. Among the Gisu, growing fears of physical violence, witchcraft and theft led to the formation of vigilante groups, interpreted as attempts to reconstitute a moral basis of community life. For, using violence to control violence, these groups also stressed the virtues of self-restraint in a society which defined men in terms of their essential equality and their capacity for anger. The basic dynamic of Gisu society is seen to lie here, in the interplay of an aggressive individualism with the restraints demanded by social living. The book has methodological implications, combining a concern with the specifics of cultural understanding with a fieldwork methodology addressed to the problems of validation.