Logiques transnationales et stratégies locales: les étapes de l'implantation des religions afro-brésiliennes au Portugal

The transnationalisation of Afro-Brazilian religions to Portugal is marked by the opening in 1974 of the first terreiro (house of worship) in the city of Lisbon and today there are around 40 terreiros throughout the country. This article will attempt to elucidate the stages in the implantation of Afro-Brazilian religions in Portugal at the level of individual religious observance as well as at the more global level of Portuguese society. In order to understand these stages, it is necessary on the one hand to consider the purely local strategies enabling a progressive adaptation of Afro-Brazilian religions in Portugal. On the other hand, this study must be situated within comparative research on the transnationalisation of Afro-American religions, which facilitates an understanding of their common processes of legitimisation in new contexts.     

La généalogie imaginaire de la littérature algérienne francophone

This article contends that French language is both the perfect tool for the expression of one’s own identity and the instrument of knowledge that has shut down all possible other ones in Algeria. The works of Rachid Boudjedra (1969) and Yacine Kateb (1966) illustrate the highly ideological dimension of Algerian literature. By debunking the very idea of French literature, their novels fight back the concept of cultural imperialism. Yet, I think that the conflict between ideology and literature did not appear recently, after the colonial wars of independence, but was already underlined at the birth of French language as a national idiom in the writings of an author such as François Rabelais.     

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.     

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.     

Prébisch's rationale for protection

The major critics of Prébisch's rationale for protection have tended to overlook an important premise of his argument. The premise is that technological improvements arising in the secondary industries of the advanced countries are transferred much more slowly (i) than they occur, (ii) than the prices of the exports of the advanced countries are allowed to decline, and (iii) than technological improvements are transferred to the export industries of underdeveloped countries. All innovations are assumed to be developed in the advanced countries. Can a disparity between rates of transfer provide the essential justification for Prébisch's policy? The disparity can be said to arise from a hindrance to the transfer of advanced technology to the import‐substituting industries. The conclusion of this paper is that the policy can be justified only when (i) protection is capable of offsetting the hindrance, (ii) it is possible to ensure, during the period of protection, that the transfer of future advances can occur without hindrance, and (iii) the expansion of production possibilities resulting from the newly‐available technology allows income to increase sufficiently (over some period of time) to offset the cost of protection.     

L’année 1998 en République démocratique du Congo: Survie et pratique du politique dans le miroir du quotidien

The four texts comprising this research note were written at the end of 1998 by Congolese scholars asked by B. Jewsiewicki to present people’s actions and local perception of the each region’s situation. Charles Djungu-Simba, a scholar and a writer, presents a fictionalized report of the August 1998 rebels’ intrusion into the city of Kinshasa. The second contributor (writing under a pseudonym) brings in interviews with two officers of the former Zairian army who were incorporated into Kabila’s armed forces. Justin Bisanswa analyses briefly the situation in Kivu with special attention to the local people’s attitudes toward the main militia groups. Jean-Pierre Nzunguba brings in a life story of a Bunia popular painter, an opportunity to present local perception of the life during the past forty years.     

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.