Motive Rather than Means

Motif plutôt que moyen. Généalogies juridiques d’affaires de meurtres de sorciers au Kenya. – Cet article retrace la généalogie des demandes en justice et des demandes reconventionnelles liées à la sorcellerie au Kenya à l’époque coloniale. En s’appuyant sur les minutes des procès conservés dans les Archives du ministère kenyan des Affaires juridiques ainsi que sur les comptes rendus de la Cour Suprême du Kenya et de la Haute Cour d’Appel pour l’Afrique orientale, cet article montre que les demandes en justice et les demandes reconventionnelles ont contribué à une définition juridique plus précise de la « sorcellerie » et à l’élaboration de concepts essentiels au jugement des crimes capitaux. Cet article traite d’affaires de meurtre dans lesquelles la sorcellerie n’est pas présentée comme le moyen mais comme le motif du meurtre jugé et comme un espace central où se heurtent les notions de « coutumes » et de « crime ». Dans ces procès, le sorcier supposé ne passe pas en jugement pour sorcellerie ni pour un crime commis par le truchement de la sorcellerie, mais il est la victime du meurtre jugé. De même, le défendeur n’est pas jugé pour un meurtre commis par le biais de la sorcellerie mais pour un meurtre motivé par la sorcellerie, utilisée à ses dépens par la personne décédée. Ainsi, la sorcellerie peut être utilisée soit comme une stratégie de défense soit comme un moyen pour les juges de considérer de nouvelles normes de « raisonnabilité » dans certains contextes locaux. Les accusations et contre-accusations remettent ainsi en question non seulement des notions essentielles comme celles de « victime » et de « meurtre » mais aussi des concepts juridiques clés tels que la « provocation » et la « préméditation ».This article traces the legal genealogies of witchcraft claims and counter-claims within the legal arena of colonial Kenya. Based on cases contained in the files of Kenya’s Ministry of Legal Affairs and in the digests of the Supreme Court of Kenya and of the High Court of Appeal for Eastern Africa, this article argues that the witchcraft claims and counter-claims made in East Africa’s highest courts contributed to the refinement of the legal meanings of witchcraft and to the elaboration of legal concepts central to the prosecution of capital crimes. This article treats murder cases in which witchcraft is posed not as the means but instead as the motive for the murder at hand as a central space in which notions of “customs” and “crimes” collide. In such cases, the alleged “witch” is not on trial for witchcraft or for another crime committed through witchcraft per se, but is instead the decedent in the murder being tried. The defendant, in turn, is on trial not for a murder committed through witchcraft but rather for a murder motivated by the witchcraft turned against him or her by the decedent. And, in such witchcraft operates variously as a claims-making strategy of the defense and as a means for the courts to consider further standards of “reasonableness” in local contexts. Yet at the same time, defense claims and the courts’ counter-claims about the witchcraft of the decedent each operate on a broader epistemological level, calling into question not only essential categories like “victim” and even “murder”, but also key legal concepts such as “provocation” and “malice aforethought”

Conflicting codes and contested justice: Witchcraft and the state in Kenya.

Analyzing various critical moments at which witchcraft-related violence has challenged state authority, this dissertation argues that crimes driven by witchcraft have consistently presented practical and epistemological impediments to the state's efforts to construct order and administer justice in Kenya from the colonial-era to the present day. Incorporating archival, oral, and published sources, this project demonstrates the historical ineffectiveness of law and policy in dealing with witchcraft-related violence. It also highlights Kamba people's historical and contemporary perspectives on witchcraft and on state interventions into witchcraft. Rather than searching for the modernity of witchcraft, this dissertation reveals how popular discourse has consistently employed witchcraft as a metaphor for and explanation of misfortune and how state discourse has continuously constructed witchcraft as a convenient category of-the-state, mobilized to explain away persistent disorder. Departing from Mahmood Mamdani's assertion that custom constituted one half of a bipolar colonial legal system in which customary law and native courts governed African affairs while civil law and metropolitan-style courts regulated non-natives, this thesis examines witchcraft-related offences in order to show how criminal law also constituted a central space for governing African affairs. Throughout the colonial period, British authorities produced vast quantities of anthro-administrative knowledge about witchcraft. Tracing the imperial networks through which this knowledge circulated, this dissertation demonstrates how witchcraft was an empire-wide, rather than highly localized, concern. During the opening decades of colonial rule, British authorities developed and refined anti-witchcraft law and anthro-administrative practice concerning witchcraft. During the 1930s, the Wakamba Witch Trials stimulated heated debates in Kenya and the metropole over what made British justice in colonial contexts. In the 1940s, sentencing protocols and case law produced a corpus of legal precedent for dealing with witch-killing cases. During the Mau Mau rebellion of the mid-1950s, colonial authorities in Kambaland organized a series of cleansings of Kamba witches who were alleged Mau Mau supporters, thus breaking with the long-standing policy of not officially engaging witchcraft-related methods and actors to combat witchcraft-driven challenges to state authority. Despite colonial anthro-administrative and legal interventions, witchcraft-related violence remains a consistent challenge to state authority to the present day.Ph.D.African historyCultural anthropologyLawSocial SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/125821/2/3224688.pd

