Emergency Time

An unnerving Busira uprising closely followed Simon Kimbangu’s 1921 arrest. By 1930, tensions were flying around economic depression and risks of revolt. The two-state heuristic shapes analysis. The biopolitical state entered with a vengeance about 1930, with doctors touring regarding the birth rate and venereal disease. The nervous state was tracking dissent in a context where many lost jobs and labor conditions worsened. How the slump affected lives and moods is demonstrated, from Europeans to hcb workers. The nervous state interrogates urbane lumberjacks about a Wangata chief, rumored likely to raise the American rather than the Belgian flag at holiday time. Also under investigation was a Kimbangu-like man under hospital (psychiatric) observation and a métisse woman with a pleasure-seeking, dance and fashion association, Amicale. The security shakedown in Coquilhatville went with fears about physical and intellectual mobilities; Garveyite, Kimbanguist, and Communist ideas; and shipworkers exposed to political concepts in Antwerp.