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REVUE AFRICAINE DES LIVRES AFRICA REVIEW OF BOOKS ISSN 0851-7592 ISSN 0851-7592 Notes aux Contributeurs Notes for Contributors La Revue Africaine des Livres présente une revue semestrielle de travaux sur l’Afrique The Africa Review of Books presents a biannual review of works on Africa in the social dans le domaine des sciences sociales, des sciences humaines et des arts créatifs. Elle a sciences, humanities and creative arts. It is also intended to serve as a forum for critical pour but de servir de forum pour des analyses critiques, des réflexions et des débats sur analyses, reflections and debates about Africa. As such, the Review solicits book reviews, l’Afrique. À ce titre, la Revue souhaiterait recevoir des articles critiques, des essais et des review articles and essays. Contributions that traverse disciplinary boundaries and comptes-rendus de livres. Les contributions qui transcendent les barrières disciplinaires et encourage interdisciplinary dialogue and debate are particularly welcome. encouragent le dialogue interdisciplinaire et les débats sont particulièrement les bienvenues.

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Manuscripts are best sent electronically as e-mail attachments. If sent by post as hard Les manuscrits devront être envoyés par courrier électronique de préférence en tant que copy, they should be accompanied by soft versions on diskette in the MS Word or RTF fichier attaché. S’ils sont envoyés par poste sous forme de copie originale, ils devront etre format. Authors should also send with their submissions their full address and institutional accompagnés d’une version sous forme de disquette MS Word ou au format RTF. Les affiliation as well as a short bio-data (including a sample of recent publications) for use auteurs devront aussi soumettre leurs contributions en mentionnant leur adresse complète, on the “Notes on Contributors” section. leur insttution de tutelle ainsi qu’une brève note biographique (avec un aperçu des publications les plus récentes) qui pourra être utilisée dans la section «Notes sur le Authors are entitled to two copies of the issue of the Review in which their contribution contributeurs». is published. Les auteurs auront droit à deux exemplaires du de la Revue dans lequel paraîtra leur All communications (contributions, editorial correspondence, books for review, as well contribution. as subscription and advertising enquiries) should be addressed to: Toutes les communications (contributions, correspondance éditoriale, livres pour comptes- Africa Review of Books rendus, ainsi que les abonnements et toute information concernant la publicité) devront Forum for Social Studies être adressées à : P.O.BOX 25864 code 1000 Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia Africa Review of Books Forum for Social Studies Tel: 251-11-1572990/91 Fax: 251-11-1572979 P.O.BOX 25864 code 1000 E-mail: [email protected] Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia Tel: 251-11-1572990/91 Fax: 251-11-1572979 E-mail: [email protected] Mars / March 2006

Contents

4 Thandika Mkandawire The Intellectual Itinerary of Jeffrey Sachs

7 Mahmood Mamdani Mau Mau: Understanding Counter-Insurgency

10 Fred Hendricks Crusaders for Human Rights and Dignity

12 Ibrahim Abdullah Man Does Not Live by Bread Alone

14 Sanya Osha Slow Death in the Niger Delta

15 Bate Besong Pentecostal Hubris as Parable for the Theatre

16 Abou B. Bamba Qu’est-ce que la postcolonie?

19 Philemon Muamba Mumbunda Pourquoi l’Afrique meurt

21 Michèle Sinapi Une mnémohistoire de l’eurocentrisme

22 Slim Laghmani Civilisations et relations internationales

CONTRIBUTORS

IBRAHIM ABDULLAH is a Sierra Leone historian and author of many publications, among the most recent being Between Democracy and Terror: The Sierra Leone Civil War (CODESRIA, 2004).

ABOU B. BAMBA, ancien élève de l’Ecole normale supérieure d’Abidjan, est depuis 2000 inscrit à l’Université d’Etat de Géorgie à Atlanta dans un programme de PHD d’histoire. La thèse sur laquelle il travaille a pour intitulé proviso: “In the Shadows of the New Frontier: The Politics of Development in the US-Ivorio and French Relations during the Kennedy-Johnson Era, 1958-1968”.

BATE BESONG is Senior Lecturer in Drama and Critical Theory, University of Buea, Cameroon (1999-), with focus on Cameroon Literature, Theory and History of African Literature, Cultural Studies, Creative Writing, Critical Theory, Play Production. He has a PhD from the University of Calabar (Nigeria) and has published extensively on Anglophone Cameroonian drama.

FRED HENDRIKS is Professor of Sociology and Dean of Humanities at Rhodes University, Grahamstown (South Africa). He is also Editor of the CODESRIA publication, African Sociological Review. His recent publications include: The Social Sciences in South Africa since 1994. Disciplinary and transdisciplinary areas of study (2004) and Walking towards Justice. Democratisation in Rural Life (2003).

MAHMOOD MAMDANI is currently Herbert Lehman Professor of Government and former director of the Institute of African Studies at Columbia University. His books include Citizen and Subject, which was awarded the Herskovitz Prize, and When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism and Genocide in Rwanda. His most recent book is Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America,the Cold War and the Origins of Terror. Mahmood Mamdani was President of CODESRIA from 1999 to 2002.

THANDIKA MKANDAWIRE, an economist and former Executive Secretary of CODESRIA, has been serving as Director of the Geneva-based United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) since 1998. His recent publications include: African Intellectuals (ed., 2005), Social Policy in a Development Context (ed., 2004) and Our Continent, Our Future: African Perspectives on Structural Adjustment. He is also on numerous advisory and editorial boards of international institutions and journals.

PHILEMON MUAMBA MUMBUNDA est chercheur au Centre d’Etudes Politiques(C.E.P.) est Assistant au Département des Sciences Politiques et Administratives, Faculté des Sciences Sociales Administratives et Politiques, Université de Kinshasa.

SANYA OSHA, who has a PhD in Philosophy and has taught in universities in Nigeria, is currently Fellow of the Centre for Rhetoric Studies, Univerity of Cape Town, South Africa. His publications include: “Ethics and Revisionism in Nigerian Governance,” in QUEST: An African Journal of Philosophy (2004) and “`Man will live well’: On the poetics of corruption in a global age,” in W.M. Binsbergen & van Dijk, Agency in the appropriation of the global culture (2004).

MICHÈLE SINAPI est agrégée de philosophie et ex-directrice de programme au Collège international de Philosophie, Paris. Elle a publié des articles de philosophie politique, notamment sur les problématiques théologico-politiques du mensonge, et sur l’articulation entre questions juridiques et psychanalyse. Elle travaille actuellement sur la question de la souillure.

Africa Review of Books (ISSN No. 0851-7592) is a biannual publication of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA). The editorial production of the Review is managed by the Forum for Social Studies (FSS), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), with the active support of the Centre National de Recherche en Anthropologie Sociale et Culturelle (CRASC), Oran (Algeria).

