“The state killed us!”
Following the death of a relative from Ebola, a family accuses the Guinean state of being responsible for his death. What led to such an accusation? Based on an ethnographic survey in the Republic of Guinea, this article shows how Guinean political history influenced the course of the Ebola epidemic between 2014 and 2016 in the Mano River countries. To understand how past political crises shape Guineans’ relationship to the Ebola health crisis, I will proceed in three steps. First, I will review the state violence that has marked Guinea’s political history since its independence in 1958. One of the consequences of this violence is a systemic lack of trust towards government elites and actions. Then, I will show how the military internment camps of Sekou Toure reactivate a relationship to confinement inducing rumors and fearful behaviors towards Ebola Treatment Centers (ETCs). Finally, in order to move away from approaches in terms of the Guinean population’s “reluctance” to the health measures used to fight the epidemic, I will analyze forms of resistance that are part of the history of political contestation in Guinea.