Creating the Appearance of Consensus in Mende Political Discourse

In: American anthropologist: AA, Band 92, Heft 1, S. 24-41

Abstract

The language and logic of consensus as a discourse and political strategy are analyzed with the case of a Mende lineage meeting in Sierra Leone. A methodology of collecting local, private, and skeptical exegesis of public discourse leads to theoretical questions related to the use of language and secrecy to orchestrate a public consensual order while concealing alternative orders of opposition.