La Revue Africaine des Livres (ISSN No. 0851-7592) est une publication semestrielle du Conseil pour le développement de la recherche en sciences sociales en Afrique (CODESRIA). La production éditoriale est dirigée par le Forum des sciences sociales (FSS), Addis-Ababa, Ethiopie, avec le soutien actif du Centre national de recherche en anthropologie sociale et culturelle (CRASC), Oran, Algérie.

3 Africa Review of Books / Revue africaine des Livres

n many parts of the world, poverty, The Intellectual Itinerary of Jeffrey Sachs damentalist “rule of law” rendition, what were undeterred by the vast technological missing were institutions that would insure Iresources at humanity’s disposal and unfazed Thandika Mkandawire “property rights”. It is important to bear in mind by the many declarations of war against it, still that the macroeconomic policies themselves ravages the lives of millions. It is the juxtapo- were taken as sound but what they needed was sition of the obvious human capacity to “make The End of Poverty: How We Can Make it Happen in Our LifeTime appropriate institutions. poverty history” and the empty rhetoric on pov- by Jeffrey Sachs And so by the mid-1990s, “institutional re- erty eradication that Jeffrey Sachs seeks to bring Penguin Books, 2005, 396 pp., ISBN 1-59420-045-9 forms” - or “good governance”, as this was to wider attention in his book. Sachs, as some popularly known in donor circles - became the have observed, is a rock star of an economist new mantra in the policy world. A wave of in- - a labelling that is confirmed both by the me- stitutional reforms swept across the continent. dia hype around the book and the company he Central banks were made “autonomous”, laws keeps - celebrities of all colours and stripes, were rewritten to secure private property, stock billionaires, presidents. This has helped the book markets were introduced, private-public partner- reach the attention of a much wider audience ships were set up as the New Public Manage- than is usual for books on poverty and under- ment was de rigeur and governments were development. trimmed down. And in a number of countries, Sachs is a man who seems to get one “big democratic institutions were set up. Already by idea” at a time, which he then runs with. Many the beginning of the millennium, there were in- have been turned off by the Spartan way with creasing doubts about the “institutional fix” and which he asserts himself and by his use of the institutionalists began to lose ground. While autobiographical material - often pushed to the many countries had, under the aegis of the IFIs, outer limits of probity - which often becomes introduced major institutional reforms, the eco- self-serving and lapses into name-dropping. His nomic recovery remained anaemic. admirers have been impressed by the passion This prompted the new question, “Why is it with which he has taken up arms against poverty that even when countries adopt the recom- and by the can - do chutzpah that he sums up mended polices and the right institutions, eco- as follows: “When something is needed, it can nomic growth does not take place?” There have and must become possible” (p. 147). Sachs sees been two responses to this new question: one is himself as “an economist making calls”, that “yes, institutions rule” but the institutions travelling around the globe prescribing peddled by the IFIs were the wrong ones, partly treatments in much the same way that the because of their insistence on one-size-fit-all in- clinician does. However, behind all this there stitutional design, and all institutions should be is an economic logic. To understand that logic harnessed to the protection of property rights. one needs to step back and find out where Jeffrey These institutions differed radically from not Sacks has been intellectually in recent years only those behind the East Asia miracle and and the ideas that have dominated policy China but also from those of any successful case discourses during these years. This will help of development in modern times. Indeed, some us understand both his policy recommendations economy, the better the economic performance. actually been implemented in SSA (Sub- of the institutions being pushed as prerequisites and the causal and normative beliefs informing This view, especially its focus on trade policy, Saharan Africa), the result has been rapid for development (independent central banks, them. dovetailed neatly with the views of the economic growth”.3 effective patent laws, stock markets) never In the early postwar period, thinking about international financial institutions (IFIs) and his served the functions attributed to them and suc- development was dominated by structuralism, work was cited extensively as the empirical 2. Enter “Good Governance” cessful “late industrializers” assiduously avoided which posited that a number of factors - geog- evidence for trade liberalization. By the mid-1980s, more than half of the Afri- them. No wonder the insistence on these insti- raphy, culture, colonial heritage and underde- Significantly, during this period he belonged can countries had structural adjustment tutions today is thus considered tantamount to velopment - severely constrained the functioning to the school that administered “shock programmes administered by the IFIs. At the “pulling the ladder”, to quote the title of Ha Joon of markets. Left to the market, poor countries treatments”. This was premised on getting same time, evidence was mounting that the Chang’s eye-opening book.7 would be stuck in a “low equilibrium trap” things done before victims of the policies knew adoption of Washington Consensus policies 3. Geography Rediscovered caused by a series of poverty-related syndromes what had hit them and could organize was not producing the accelerated development that reinforce themselves through “circular cau- themselves. The treatment would jolt both the that the Berg Report4 had promised. Initially Another response to the failure of policies, and sation”. To get out of this trap, it was neces- economy and the polity in such a way as to there were attempts at denying that African one for which Jeffrey Sachs is a prominent sary to embark on a “big push” that would lead make the policies irreversible. The countries had indeed adjusted, but this proved spokesperson, is that institutions might not be to “take-off”. This called for an active devel- administrators of this prescription paid scant untenable. By the mid-1990s, African and Latin enough after all in the context of severe physi- opmental role for the state, and for aid to bridge attention to the political and social American countries had made dramatic policy cal barriers. Somewhere on his path, Jeffrey the “resource gaps” and supplement the sav- consequences of the shock treatment. shifts: they had reduced inflation and the size Sachs underwent something of a Pauline ings of poor countries. Under the sway of this Apparently the treatment worked well in of the public sector, liberalized their economies, epiphany and discovered that his preoccupation developmentalist ideology, significant success Poland and for a while in Bolivia, but failed opened up trade, privatized public enterprise with inflation had blinded him to geography. His was achieved in terms of growth and industri- horribly in Russia, where millions of lives were and so on. With some signs of recovery in the writing gravitated from “getting policies right” alization, and this growth could be seen in a lost as a consequence of the reforms. Sachs early 1990s, the leaders of the international fi- to something that can be called “getting geog- number of social indicators. The oil crisis and acknowledged the failure but manages to blame nancial institutions went on a road show to pro- raphy right”. Already in some of his earlier work, the rise of neoliberalism in some of the major it on Russian kleptocrats. And this is where claim that adjustment was finally working. 5 one finds intimations of geographical determin- economies led to a serious challenge of this Jeffrey Sachs is at his worst, as he attempts to However, the celebration was turned out to be ism. Geography could go wrong in at least two model and ushered in the era of structural ad- burnish his role as economic advisor in places premature as the “Asian financial crisis” put ways - through its effects on governance and justment. It was now argued that intervention- where the shock treatment went terribly wrong. paid to the signs of recovery. This policy fail- institutions or through the economic costs it im- ist policies had led to market distortions that What he seems to have retained from this period ure led to the question: “How come that even posed. A country could be richly endowed in undermined the competitiveness of economies is impatience with concerns over institutional when countries have adopted the recommended natural resources, but according to the “Resource and produced the balance-of-payments prob- capacities and appropriateness, and the political policies, economic growth does not resume?” Curse thesis”, this only produced “rentier states” lems of the 1970s and 1980s. Consequently, underpinning and consequences of such A wide range of reasons were advanced. The that tend to be unaccountable to the citizenry “getting policies right” became the New Gos- policies. Poland had taught him that one could list included lack of social capital, poor human and are generally prone to poor governance and pel according to Washington. For development, “leap across the institutional chasm” to resources, bad economic policies, ethnic diver- waste. Jeffrey Sachs’s drift towards geography it meant that the whole idea of setting up spe- introduce dramatic policy changes. sity, unfavourable geographical location, started with this perspective. However, by the cialized institutions or funds to address “mar- And it was in this incarnation - as a “wrong” religions, “debt overhang”, colonial end of the 1990s, he had drifted toward the po- ket failure” (for example, development banks) neoliberal guru - that Jeffrey Sachs emerged background and mode of European settlement. sition which argued that a country could be dis- was deemed not only unnecessary but also as advisor in Africa to the aid establishment. These explanations ultimately fell into two advantaged by its location far from trade routes, pernicious and unconscionable nonsense. At the time, he subscribed to the view that camps: one that insisted that “institutions rule” in unhealthy climate and areas prone to natural economic growth could be “done” in Africa if and the other that insisted that “geography disasters. 1. Sachs and “Shock Treatments” only African countries would adopt good rules”. This now led Sachs to the view that Africa’s During the early part of this period of the policies.2 Thus, in a paper that he wrote once Almost immediately, the “institutions rule” distinctive climate and location, and especially adjustment era, Jeffrey Sachs was, in the words again with Andrew Warner, although he school gained the upper hand, bolstered by the its proneness to malaria, were possible expla- of the International Herald Tribune, a “fervent included geographical factors such as lack of seminal work on institutions and economic nations to the continent’s atypical economic evangelist for economic progress through access to the sea and tropical climate to the list change by Douglas North, the Nobel Laureate. behaviour and performance. Its semi-arid cli- market reforms”1. He made notable of contributors to Africa’s slow growth, he Although in its 1989 report on Africa,6 the mate and its reliance on rain-fed agriculture contributions to neoliberal thinking and placed greater emphasis on policies, especially World Bank had argued that “bad governance” made agricultural production intrinsically vul- practices. In an influential paper co-authored on Africa’s putative lack of openness to was the culprit, this idea did not really catch on nerable to the caprices of nature. Africa also has with Andrew Warner, he constructed a “Sachs- international markets, arguing that “Africa’s until after the mid-1990s, when it was argued a large number of land-locked countries, which Warner” index to classify the degree to which physical geography, difficult as it is, does not that African countries did not provide the con- further hindered growth. The conclusion was economies were “open” to international trade. pose an insurmountable challenge to faster ditions propitious enough to attract both local that economic development in tropical ecozones His argument then was that the more open the growth. Where strong economic reforms have and foreign private investment. In the more fun- would benefit from a concerted international

