“La bibliothèque coloniale”, la propriété intellectuelle et la romance du développement en Afrique

One asks oneself vigorously about the conditions of the construction of knowledge relative to the African continent as well as to its way of thinking. The influence of V.Y. Mudimbe in this regard is immense. The major categories of anthropology are examined, even called into question, and most notably the ethnic groups. As pertinent as they may be, these analyses return to the library and to the system of representation that the continent invents and raise it to a paradigm of difference par excellence. It is important, beyond the scholarly discourse, to take a look at the relationship of ordinary people with libraries. Broadcasters, for example, comment candidly on the work of one artist-musician or another. Appropriation implies the related right: “droit d'auteur(e)”, copyright or “Urheberrecht”. Anyone who fails to comply becomes a pirate. What, therefore, is the meaning of to modernise the author, the work, the copyright or the pirate not in language inherited from Western law but in that of the citizen or the average villager?     

Les groupes djihadistes au Mali,entre violence,recherche de légitimité et politiques locales

RÉSUMÉ

Particulièrement ciblés par les opérations franco-maliennes depuis 2013, les groupes djihadistes qui opèrent dans le cadre du conflit malien ont su faire preuve de résilience. Cet article discute de leur ancrage social, des liens qu’ils ont tissés avec différentes communautés et de leur influence au niveau local. Se définissant sur les territoires qu’ils contrôlent comme des arbitres et des pourvoyeurs de sécurité et biens que l’État malien défaillant ou absent ne peut produire, les groupes djihadistes s’imposent comme des acteurs de la gouvernance locale. S’ils continuent à utiliser une violence de coercition pour contraindre les populations locales, ils instrumentalisent avant tout les tensions inter-et intra-communautaires pour diffuser des modèles alternatifs de gouvernance. Ce faisant, ces groupes contribuent à accentuer la crise de légitimité dont souffre l’État malien sur des pans entiers de son territoire.     

Sémiotique et rhétorique de la duplicité dans la peinture de Bernard Baïfang

The Art of Bernard Baifang finds its strength in the subtlety with which this contemporary painter represents abstractions. Using figures of speech, he translates duplicity into images, a moral perversion that has become endemic in many African countries. A semiotic and rhetorical study of the figurations of duplicity in Feymania and La cité rouge reveals that the achievement of these paintings inspired by the experience of daily life in Cameroon is part of a subversive approach based on a cathartic conception of art.     

Assimilation coloniale et identités religieuses de la civilité des originaires des Quatre Communes (Sénégal)

In his prize-winning monograph on the tirailleurs sénégalais, Myron Echenberg points out that most soldiers in the French colonial army were of slave origin. This article examines the role of slaves in pre-colonial African armies and the problem that the French had in keeping their soldiers alive within a hostile disease environment. The response of Governor Louis Faidherbe was to create a professional unit of African soldiers, the tirailleurs. Recruited overwhelmingly from slaves, the tirailleurs became the basis of the French army that conquered much of West Africa. Even after slavery had ended, about three quarters of Africans in the French army during World War I were of slave origin. The article also examines the role of veterans after the war and the French success in converting them into one of the pillars of the colonial social order. The article concludes with a consideration of the role of memory in both France and Africa.     

Établissements d’enseignement et de santé confessionnels,espace public et agency à Ouagadougou (1987–2010)

Abstract

In response to the significant urbanisation and the demographic expansion of Ouagadougou, the Catholic Church and Islamic associations are diversifying their operations, which were already significant in terms of health and education at the end of the 1980s. This social engagement is at the heart of humanitarian, proselytising, socio-economic and political challenges and influences the position of these actors in the public space. This article intends to contribute to consideration of the relations between these religious actors and the State in Burkina Faso with the aim of analysing the sectors of secondary teaching and health in Ouagadougou. It will be demonstrated that the operations of these actors (Muslim and Catholic) made their legitimacy evolve differently in the public space from 1987 to 2010. The Catholic actors have had a greater influence than the Muslims on the decisions of the State. Subsequent to the challenges and the political context, the capacity of agency (capacity to act) of the actors of the two denominations has modified.     

Nationalisme,décolonisation et consociation à l'île Maurice: l'émergence d'un Mauricianisme stratégique (1945–1967)

The decolonization period in Mauritius (1947–1968) gave rise to intense debates around the project of a Mauritian nation, named “Mauritianism”. This paper aims to analyse the reasons why Mauritianism remained an ambiguous concept. This “strategic Mauritianism” was framed within the consociational negociations held during that period, between the former dominant minority of the Franco-Mauritians, who championed an assimilationist form of nation, and the emerging dominant majority, the Hindus, who favoured an ethnicized “revivalist” conception of the nation.     

Comprendre Boko Haram à partir d’une perspective historique,locale et régionale

RÉSUMÉ

Ce numéro spécial s’intéresse à l’insurrection de Boko Haram dans les pays du bassin tchadien en se concentrant essentiellement sur les dynamiques locales, d’une part, en regardant au-delà de la perspective sensationnaliste et à court terme des médias, et d’autre part, en explorant des thèmes qui transcendent le temps et les frontières disciplinaires. Notre postulat de base est que la lecture des actions de Boko Haram à travers le prisme des termes aujourd’hui à la mode tels que “terroristes” ou “djihadistes,” ne peut offrir qu’une perspective limitée du phénomène. Plutôt qu’un modèle superficiel dérivé de la pensée de la “guerre contre le terrorisme,” les approches développées par les auteurs de ce dossier thématique se concentrent non seulement sur les facteurs religieux, mais aussi sur la violence de l’État et les facteurs sociaux, politiques et économiques qui soutiennent l’adhésion à l’insurrection, ce qui présente un parallèle avec les “bandits sociaux.”     

Les Ninja,les Cobra et les Zoulou crèvent l’écran à Brazzaville: le rôle les médias et la construction des identités de violence politique

In his recently published studies, the author analyzed the development and use of militia groups in the political conflicts that shook Congo-Brazzaville in the 1990s. After briefly reviewing these events, he points up the change in recruiting militiamen that occurred in the last phase of these conflicts. His text is primarily concerned with the role of Western mass culture in shaping the bodies and identities of these militiamen and the militiamen’s sense of identity. From the late 1950s (here the author draws on the research of Georges Balandier) to the late 1990s, the young men of Brazzaville were inspired in constructing a modernity of their own bodies by certain Western action films. The graphic violence in these films, perpetrated by characters whom the young men adopted as their heroes, legitimated their own use of violence.