Pouvoir d'Etat,Autorité Mystique et Société Civile

Regional and global disease epidemics, which followed in the wake of the First World War, became the crucial tipping point in the balance between resistance and accommodation that had been established between the British colonial administration and newly colonized people of the Sierra Leone Protectorate. From 1915 to 1919, a smallpox epidemic and the global influenza epidemic overwhelmed the inhabitants of the northern region of Sierra Leone, severely disrupting the movement of people, agricultural production, and trade. In the wake of these epidemics and social disruptions, British colonial demands for revenue, labour, and food from Sierra Leoneans to support their European war effort became more onerous. By 1919, the surreptitious protests of the pre-war period had given way to open and violent confrontation, as anti-Syrian and rice riots swept through the urban areas of the protectorate and colony.     

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.     

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.     

Art et artisanat en Afrique Noire: Problèmes d'une définition différentielle

In 1977, John Lonsdale published a review of William R. Ochieng's study APre-Colonial History of the Gusii of Western Kenya in the Kenya Historical Review. Entitled “When did the Gusii (or any other group) become a ‘Tribe’?”, the ten-page article was less a book review and more a treatise on the practice of history in Africa. Taking Lonsdale's question as a point of inspiration, this article provides a critical rethinking of the theories of “tribe”, ethnicity and identity politics that continue to dominate African scholarship by examining the particular case of the Luyia in western Kenya. Through the seemingly incongruous and stubbornly diverse accounting of Luyia political community, this study suggests that histories of ethnic identity remain trapped by their own constructivist logic, elevating the “inventors” of traditional accounts at the expense of the plural and dissenting voices that characterise the multiple forms of political imagination practised across Africa that, while diverse, continue to rely on the idiom of the “tribe”.     

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.     

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.     

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 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?     

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.     

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.     

L’Afrique centrale francophone entre au XXIe siècle: Citoyens et États,nations, régions face au monde

This special issue is the successor to Volume 18 Number 1 of the Canadian Journal of African Studies, published in 1984 under the title, “État indépendant du Congo, Congo belge, République démocratique du Congo, République du Zaïre?” The title of that special issue devoted to the political and social crisis in the Republic of Zaire ended with a question mark, implicitly asking: What next for Republic of Zaire? The present special issue offers a reply, one nobody expected fifteen years ago. At least symbolically, the country has recovered its identity as an independent contemporary polity, the Democratic Republic of Congo. Many authors in this issue argue that forty years of independence were mainly a time of violence, destruction, and pillaging. Ilunga Kabongo suggests that the global crises was so deep in the mid-1990s that people would vote for anyone able to restore normal life, the return of coloniser included.

Once a regional power, the Congo of today is a toy in hands of its neighbours, some of them being very small countries such as Rwanda which is deeply resented by the Congolese. The circle of violence seems to have engulfed local society, starting from the 1990 massacre of university students on the Lubumbashi campus. Even if, for the first time in a century, the war in and over the Congo is a regional African affair, it is difficult to rejoice as it is more the result the lack of interest from the world powers than the proof of Central African political independence.

The issue is organised in the manner allowing the reader to look first at the regional situation, mainly that of the French-speaking countries. Given the importance of Uganda and of Museveni, both as a political and military local power and as a model of a new leader, an analysis of his autobiography by Ron Kassimir is included. As often as it was possible, the voice of social scientists working and living in the region is heard. In little more than three years, between the time this issue was initiated in late 1996 and the time of its publication, many of them were forced into exile. It is an important characteristic of the present day situation. In addition to social science analyses, some local voices are included in order to help readers to grasp local perceptions and local efforts to understand the ongoing life, to find a way out.

As far as Congolese social scientists are concerned, we have publish articles of scholars belonging to three generations: those who were mainly educated abroad and came to national universities in the early 1970s; those who were mainly educated at local universities and who came to teaching and research in the 1980s; those who were educated in the 1990s, partially locally and partially abroad. It is important to note that many of those scholars were in the meantime forced to expatriate. The comparison of their understanding of what is going on can help us to appreciate Congolese social thought.

One central fact emerges, more from the search for peace and comments of local urban intellectuals than from scholarly essays. Today, while the borders of the Congo are disregarded by various national armies and foreign intervention forces, while local markets depend more on foreign exchange than on local currency, while the country is de facto divided into four more or less autonomous parts, ordinary people feel Congolese and refuse partition as well as secession. Should one conclude that in the deepest crises of its twentieth-century political history a nation is born, that it is born despite the demise of political institutions?