4 Mars / March 2006

effort to free the continent from the grip of un- policy regime within which development takes for the poor” and that one need not worry about ments are at best perfunctory. Africans them- fortunate geography through health and agricul- place. While he pays a rather perfunctory hom- equity issues. And so we have discussions of selves play a minor role in the Sachs scheme of tural technologies specific to their needs. age to institutions, he seems to believe that calls health and education issues not as aspects of so- things. But history teaches us that success against To compound the problems of geography, a for good governance are largely externally cial policy but as simply technocratic issues of poverty has been most rapidly achieved not only consequence of the Washington Consensus was driven. But this is wrong. African political ac- delivery of drugs, notebooks and school when the powerful have concluded that its eradi- the dramatic reduction of investment in infra- tors, social movements and scholarship have for benches. cation is in their interest, but when the weak have structure on the grounds that (a) the private sec- years expressed concerns with the problematic Initially, the macroeconomic policy wonks sought justice through social action. In his analy- tor would take up the task, or (b) good policies nature of state-society relations in Africa, or what in the World Bank opposed the emphases on sis, there are no individual Africans with their were to precede investment in infrastructure. The came to be known as governance. The ongoing geography and institutions because they left strengths and foibles. His appeals to “grassroots” insistence by African policy makers on increas- struggles for democracy in Africa are about little room for them. However, now things look have a surreal quality to them: they are based ing investment was dismissed by World Bank changing these relationships as the sine qua non different: Jeffrey Sachs could not have come on his sporadic forays into areas where the poor economists as “capital fundamentalism”. In its for development. Sachs may be right in suggest- at a more appropriate time. Over the years, live, and listening to what seem to be well-or- 1989 report,8 the World Bank argued that ing that the bogey of governance is often used the World Bank had painted itself in a corner ganized, if not well-orchestrated, encounters “lower levels of infrastructure and other as a cop out for inaction and often in poorly by forgetting that the very raison d’être of the with the poor. The result is that the poor emerge factors do not pose significantly greater con- veiled racist language, but this does not mean World Bank was that the market could not fi- as a one-dimensional undifferentiated mass, de- straints to supply response in Sub-Saharan Af- that the issues it points to - accountability, par- nance the lumpy, long-term investments in in- void of any social existences. Consequently, his rica”. This policy position led to catastrophic ticipation, justice - are unimportant for Africa frastructure most of which had the character bottom-up approach has little meaning. decline in public investments in infrastructure or for other parts of the world. of a “public good” in which social returns ex- Finally, the book is important not so much and contributed to the ineffectiveness of the Throughout his intellectual itinerary Jeffrey ceeded private returns. If markets could in- for what it says about poverty as for what it tells policies themselves. How could peasants in- Sachs has not fundamentally questioned the deed identify the socially necessary projects us about the debates on aid, the state of knowl- crease production in response to market liberal- macroeconomic policies that have produced the and finance them, as the World Bank argued edge (or lack of it) about development, and the ization when the road network had collapsed? “two lost decades” in Africa and Latin America. in its adjustment programs, then there would perceptions of the role Africans should play in Sachs vehemently denies he is a geographi- Sachs, not one to admit easily to errors, nimbly be no need for development banks in the de- the development of the continent. If Sachs is cal determinist and, given his rather eclectic in- moves away from positions that he once avidly veloping countries and, a fortiori, of the receiving star billing, it is not because of the tellectual itinerary, he may have a point. He ac- promoted. On the standard package of the In- World Bank itself - “the mother of all devel- originality of his ideas. With respect to Africa’s tually insists that support should go to ternational Monetary Fund (IMF), he simply opment banks”. These arguments have also left problems, similar arguments have been made well-governed countries. Sachs’s protestations states, “The main IMF prescription has been it with an increasingly “soft” portfolio of good as passionately by Africans. The case for fixing seem to be based on a misunderstanding. Geo- budgetary belt-tightening for patients much too governance, Poverty Reduction Strategy Pa- Africa’s infrastructure was forcefully made by graphical determinism does not mean that soci- poor to own belts—finally, however that ap- pers (PRSP) and debt relief, and marginalized Kwame Nkrumah, the Lagos Plan of Action and eties cannot do much about their situation; it sim- proach is beginning to change” (p. 74). He it from the real long-term financing. But the now by the New Partnership for Africa’s De- ply means that the central agenda of a society is doesn’t say how. We are thus left with an analy- return by Jeffrey Sachs to the old argument velopment (NEPAD). It was the Africans who set by geography. To the argument by institu- sis that suggests the policies themselves are about the centrality of infrastructure in devel- placed the issue of “landlocked-ness” on the in- tionalists that if geography has an effect on long- alright but greed by the rich countries, geogra- opment and the inability of markets to finance ternational agenda. But as it turned out, there term growth, its major impact is due to the long- phy and some degree of bad governance are the such long-term and lumpy projects opens up was no regional or international financial agency lasting effect on institutions, Sachs’s response problem. In this he may not be alone. The Group new opportunities. The World Bank has al- interested in such regional projects. However, has simply been that “institutions don’t rule: ge- of Eight (G-8) meeting in July 2005 took a simi- ready signalled its return to the funding of in- since economic ideas that win out in policy ography matters”. lar position, promising more resources and in- frastructure. circles are not necessarily the right ones but those His protestations notwithstanding, Sachs is sisting on good governance from African lead- that have the most political resonance in politi- firmly rooted in geographical determinism in ers. There was not a word about the bad policies 6. The Missing Africans cal circles, it may be that Jeffrey Sachs’s stand- the case of Africa (although maybe less so for that have been rammed down the throats of Af- Jeffrey Sachs is at his best when debunking the ing will have finally made the case convincing. other regions of the world). Thus, he states that ricans for over 20 years with no success. The often poorly veiled racist judgements (“preju- But this in itself is symptomatic of the problem “geography has conspired with economics to Washington folks that brought us deflationary dices and misperceptions”) about African ca- - the denial of Africans’ understanding of their give Africa a particularly weak hand” (p. 208) policies and the “low growth trap” left the G8 pacities, policies and institutions. He is also problems and the failure to take their sugges- and “the combination of Africa’s adverse geog- meeting not only