Conceptualizing the After-Crisis through Ethnographies of Post-Crisis Situations in Africa

In this introductory article, we seek to conceptualize the after-crisis ethnographically. We ask what happens when crises like natural disasters, violent conflicts, or epidemics are over? Whereas these crises often entail interventions by (inter-)national organizations that introduce new (infra)structures, resources, knowledge and expertise in local contexts, the withdrawal of these interventions might lead to a transmutation of crises as new conflicts and inequalities emerge. In order to understand the dynamics of the post-crisis, we critically explore three possible prerequisites through which crises can mutate in the post-crisis moment: a presumed return to normalcy; the possibility of a real break or discontinuity; and the rhizomatic nature of power, which leads to new configurations of power that were previously absent or obscured.