Chocolate, Politics and Peace-Building

Gwen Burnyeat is a Wolfson PhD Scholar in Anthropology at University College London, UK. She has worked in Colombia for eight years, has a Masters from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia where she also lectured in Political Anthropology, and her prize-winning documentary ‘Chocolate of Peace’ was released in 2016 (see http://chocolatedepaz.com/english for a trailer).

• 1. Introduction: The Chocolate-Politics Continuum.- 2. The Roots: Of Cooperatives and Conflict.- 3. The Founding of the Peace Community.- 4. The Cultural Change of 'Organisation'.- 5. The Genealogy of the Rupture 1997-2005.- 6. Differentiating between Santos and Uribe.- 7. Practices of Production.- 8. The Elements of the Organic Narrative.- 9. Conclusion: An 'Alternative Community' as Positive Peace-Building?.

“The book as a whole remains a fascinating and well-researched exploration of resistance against terrible odds. Thoughtful and well documented, it is an indispensable addition to the body of ethnographic work on political conflict in what continues to be a violent and deeply polarised polity.” (Nick Morgan, Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 52 (2), 2020)“While the book centres on the politics of chocolate in the midst of Colombia’s war, it is also about much more. Chocolate, politics and peace-building is an important rumination on one of the most high-profile community-based attempts to create peace in Colombia amidst structural forces that pull towards violence. Burnyeat’s ethnography is as urgent as ever now that much of the country is living in a tattered peace, hounded by similar structural forces.” (Alexander L. Fattal, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 26 (2), 2020)“Burnyeat’s sophisticated, grounded approach and valuable research about peace communities and sustainability will contribute to future discussions about the state, the importance of Community members’ identity narratives, and how to achieve sustainable, positive peace.” (Suzanne Wilson, Maguaré, Vol. 33 (2), 2019)