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.     

Le théologien et le somnambule: un épisode récent de l'histoire almoravide en Mauritanie

In 2012, images of a mystical mermaid known locally as Mami Wata circulated on the Internet and via people's mobile phones, sparking rumours that Chinese labourers had captured her as they were installing underwater fibreoptic cables. Appearing as a grotesque sea-creature with a gnarled, shrivelled body, this new image of Mami Wata challenges older, popular depictions of her as a beautiful maiden. Further, in her deformed body, Mami Wata reveals new tensions arising from promises of wealth and modernisation promoted by both Chinese and Congolese governments. Accounts of rumours/urban legends and metaphors of contagion animate larger contemporary discussions concerning development projects, “otherness” and the influence of the Internet and mobile phone technology on production of popular African culture. The female siren, Mami Wata, is a recurring motif in Kinshasa's collective urban imaginary. Historically she has been an expression of modernity and hybridity through visual representation in popular painting, sculpture and television serials. Now Mami Wata appears in the digital world. In this article, in addition to analysing the ways in which contemporary technology mediates this archetypal figure, I draw on notions of otherness, recent historical, political and economic changes in the Democratic Republic of Congo to analyse the ways they inform the particular shape and meaning that Mami Wata takes when transformed into the digital domain.     

Le phénomène “Krouman” à Sassandra: la marque d’une institution séculaire

A recurrent anxiety in contemporary Botswana is the perception of an immediate threat from external forces: strangers, livestock, and disease. How do the state and its citizens react under these conditions? The following article explores this question in the context of globalization, discourses of autochthony, and the blood-based politics of population management in Botswana. In recent years, Batswana increasingly see themselves as a nation under siege from foreigners, and in particular, newly arrived migrants from Zimbabwe. Under pressure from outside, Botswana citizens fear the loss of their physical homeland and the denigration of their collective identity and sense of morality. Through a reading of publications in the print media, I examine the articulation of the rhetoric of invasion and national paranoia that has taken root in Botswana. Although the presumption of assault by outsiders is said to threaten the existence of the Batswana nation through the erosion of the supposedly distinct boundaries between citizen and stranger, these apprehensions also carry a potent creative potential. I argue that, in an environment of economic uncertainty and ethnic instability, the specter of the stranger/Zimbabwean is used to reconfigure the content and emphasis of citizenship in Botswana.     

Les agents religieux islamiques en Afrique tropicale: réflexions autour d'un thème

There are political and environmental challenges in the Nile Basin. In the past, Egypt's military dominance, civil wars in Sudan and Ethiopia, and negligible use of water by upstream states muted political tensions. But demands for a fairer share of the Nile River have resurfaced, and many countries have openly defied the imposed regime, meaning the 1929 agreement between Egypt and Britain and the 1959 bilateral agreements between Egypt and Sudan. The literature suggests this can lead to both conflict and co-operation. The dominant power-based and interest-based regime theories of international relations differ in their formulation of actors or actors' preferences over outcomes. This article argues that, while the former is the most powerful tool to explain what has happened in the past, the latter theory has a much more nuanced and explanatory power in terms of what will happen in the future in the Nile Basin.     

“Les catholiques sont l’élite!”: représentations de l’espace politique par une minorité religieuse au Burkina Faso

Abstract

The Catholic Church occupies a privileged position in the religious arena in Burkina Faso. Having invested very early in the public arena of the country, it constitutes a vital actor in the socio-political landscape of the country as attested to by its involvement in the domains of education and health and its positioning as mediator in times of crisis. Based on a field survey conducted among members of the Catholic community (members of the clergy, religious and lay), this article studies the manner in which Catholics in Burkina Faso portray themselves as a religious community in the country’s political arena. It reveals that in Burkina Faso the Catholics portray themselves as a dominant religious minority in terms of politics due to their disproportionate engagement in the apparatus of the state. The article also shows that the Catholics in Burkina Faso see their dominant position as under threat, on the one hand, from competition by the Protestants and, on the other, by the rise of Islamism.     

Dépendance et luttes politiques au Kenya, 1975–1977: Ia bourgeoisie nationale à l'assaut du pouvoir d'État

Rural West Africans confront a challenging array of circumstances in pursuit of their livelihoods, which are negotiated through repertoires of knowledge, skill, wisdom and information that are held individually, communally or as the prerogative of experts. Of some significance is timing: finding the most effective or propitious moment for action. On the farm, anticipating the beginning and progress of the rains is crucial and sought through the empirical observation of natural phenomena, or as in northwest Nigeria additionally through agricultural star calendars and almanacs by Muslim clerics. Furthermore, some clerics use divination to identify propitious moments for their clients whereby they may achieve success in non-farm jobs and businesses that are an integral part of rural livelihoods. Taking action to achieve particular outcomes on and off the farm raises issues about local people's understanding of the physical world and their place within it, and the power of religion and the supernatural. An appreciation of such matters would appear to be crucial for those from the scientific and technological North who may be attempting to transform African societies.