"No French Title"

"No French Abstract"Analyzing various "critical moments" at which "witchcraft"-related violence has challenged state authority, this dissertation argues that crimes driven by "witchcraft" have consistently presented practical and epistemological impediments to the state's efforts to construct order and administer justice in Kenya from the colonial-era to the present day. Incorporating archival, oral, and published sources, this project demonstrates the historical ineffectiveness of law and policy in dealing with "witchcraft"-related violence. It also highlights Kamba people's historical and contemporary perspectives on "witchcraft" and on state interventions into "witchcraft." Rather than searching for the "modernity" of "witchcraft," this dissertation reveals how popular discourse has consistently employed "witchcraft" as a metaphor for and explanation of misfortune and how state discourse has continuously constructed "witchcraft" as a convenient category of-the-state, mobilized to explain away persistent disorder. Departing from Mahmood Mamdani's assertion that "custom" constituted one half of a "bipolar" colonial legal system in which "customary" law and "native" courts governed African affairs while civil law and "metropolitan-style" courts regulated non-natives, this thesis examines "witchcraft"-related offences in order to show how criminal law also constituted a central space for governing African affairs. Throughout the colonial period, British authorities produced vast quantities of "anthro-administrative" knowledge about "witchcraft." Tracing the imperial networks through which this knowledge circulated, this dissertation demonstrates how "witchcraft" was an empire-wide, rather than highly localized, concern. During the opening decades of colonial rule, British authorities developed and refined anti-"witchcraft" law and anthro-administrative practice concerning "witchcraft." During the 1930s, the Wakamba Witch Trials stimulated heated debates in Kenya and the metropole over what made British justice in colonial contexts. In the 1940s, sentencing protocols and case law produced a corpus of legal precedent for dealing with "witch"-killing cases. During the Mau Mau rebellion of the mid-1950s, colonial authorities in Kambaland organized a series of "cleansings" of Kamba "witches" who were alleged Mau Mau supporters, thus breaking with the long-standing policy of not officially engaging "witchcraft"-related methods and actors to combat "witchcraft"-driven challenges to state authority. Despite colonial anthro-administrative and legal interventions, "witchcraft"-related violence remains a consistent challenge to state authority to the present day

The Clitoridectomy Controversy in Kenya: the "Woman's Affair" that Wasn't

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Territoires sorciers

Depuis une quinzaine d’années, les études sur la « sorcellerie » ont mis en place un nouveau paradigme liant modernité et sorcellerie. La majorité des travaux, anglophones pour la plupart, substantialisent le phénomène de sorcellerie comme étant la preuve et l’épreuve de la modernité. Ils s’appuient sur des terrains et des expériences touchant l’Afrique centrale et l’Afrique du Sud et, lorsqu’il s’agit de l’Afrique de l’Ouest ou de l’Est, des pays dont le dénominateur commun est d’être des régions fortement marquées par le christianisme. Dans ce numéro, nous avons tenté de redresser l’équilibre en présentant des textes évoquant d’autres régions et la présence de l’islam, singulièrement absent dans la littérature actuelle

Measurement of the τ\tau lepton polarization in Z boson decays in proton-proton collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

International audienceThe polarization of $\tau$ leptons is measured using leptonic and hadronic $\tau$ lepton decays in Z $\to\tau^+\tau^-$ events in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV recorded by CMS at the CERN LHC with an integrated luminosity of 36.3 fb$^{-1}$. The measured $\tau^-$ polarization at the Z boson mass pole is $\mathcal{P}_{\tau}$(Z) = $-$0.144$\pm$0.006 (stat) $\pm$ 0.014 (syst) = $-$0.144$\pm$0.015, in good agreement with the measurement of the $\tau$ lepton asymmetry parameter of $A_{\tau}$ = 0.1439$\pm$0.0043 = $-\mathcal{P}_{\tau}$(Z) at LEP. The $\tau$ polarization depends on the ratio of the vector to axial-vector couplings of the $\tau$ leptons in the neutral current expression, and thus on the effective weak mixing angle $\sin^{2}\theta_\mathrm{W}^{\text{eff}}$, independently of the Z boson production mechanism. The obtained value $\sin^{2}\theta_\mathrm{W}^{\text{eff}}$ = 0.2319$\pm$0.0008 (stat) $\pm$ 0.0018 (syst) = 0.2319$\pm$0.0019 is in good agreement with measurements at e$^+$e$^-$ colliders