unscathed but also empow- enough of an insider to clearly bring out the ideo- tions seriously on how to proceed. There are two raphy and its extreme poverty creates the worst ered to certify countries’ qualifications for debt logical and arbitrary nature of IMF impositions. possible salutary effects of the book. First, it trap in the world” (p. 208). Sachs challenges relief by swallowing the same old nostrums. What emerges from Sachs’s account is an insti- might revive interest in the issues that were the the view that Africa’s governance is worse than staple of development economics - structural 5. “Poverty Trap” or “Policy Trap”? tution detached from the real problems of de- that of other underdeveloped regions. His point velopment but with enormous influence over the constraints, resource mobilisation, coordination is that (a) Africa is governed poorly because it Jeffrey Sachs believes Africa is caught “in the fate of millions of poor people, without a moral failures and the role of the state. Second, it might is poor; and (b) there is distinctly slower growth worst poverty trap in the world”. More signifi- radar or sense of urgency as it “studies prob- help bring to an end the “mission creep” that in Africa even after allowing for the quality of cantly he believes that “although predatory gov- lems to death while an economy collapses” (p. has led the World Bank into areas where it has governance and level of income. From this he ernment can soundly trounce economic devel- 77). You would expect that from his analysis, displayed remarkable incompetence (gover- argues “the slower growth is caused…mainly opment, good governance and market reforms Sachs would place Africans at the centre of the nance, health policy and educational reform, by Africa’s adverse geography and deficient in- are not sufficient to guarantee growth if the coun- development policies. No! After patronizing en- culture, “social capital”, religion) and get it back frastructure”. try is in a poverty trap” (p. 195). Such “traps” comiums directed especially at the grassroots, to where it belongs: financing long-term invest- produce “viscous cycles” reminiscent of the ear- ments in social and physical infrastructure. For 4. What Next? he allots the driving seat to international experts. lier literature in development economics: since Jeffrey Sachs has difficulties reconciling his in- those who have followed debates about devel- The challenge, as Sachs sees it, “is to unravel people or countries are too poor to save, they sistence on geography and his penchant for the opment in Africa over the last half-century, the the interconnections between extreme poverty, cannot generate the surplus required for invest- “great men in history” to suggestions that Afri- book will not only elicit a sense of déjà vu (or rampant disease, unstable and harsh climate con- ment; they cannot have economic growth and cans have a role in all this. According to him, all rather, déjà lu) but will also ring as an indict- ditions, high transport costs, chronic hunger and so remain poor and unable to save. There are a it seems to take is a few men and women of ment of Africans themselves for not taking their inadequate food supplies.” This should be no number of problems with this reasoning. Many wisdom and goodwill to notice a problem and own understanding of their situation seriously cause for despair. He now heads a huge, inter- countries have generated higher levels of sav- do something about it. For example, it would and for not being steadfast in the pursuit of their disciplinary team (the Earth Institute, based in ing at lower levels of income than those of Af- take a call to the US Secretary of the Treasury projects. Columbia University) that seeks to link such rica today. to have Poland’s debt written off, a chance meet- Notes things as soil depletion, climate change, epi- Indeed, African countries themselves had ing with George Soros to have a team of econo- demic disease and social upheaval to economic much higher levels of domestic saving in the mists sent to rescue Poland, and a speech at a 1. The words in inverted commas in the last three well-being. He has learnt from “knowledgeable 1970s than they have today. Under the new poli- conference on HIV/AIDS to get the ball rolling sentences were the staple of “development colleagues” that there were technological fixes cies, much of the little surplus that there is is economics” in the 1950s and 1960s. on the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculo- 2. Jeffrey Sachs, “Growth in Africa: It can be to all these problems—antiviral drugs, mosquito exported or wasted on speculative investments sis and Malaria. Done,” The Economist (1996), 19-21. nets, rural electrification, roads, and so on. And in real estate, shopping malls and treasurer This is perhaps not surprising: determinis- 3. Jeffrey Sachs and Andrew Warner, “Sources of as luck would have it, he received “an impor- bonds. Governments have no instruments for tic explanations have a tendency to downplay slow growth in African economies,” Journal of tant new opportunity to put these new ideas into directing investments in priority areas nor for agency. In the worst case, the people affected African Economies, 6 (1997), pp. 335-76. practice”, namely, as advisor to the United Na- controlling the flow of capital in and out of the 4. This was the popular name given to a by institutions or geography are deemed to be 1981World Bank report entitled Accelerated tions Secretary-General on the Millennium De- country. Africa has grown faster in the past than so programmed by inherited institutions or na- Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Agenda velopment Goals (MDGs). He immediately it has under the tutelage of the Washington Con- ture that they cannot be expected to lift them- for Action. launched a new Millennium Project that would sensus.. This would suggest that Africa is not selves by their own bootstraps. From there, it is 5. See Thandika Mkandawire, “Maladjusted do the analytical work for the MDGs. Quite re- caught in a “poverty trap” but in a “policy trap”, easy to jump to the conclusion that “external African Economies and Globalisation,” Africa markably and with no sense of the absurdity of which if not removed, will frustrate any new Development, XXX, 1 & 2 (2005). agents” are required. Technology takes on this 6. World Bank, Sub-Saharan Africa: From Crisis to the situation, Jeffrey Sachs informs us that “All initiatives, including the shock treatments role of deux ex machina and aid is the lubricant. Sustainable Growth: A Long-Term Perspective of the UN Millennium Project work has de- against the ailments of geography. Foreign in- Africans are supposed to watch as foreigners Study (Washington DC: World Bank, 1989). pended utterly on the Earth Institute” . That puts vestments flow to countries with high savings, dredge the swamps, tear through the forest to 7. See Ha-Joon Chang, 2002, Kicking away the ladder paid to the much-touted African initiative and and unless African countries find ways of mo- construct roads, traverse the continent to vacci- : Development strategy in historical perspective also signals what is profoundly wrong about the bilizing their savings, they are unlikely to at- (London: Anthem, Ha-Joon). nate all the children, lay down communication 8. World Bank, Adjustment in Africa: Reforms, book. tract the required foreign investment or to stimu- lines and distribute bed nets in Africa’s remot- Results and the Road Ahead (Washington D.C.: It is not too surprising that Sachs assumes a late domestic investment. est villages. World Bank, 1994). cavalier posture on the issues of governance, Jeffrey Sachs says nothing about equity. This There is no room for social history and so- state-society relationships and the international is in line with the new view that “growth is good cial movements. References to social move-

