ABSTRACT
This chapter studies the cross-border recruitment of young Burkinabe men into the ranks of the Forces Nouvelles rebel movement in neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire. It suggests studying perpetration as a form of labor, and recruitment into rebel groups as a form of labor migration. From an anthropological perspective, the chapter argues that normalizing the study of perpetration helps to understand the specificity of moral discourses around the legitimacy and illegitimacy of violent acts. It explores the discursive constructions of ex-combatants around their recruitment, as well as their practices and expectations, which cast their recruitment as a new form of economically motivated labor migration. This understanding of perpetration becomes possible through the socio-cultural framework within which it is legitimized. In this empirical context, perpetration is further legitimized as a justified fight against the Gbagbo regime and its persecution of Burkinabe labor migrants in Côte d’Ivoire. The chapter thus argues for an analytical distance from normative perceptions of perpetrators, and suggest an empirical exploration of the socio-cultural construction of perpetration that foregrounds the legitimizing discourses and practices of the perpetrators themselves.
