L'évolution de la justice traditionnelle dans l'Afrique francophone

L'histoire du football Rwanda commence avec la colonisation du pays. En une cinquantaine d'années, ce jeu sport d'origine anglaise, en intégrant une société agro-pastorale et guerrière, est devenu une pratique culturelle locale. Comprendre ce phénomène nécessite d'articuler l'ancrage colonial d'une activité cosmopolite aux [ré]inventions culturelles locales suscitées par son implantation. Ce texte vise à montrer comment un jeu de balle, en traversant une société en cours d'occidentalisation, a marqué l'édification d'une modernité guerrière reçue et façonnée par les joueurs de l'époque. En traversant les transpositions ludiques d'enjeux sociaux et politiques plus larges, on observe que cette pratique, tout en participant du procès de "civilisation" que s'administra l'institution coloniale, constitua l'un des fers de lance de la lutte pour l'émancipation.     

Instrumentalisation de la coopération chinoise et transition politique au Sénégal: analyse de l’ère Wade

In countries like Senegal where democracy seems to be institutionalising itself, evaluation of the quality of this practice often happens at critical points of reference such as elections. The democratic changes between Presidents Diouf and Wade in 2000 and between the latter and President Macky Sall in 2012 are generally deemed to be indicators of the healthy condition of democracy in this country. The present article stipulates that the politicians involved in this alternation plan and prepare for it as much at the heart of their administrations as do the political parties, but often also outside election periods. This article demonstrates that the Wade regime, following that mindset, has instrumentalized its cooperation with China in attempt to consolidate its power.     

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.     

L’exil et la négociation du manque dans trois romans de Calixthe Beyala

This article takes as its theme the literature of sub-Saharan Africa, and in particular the prolific work of the Cameroonian author Calixthe Beyala, who, since 1987, has published numerous novels in exile. Calixthe Beyala is among those expatriate writers for whom exile, far from being synonymous with banishment, on the contrary represents true salvation. The article examines how Calixthe Beyala speaks of expatriation in three of her novels: Tu t’appelleras Tanga (Your name shall be Tanga) (1988), Les honneurs perdus (1996) and Comment cuisiner son mari à l’africaine (2000). Belonging to three successive decades, these works relate specifically to the theme of exile and plunge to the heart of Cameroon and to the Cameroonian diaspora in Paris, shedding light on the grieving process linked to the loss of one’s own geographic space, and to the loss of self.     

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.     

La "frontière africaine" revisitée: "ethnogenèse" dans les Grassfields de l'est(le cas de la chefferie bamiléké de Batié)

Cet article tente de dater la genèse et de suivre l'évolution dans le temps d'une chefferie Bamiléké (ouest-Cameroun) en l'inscrivant dans ses contexte régional et historique, couvrant la période précoloniale (fin du 17ième siècle approximativement à fin du 19ième siècle). Pour ce faire nous avons recours à la tradition orale telle que celle-ci a été définie par Jan Vansina (1985), que nous complétons par d'autres sources confirmant ou infirmant ces traditions. Nous essayons de mettre à l'épreuve le paradigme de la "frontière africaine" introduit par Igor Kopytoff (1987) et montrons en quoi notre étude de cas conforte certaines de ses hypothèses et en réfute d'autres. L'article porte l'accent sur une contextualisation historique et culturelle des sources utilisées. S'appuyant sur les travaux de certains historiens de l'Afrique centrale (MacGaffey, Miller, Vansina), il conclu par des remarques concernant la conceptualisation du temps et de l'agencéité, l'historicité et la culture des sociétés Grassfields précoloniales.     

Droit islamique et droits de la femme d’après les registres du TribunalMusulman de Ndar (Saint-Louis du Sénégal)

Selon les archives du tribunalmusulman de Saint-Louis du Sénégal, fondé en 1857, cet article s’intéresse au cas des femmes qui étaient les plus nombreuses à recourir à la médiation des juges musulmans au sein de cette institution judiciaire. A partir d’une analyse des droits de la femme en matière de divorce, nous examinons l’application du droit islamique au sein du Tribunal Musulman. Nous nous interrogerons tout particulièrement sur la politique judiciairemusulmane des cadis de Ndar en ce qui concerne le code familial et les droits de la femme. Mais, en premier lieu, nous abordons les péripéties du TribunalMusulman, qui fut la toute première institution judiciaire publique en Afrique de l’ouest francophone.     

Du Zaïre au Congo: la Vierge du Désarmement et la guerre de libération

Observing the religious movement that has developed around two young visionaries who claim to be in communication with the Virgin Mary, the author analyzes the political meaning of the messages they claim to receive from her. His interpretation is based on interviews with the visionaries’ followers but above all on the life story narrated by the main visionary, here reproduced in its entirety. He uses this material to show how, with the change from Mobutu’s declining power to Kabila’s new power, the attitudes of Kinshasa’s population evolved.     

Kongo–Lisbonne : la dialectique du centre et de la périphérie dans l'Église kimbanguiste

In 2009, as the Pope visited Angola, the Portuguese Kimbanguists prepared themselves to receive Simon Kimbangu Kiangani, the spiritual Chief of the Church (living in the Democratic Republic of Congo). According to Kimbanguists themselves, Lisbon is as marginal to Europe as Bethlehem was to the Roman Empire or N'kamba was to the Belgian Congo when, respectively, Jesus Christ and Simon Kimbangu were born. While they are not active proselytizers and do not use “reverse mission” arguments, Kimbanguists insist that Europe hosts a vast amount of “marginalized” people in need of a fresh spirituality. Analysing the Lisbon event, in this paper the authors discuss the dialectics between “centre” and “periphery” (N'kamba and Portugal) and suggest that the Kimbanguist religion must be simultaneously regarded as a mechanism by which Africans reaffirm a presence in the diaspora as well as being a means to orient efforts aimed at reinforcing their spiritual centre in Africa.     

“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?     

Rumeur sur Brazzaville: de la rue à l’écriture

The documentary material here examined comes from the independent press of Brazzaville in the 1990s. The author contends that a major part of press coverage claimed to be based on urban rumors. The names of some newspapers even proclaimed the closeness of their information to urban hearsay, presented as truer, or at least more relevant, than the written word in general, itself understood as wholly subservient to the political power in place. The author then systematically analyzes texts from the most important such newspapers to show how the discourse in them has been constructed on the basis of the discourse of Brazzaville political rumor.