5 Africa Review of Books/ Revue africaine des livres

Africa in the new millennium series

Negotiating Modernity: Africa’s Ambivalent Experience Edited by Elísio Salvado Macamo Published 2005; 256 pages; ISBN: 2-86978-147-4

Africa has been through a particularly ambivalent experience of modernity. Previous research has tended to emphasize its alien nature in Africa and how it has been resisted. This book seeks to show how this tension and the impulse to modernity have contributed to changing African society over the past one hundred years. The contributors look at how Africans negotiated the terms of modernity during the colonial period and are dealing with it in the post-colonial period. They argue that the African experience of modernity is unique and relevant for wider social theory, offering valuable analytical insights. The cases presented cover labour, land rights, religious conversion, internal migration, emigration and the African diaspora

The Contributors: Elísio Macamo, Julani Niaah, Cassandra R. Veney, Alda Romão Saúte, Francis Njubi Nesbitt, Ines Macamo Raimundo, Samwel Ong’wen Okuro, and Ekuru Aukot HbISBN 1 84277 616 9 £ 65.00 $85.00 PbISBN 1 84277 617 7 £ 18.95 $29.95

Insiders & Outsiders: Citizenship & Xenophobia in Contemporary Southern Africa Francis B. Nyamnjoh Published 2006; 288 pages; ISBN: 2-86978-155-5

Nyamnjoh’s new book about the heightened xenophobia that both exploits and excludes is an incisive commentary on a globalizing world that reaches down into the grassroots of so many societies with consequences for ordinary people’s lives that have received all too little attention. He meticulously documents the fate of immigrants and the new politics of insiders and outsiders in these Southern African societies, at the same time delivering a telling commentary on the global rhetoric of open societies in an era of increasing closures and exclusions.

This work is an original and perceptive study of issues that resonate in countries across Africa and the globe. As globalization becomes a palpable reality in the bodies of people in transit, citizenship, sociality and belonging are subjected to stresses to which few societies have devised a civil response beyond yet more controls. The latter in turn are subverted and nullified, so that, as in Botswana and South Africa, a world is developing where conflict and flux underlie a superficial global progress. HbISBN 1 84277 676 2 £ 65.00 $85.00 PbISBN 1 84277 677 0 £ 18.95 $29.95

Liberal Democracy and Its Critics in Africa: Political Dysfunction and the Struggle for Social Progress Edited by Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo Published 2005; 256 pages; ISBN: 2-86978-143-1

The institutional forms and process of democracy are spreading in Africa as dictatorial regimes have been forced to give way. But democratic form and democratic substance are two different things. Western derived institutional forms are neither necessarily the most appropriate nor the most practical in the current African context, and rooting democratic norms in African political cultures raises socio-cultural questions. This book draws on the experiences of particular African elections and countries to explore the continuing impact of police state apparatuses; the factors influencing voters’ attitudes and behaviour; the impact of incumbency on electoral competition; women’s participation; and the lack of choice in party pro- grammes. The fundamental issue is whether democratic processes as currently practised in Africa are really making any difference.