Search for flavor changing neutral current interactions of the top quark in final states with a photon and additional jets in proton-proton collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

International audienceA search for the production of a top quark in association with a photon and additional jets via flavor changing neutral current interactions is presented. The analysis uses proton-proton collision data recorded by the CMS detector at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. The search is performed by looking for processes where a single top quark is produced in association with a photon, or a pair of top quarks where one of the top quarks decays into a photon and an up or charm quark. Events with an electron or a muon, a photon, one or more jets, and missing transverse momentum are selected. Multivariate analysis techniques are used to discriminate signal and standard model background processes. No significant deviation is observed over the predicted background. Observed (expected) upper limits are set on the branching fractions of top quark decays: $\mathcal{B}$(t$\to$u$\gamma$) $\lt$ 0.95$\times$10$^{-5}$ (1.20$\times$10$^{-5}$) and $\mathcal{B}$(t$\to$c$\gamma$) $\lt$ 1.51$\times$10$^{-5}$ (1.54$\times$10$^{-5}$) at 95% confidence level, assuming a single nonzero coupling at a time. The obtained limit for $\mathcal{B}$(t$\to$u$\gamma$) is similar to the current best limit, while the limit for $\mathcal{B}$(t$\to$c$\gamma$) is significantly tighter than previous results

Search for the lepton flavor violating τ→\tau \to 3μ\mu decay in proton-proton collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

International audienceA search for the lepton flavor violating $\tau \to$ 3$\mu$ decay is performed using proton-proton collision events at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2017-2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 97.7 fb$^{-1}$. Tau leptons produced in both heavy-flavor hadron and W boson decays are exploited in the analysis. No evidence for the decay is observed. The results of this search are combined with an earlier null result based on data collected in 2016 to obtain a total integrated luminosity of 131 fb$^{-1}$. The observed (expected) upper limits on the branching fraction $\mathcal{B}$($\tau \to$ 3$\mu$) at confidence levels of 90 and 95% are 2.9$\times$10$^{-8}$ (2.4$\times$10$^{-8}$) and 3.6$\times$10$^{-8}$ (3.0$\times$10$^{-8}$), respectively

Measurement of multidifferential cross sections for dijet production in proton-proton collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

International audienceA measurement of the dijet production cross section is reported based on proton-proton collision data collected in 2016 at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of up to 36.3 fb$^{-1}$. Jets are reconstructed with the anti-$k_\mathrm{T}$ algorithm for distance parameters of $R$ = 0.4 and 0.8. Cross sections are measured double-differentially (2D) as a function of the largest absolute rapidity $\lvert y_\text{max}\rvert$ of the two jets with the highest transverse momenta $p_\mathrm{T}$ and their invariant mass $m_{1,2}$, and triple-differentially (3D) as a function of the rapidity separation $y^*$, the total boost $y_\mathrm{b}$, and either $m_{1,2}$ or the average $p_\mathrm{T}$ of the two jets. The cross sections are unfolded to correct for detector effects and are compared with fixed-order calculations derived at next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbative quantum chromodynamics. The impact of the measurements on the parton distribution functions and the strong coupling constant at the mass of the Z boson is investigated, yielding a value of $\alpha_\mathrm{S}$ = 0.1179 $\pm$ 0.0019

Search for charged-lepton flavor violation in the production and decay of top quarks using trilepton final states in proton-proton collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

International audienceA search is performed for charged-lepton flavor violating processes in top quark (t) production and decay. The data were collected by the CMS experiment from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. The selected events are required to contain one opposite-sign electron-muon pair, a third charged lepton (electron or muon), and at least one jet of which no more than one is associated with a bottom quark. Boosted decision trees are used to distinguish signal from background, exploiting differences in the kinematics of the final states particles. The data are consistent with the standard model expectation. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are placed in the context of effective field theory on the Wilson coefficients, which range between 0.024-0.424 TeV$^{-2}$ depending on the flavor of the associated light quark and the Lorentz structure of the interaction. These limits are converted to upper limits on branching fractions involving up (charm) quarks, t$\to$e$\mu$u (t$\to$e$\mu$c), of 0.032 (0.498)$\times$10$^{-6}$, 0.022 (0.369)$\times$10$^{-6}$, and 0.012 (0.216)$\times$10$^{-6}$ for tensor-like, vector-like, and scalar-like interactions, respectively