The specter of the “arrivant”: hauntology of an interethnic conflict in Afghanistan

Abstract

For more than a century Afghanistan has been marred by (among other things) the interethnic conflict between two major groups in the country, with Pashtuns in the role of the dominant ethnicity, and Hazaras of the oppressed minority. The post-Taliban period in Afghanistan has seen a renaissance in Hazaras’ social and political participation, which has aroused fear and anxiety in Pashtuns’ collective imaginary. Jacques Derrida, building on Freud’s “uncanny,” has written on the political and moral features of spectralities and haunting figures. On the basis of ethnographic material, we interpret members of both ethnic groups today as being haunted not only by a murderous past (the revenant), but also by a future (the arrivant) which anticipates equally murderous violence. Through subtle psychological dynamics, members of the two groups seemingly manage to see themselves as both victims and perpetrators.