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6 Mars / March 2006

ho authored the atrocities linked Mau Mau: Understanding Counter-Insurgency * * * with the Mau Mau? How did Squatters found it difficult to organize – WMau Mau, which began as an Mahmood Mamdani except in one place, Olenguruone, where armed movement against settler power in they dipped into tradition to forge a wider the White Highlands of Kenya, turn into a unity. Taking an oath traditionally meant for civil war among the Kikuyu of the Central Imperial Reckoning, The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya male elders in times of crisis, they admin- Province? by Caroline Elkins istered it to all: men, women and children. The Mau Mau killed only 32 white set- Henry Holt, 2005, 475 pages, $27.50, ISBN-0-8050-7653-0. Some went a step further, taking different tlers. “More European civilians would die oaths, each signifying a higher level of com- in road traffic accidents between 1952 and Histories of the Hanged: The Dirty War in Kenya mitment. The oath-taking ceremony sym- 1960,” notes Anderson. Other Mau Mau and the End of Empire bolized spiritual rebirth. Two of the most victims included some 200 British regimen- by David Anderson common pledges went thus: “If I know of tal soldiers and police and 1800 African Norton, 2005, 406 pages, $25.95, ISBN 0-393-05986-3. any enemy of our organization and fail to civilians. The numbers explode when we kill him, may this oath kill me,” and “If I come to count the Mau Mau dead. The of- reveal this oath to any European, may this ficial figure is that of 12,000. Anderson says oath kill me.” A Mau Mau was a Born- it is “more than 20,000.” But Elkins Again Kikuyu. presents a radical reappraisal of the coun- As evictions began and the oath reached ter-insurgency both in scale and human the Kikuyu of Nairobi and central Kenya, cost: “If the Kikuyu population figure in it was taken up by urban militants organ- 1962 is adjusted using growth rates com- ized as Muhimu (Kiswahili for ‘signifi- parable to the other Africans, we find that cant’). Later to become the Mau Mau Cen- somewhere between 130,000 and 300,000 tral Organizing Committee, the militants of Kikuyu are unaccounted for. … I now Muhimu were recruited from three differ- believe that there was in late colonial Kenya ent groups: trade unionists (Fred Kubai, a murderous campaign to eliminate Kikuyu Eluid Mutonyi, Charles Wambaa, John people” Mungai), ex-servicemen (Waruhiu Itote – The education of Caroline Elkins began known as General China), and urban crimi- in 1995 when she decided to write a doc- nal gangs, particularly ‘the Forty Group’ toral dissertation on the 80,000 Mau Mau (Mwangi Macharia, Stanley Mathenge). detainees during the 1952-58 Emergency. Beginning with key trade unionists, se- Knowing that three different departments lected criminals, and Nairobi’s Kikuyu taxi had followed their track, she expected to drivers, the Muhimu mounted a member- find 240,000 files in the London archives ship drive and took over the leadership of – but found none. Even the Kenya archives KAU (except in Kiambu), going so far as yielded only a few hundred files. to summon Kenyatta to Nairobi in early The surviving records were duplicitous. 1952 to threaten him with death should he The daily average of 80,000 obscured the not carry out Mau Mau directives. The co- fact that the total detained was between lonial government estimated that the first 160,000 and 320,000. The systematic de- oath had been taken by nearly 90% of the struction and distortion of documentary entire Kikuyu population of 1.5 million and evidence about the Mau Mau emergency that the seventh and final killing oath called was no doubt part of a continuing “state- the batuni, had been taken by a good 10% imposed amnesia.” by 1952. To cut through it, Elkins set out in search Nairobi was a racialized city where po- of survivors of the Emergency. Her ambi- lice patrolled first European and then Asian tion was to shift the search-light from the quarters, leaving criminal gangs to control Mau Mau to the British, and it succeeds African shanties and housing estates. All spectacularly. In contrast, David Anderson’s lowed by more of the same” – driven by Land Commission turned down Kikuyu Mau Mau had to do to control African ar- Histories of the Hanged relies on more con- hedonism and the lash of the infamous demands for the return of “lost lands.” In- eas was to penetrate criminal gangs. Fur- ventional documentation, mainly 800 sur- kiboko, a whip made of rhinoceros hide. stead, its report called on the Kikuyu to in- ther, as ethnic separation broke down in the viving testimonies of the 1,090 who were A battery of laws underwrote settler crease the carrying capacity of their land cramped and racially segregated living hanged during the Emergency. Not surpris- privilege at the expense of native lives: by marshalling compulsory communal quarters of African Nairobi, Kikuyu mili- ingly, his findings by and large confirm of- peasants were herded into officially-demar- (mainly female) labor to build terraces and tants began recruiting members of other ficial claims of the number of Mau Mau cated native reserves; administrative regu- check soil erosion. Kikuyu opinion was ethnic groups, particularly the Kamba. With killed. lations forbad them to grow the most lu- outraged. the prospect of Mau Mau turning into a Though it reads at times as a charge crative crops (coffee) and forced them to If the battle of the peasantry in the re- multi-ethnic Kenyan insurgency, notes sheet, Imperial Reckoning offers more, in- sell others (maize) to state marketing boards serves for land and for the defense of cul- Elkins, “one of the British colonial govern- cluding the voices of the victims. Yet, Elkins at a price that protected settlers from na- ture provided the ground for the develop- ment’s greatest nightmares was becoming is unable to explain the outcome of the war: tive competition; a Hut and Poll tax – the ment of moderate nationalism, it is the great a reality.” that the British were able to win the middle cash equivalent of two months’ labor a year historic battle that squatters waged against Mau Mau violence became prominent ground and impose a political settlement – compelled them to work for cash no mat- settler power for the right to live (land and with the murder of Chief Waruhiu wa that isolated the Mau Mau. Because she ter the returns; and the law tracked their freedom) that was the springboard of mili- Kungu of Kiambu, the Paramount Chief of writes a narrative with the conclusion very movement by requiring that every native tant nationalism. Squatters came from Central Province, on 9 October 1952. much in mind, Elkins weaves the narrative carry a pass. among landless peasants. By 1940, they Eleven days later, Governor Baring de- around the confrontation between militants Unlike Elkins who traces the develop- numbered 150,000; one in every eight clared a state of emergency in the colony. and Loyalists – which is how the story ends, ment of African politics into two great ten- Kikuyu was a “squatter” on a European Anderson says the militants (Stanley but not how it begins. In the process, she dencies - pro- and anti-colonial - Anderson farm, laboring for a third of the year in re- Mathenge, Dedan Kimathi) fled to the for- loses conceptual sight of the middle ground. highlights the moderate middle ground be- turn for a plot to cultivate and permission est as the moderates – including Kenyatta The great merit of Anderson’s political and tween the conservative Kikuyu Association, to graze cattle. – awaited their fate. But more likely it was social history of the Mau Mau war is that it which brought together leading Kikuyu The World War further altered the bal- the political wing, moderate and militant, focuses on the battle for the middle ground. chiefs and senior Christian leaders, and ance of forces on the Highland by bringing that was picked up as the military wing fled Both books need to be read together. If Mau Mau militants. material prosperity to settlers and political to the forest. Elkins’ truly innovative oral research for the The birth of moderate nationalism oc- power to settler-dominated district councils. The British responded with the procla- first time brings out the enormous scale and curred around two fissures: land and cul- But it also thrust 75,000 peasants and squat- mation of an Emergency on 9 October 1952, murderous consequences of the British ture. The Church became an issue when ters into the colonial army. When demobi- first isolating the 20,000 Mau Mau fight- counter-insurgency, its human cost, missionaries decided to modernize the lized, many of them would provide leader- ers in the forest by cutting off their supply Anderson’s political acumen gives us the Kikuyu way of life. When the Church de- ship and men for the Mau Mau forest lines, to Nairobi and to the Kikuyu coun- clues necessary to reflect on the lessons of manded in October 1929 that all Christians militias. For the moment, though, the ini- tryside, and then confronting them with a a counter-insurgency that succeeded in its sign a pledge against female circumcision, tiative lay with settler-dominated Councils, roughly equal force. own terms. there were massive defections, leading to which used their new powers to revise an- Both operations were inspired by prec- the formation of independent churches and nual squatter contracts to limit their access edents. Operation Anvil, which cordoned * * * schools to defend “Kikuyu tradition.” The to land. As evictions began, squatters from off the city of Nairobi for a month-long sec- movement received powerful backing from over 400 farms attempted to strike but the tor-by-sector purge, was patterned on the “Some of the most aristocratic immigrants newly formed political groups like the 1947 strike failed. Over 100,000 squatters “clean-up” of the then Palestinian city of ever to populate the British empire,” Ken- Kikuyu Central Association (KCA) and were forcibly ‘repatriated’ between 1946 Tel Aviv by the British military before the yan settlers reveled in a life of “gentrified then the Kenya African Union (KAU). and 1952. Second World War. Every Kikuyu who was leisure” – “sex, drugs, drink and dance, fol- Around the same time, the 1932 Colonial not a Loyalist was treated as a confirmed

7 Africa Review of Books / Revue africaine des Livres

oath-taker. In a month, half (24,100) of those and December 1954, it was without direc- ated his own screening camp and boasted screened (50,000) had been detained – with- tion from any committee or liaison with that his exploits “included burning the skin These books do not just dwell on atrocities out a single trial having been held. With the elders in the countryside. The result was a of live Mau Mau suspects and forcing them – what the British did to the Kikuyu. Two introduction of communal detention orders, mix of the spectacular, as they freed 296 to eat their own testicles.” valuable chapters focus on the life of mili- the number doubled in six months. Mau Mau from Lukenya prison, and the Then there was the slow and protracted tants, in the detention camps (Elkins) and Forced villagization too had precedents: disastrous, as they set about murdering sus- method of torture, reminiscent of the worst in the forest (Anderson). Alfred Milner’s herding of Afrikaaners into pected informers, sapping the morale of of brutalities in the Rwandan genocide. In How does one survive torture, day af- barbed-wire villages during the Boer War, Kikuyu communities. Did the influence of the words of an interrogator at the Special ter day, and for those who did not break, leaving “tens of thousands of women and fresh recruits, including criminal elements, Branch center: “By the time I cut his balls literally for years? The short answer is that children” dead from disease and starvation; increase with the jailing of the political off he had no ears, and his eye ball, the right survival was not an individual but a collec- and Templer’s more recent resort to barbed- leadership at the outset of the Emergency? one, I think, was hanging out of its socket. tive strategy. To face an organized camp wire villages during the communist insur- And did it proliferate when those who fled Too bad, he died before we got much out of administration, detainees evolved their own gency in Malaya in the early 1950s. Forced to the forest set up several parallel militias him.” structure of committees: “There was the villagization began with entire villages be- – with the result that Mau Mau never again Often, sadism mixed with cruelty as welcoming committee, the judicial commit- ing set on fire. Their houses and property had a unified leadership? when whites used villagers for target prac- tee, the rehabilitation committee, the debate burnt, over a million Kikuyu were forced The Kenyan historian, Bethwell Ogot, tice, or when they delighted in specially hu- committee, the mending committee, the into some 800 barbed-wire villages between has identified four categories of recruits: miliating occupants of detention villages: medical committee; the list went on and on. June 1954 and October 1955. the constitutionalist landed gentry, tradi- “The Johnnies (whites) would make us run Overseeing all was the Executive Commit- In contrast to the conventional notion tionalists who believed the Mau Mau had around with toilet buckets on our heads. … tee. Selected by the detainees, its members that the counter-insurgency was aimed subverted Kikuyu cultural practices by mis- The contents would be running down our were often singled out because of their abil- against Mau Mau militants, Elkins recog- using the oath, opportunists and Christians. faces and we would have to wipe it off and ity to arbitrate disputes, their knowledge of nizes that the British interned practically the Whereas the landed gentry (among whom eat it, or else we were shot.” Another com- colonial and international law, and their entire Kikuyu population as Mau Mau. But were chiefs) were the backbone of the Loy- mon practice in the detention villages was understanding of the political scene in both how do you intern an entire people without alists, we need to focus on the Christians – that of the confessional baraza (public meet- Kenya and Britain.” taking them on? Key to this was turning the who were both the most numerous and the ing): “Those taken to the front of the crowd If the administration tried to run the insurgency inward, into a battle of Kikuyu most ambivalent – to follow the downward were often stripped naked and forced to lead camp as a torture chamber and a sweat shop, militants against Kikuyu loyalists, thereby slide of the anti-colonial struggle as the Mau the rest of the village in rounds of anti-Mau the detainee committees tried to turn it into turning the Mau Mau insurgency into a civil Mau broadened their target beyond inform- Mau songs. When the music stopped and the a school and a market place. There were war. ers to include those Christians who refused questioning began, those who refused to dozens of literacy classes: “Some camps to take the oath as well as to join the Loy- confess were beaten, often unconscious. … had virtual schools, with forms or grades * * * alists. Some people who had refused to confess starting at Standard I and going all the way How many of those who sought to oc- were put in sacks, one covering the lower up to Standard IX. There were also lectures Though resistance to Mau Mau began with cupy a middle ground were killed and how part of their bodies while the other covered and discussions on politics, history, law, the churches, it is the Governor’s order of many joined the Home Guards? By March their upper part. Then petrol or paraffin geography, and religion – all were wildly November 1952 that led to the reorganiza- 1954, there were 25,600 Home Guards – would be poured over the sacks, and those popular with the detainees.” A former de- tion of Church-led resistance groups as a 14,800 full-time – manning over 550 forti- in charge would order them to be lit. The tainee explained how he survived the or- militia named the “Home Guard”. Hence- fied posts in a rapidly militarizing country- people who refused to confess … were al- deal that was the camp: “You see, our forth, recruitment would be done by chiefs side. Loyalists were never paid but received ways killed in order to instill fear into oth- classes and our teachers kept me alive. They and headmen. That was the first step in the privileges. Loyalists – and never an ex-Mau ers who might think of concealing the truth.” were as important as our miserable food making of the civil war. The second step was Mau however much he or she confessed – At the same time, “confession did not mean rations.” To maintain morale and to recruit taken by the Mau Mau when they targeted were issued Loyalty Certificates which al- an end to forced labor … only that they were new members, militants organized oathing the Home Guards and their families. lowed them to move freely, to be exempt spared from death, for the time being.” ceremonies in the camps. Guards demanded The turning point came with the night of from special taxes, to have preferential ac- As one reads through Elkins’ extended huge bribes – several packs of cigarettes or 26 March, 1953, at Lari, the site of two suc- cess to commercial licenses and to have the descriptions of the regime of torture, one is few days of ration – to look the other way. cessive massacres, the first by Mau Mau and right to vote. Later, they had free access to struck by its predominantly sexual nature. Faced with a regime that tried to break the second by Home Guards on the night of the property and labor of those herded into Male detainees were often sexually abused their spirit, detainees endeavored to engage 26 March, 1953. In an eye-opening chapter, barbed-wire detention villages. “through sodomy with foreign objects, ani- the camp personnel individually, most of- Anderson links the massacres to a history With Lari, the Mau Mau began to tar- mals, and insects, cavity searches, the im- ten through black markets and bribery. To of colonial land appropriation which left its get, less and less the settlers on the High- position of a filthy toilet bucket-system, or explain how the same guards who brutal- victims to haggle over a compensation which lands or even less the colonial power itself, forced penetrative sex.” A common prac- ized the detainees could engage with them was neither fair nor comprehensive. but increasingly those they perceived as tice during interrogation was to squeeze tes- as buyers and sellers, even co-conspirators, The vast majority of the 400 killed at Lari local beneficiaries of colonial power, first ticles with pliers. The Christian Council of J.M. Kariuki, a former compound leader had been women and children. Anderson a combination of Kikuyu chiefs and Chris- Kenya complained to the Governor that Mau and author of Mau Mau Detainee, narrated refers to General Itote’s account of a debate tians and the Home Guards, and then those Mau suspects were being castrated, citing (and Elkins cited) the Kikuyu allegory in the Mau Mau forest camps in July, 1953, who would seek to occupy the middle an instance of a man who “had his private about the dog, the jackal and the man: “We reflecting growing doubts about the killing ground. As this happened, neighbors – even parts laid on a table and beaten till the scro- say that when a man takes a dog out hunt- of women and children. Did critics sense that relatives – turned out to be on opposite sides tum burst because he would not speak.” ing a jackal, the dog will run far ahead out if the pursuit of justice gave way to venge- in a rapidly brutalizing civil war. As the Women had “various foreign objects of sight and start playing with the jackal in ance, it may drown the struggle in its own Mau Mau lost the middle ground, the Brit- thrust into their vaginas, and their breasts a hidden place because they are really the blood? Did its spectacular expansion in ish were able to implement a political set- squeezed and mutilated with pliers.” Varia- same kind. When the man catches up with Nairobi bring undesirable elements (crimi- tlement that would isolate the Mau Mau. tions abounded, with sand, pepper, banana them the dog will straightaway begin bark- nals) and practices (coerced fund-raising and leaves, flower bottles (often broken), gun ing fiercely and chasing the jackal again for barrels, knives, snakes, vermin, and hot eggs a safe distance. This is because it is the man oaths) into Mau Mau? * * * Even then, how important was terror as being thrust up men’s rectum and women’s who gives the dog food which it will not vaginas. get if it disobeys orders.” a Mau Mau practice? The colonial govern- The Emergency was a state of exception: ment and the settlers claimed it was routine. The regime of torture was authored by Inevitably, there were those who broke. violence, not law, was its organizing prin- an amalgam of two forces – the White set- The most famous of the detainee-collabo- One of the worst incidents occurred when ciple. The Kikuyu countryside was like a Joseph Kibunja was murdered on 15 Sep- tlers and the Kikuyu Loyalists – under the rators was Peter Muigai Kenyatta, Jomo’s stretched-out detention facility. Every watchful and benign eye of the British colo- own son, and the best known compound tember 1952 for refusing to take the oath, Kikuyu who was not a Loyalist was treated and the community was forced to partici- nial establishment, which was preoccupied leader was J. M., later an M.P. in independ- as a confirmed oath-taker. This much is with getting results so long as costs were ent Kenya. Relations in the camp resem- pate in the decapitation of his body “to show clear from the nature of screening: “If the they were not afraid to murder the enemies politically acceptable. To contain that cost, bled a tug-of-war. As camp authorities tar- screening team was dissatisfied with a sus- they put a tight lid on information, discred- geted waverers with privilege, and shuffled of Mau Mau.” Anderson assures us that pect’s answers, it was accepted that torture while “disturbing,” the Kibunja murder was iting anonymous accounts as irresponsibly guards to cut short any relationships with was a legitimate next resort. … The screen- dramatic while responding with extreme bru- detainees, detainees targeted informants. an “utterly exceptional case.” Mau Mau vio- ing teams whipped, shot, burned, and mu- lence was usually organized in liaison with tality to any individually authored account: Anderson focuses on senior Mau Mau tilated Mau Mau suspects, ostensibly to a detainee who managed to smuggle out a commanders in the forest: Waruhiu Itote local people; rebels often knew victims per- gather intelligence for military operations, sonally. General Erskine, the commander of signed statement was paraded, his fingers (General China), Dedan Kimathi and and as court evidence.” were chopped off and then he was hanged. Stanley Mathenge. Recruits came into the British forces in Kenya during the Emer- The regime of torture gave plenty of gency, was surprised by the strength of lo- The regime of torture outlasted colonialism forest in waves, first Muhimu activists and room for perversions to flourish. Elkins because its agents did. As Elkins reminds ex-squatters, then refugees fleeing perse- cal support for rebels, describing Kikuyu recounts these, sometimes in gruesome de- locations of Western Murang’a as “nothing us, among those who cut their battle teeth in cution. As the numbers increased, from tail. Settlers set up illegal, informal, some- the Mau Mau war was Idi Amin, then a sol- 12,000 (October 1952) to 24,000 (Decem- more than Mau Mau republics.” Even Home times mobile, screening centers. One set- Guards were infiltrated by rebels; accord- dier in the King’s African Rifles, dispatched ber, 1953), the camps moved deeper into tler claimed that he “could get a very good from Uganda to wage and learn counter-in- the forest. But after Operation Anvil and ing to the Government’s own estimates, al- idea as to how many oaths a man had taken most half had taken the oath. surgency in the Kikuyu reserves. forced villagization, life in the forest turned just by looking at him.” Another – nick- into “a grim struggle for survival.” Not only To be sure, we are talking of a trend here. named Joseph Mengele of Kenya – oper- When the city poor hit back between June * * * had the baton passed from political to mili-

8 Mars / March 2006

tary leaders, the latter were organized as killed, buried live in the ground.” And so, As Anderson notes, not only African nation- eight separate militias, with the largest 4- Gray Leakey, a cousin of Louis Leakey, was alism but white power too was on the march After some initial pleasantries the 5,000 strong. The tension between com- taken captive and led into the forests of in Africa in the 1950s. The National Party former jailor turned to his onetime manders became evident once the British Mount Kenya, high up on the mountain, came to power in South Africa in 1948, captive, gestured, and said: “By the captured one of them (General China) and where “he was buried alive and upside Rhodesia’s settlers amalgamated the two way, I was sitting at that actual desk were able to turn the distrust between com- down in deep red soil.” As gory stories of Rhodesias and Nyasaland into a federation when I signed your detention order manders to advantage. Mau Mau violence made the round, settlers in 1951, and Kenya’s settlers hoped for a twenty years ago.” “I know,” rationalized their own violence as preven- federation of East Africa. All three projects Kenyatta told him, “If I had been in * * * tive. unraveled, beginning in Kenya. If the great your shoes at the time I would have A common theme among settlers and war shifted the locus of power from Lon- done exactly the same.” The nerv- Wars are fought with words as much as with colonial officials contrasted ritual details don to the settler state in Kenya, the Mau ousness evaporated, and the room weapons. If the point of weapons was to of the oath and the bloody nature of Mau Mau shifted it right back to London. The erupted in relieved laughter. With vanquish the enemy, the point of words was Mau killings with pangas, or machetes, with arrival of General George Erskine a few everyone still chuckling, the new to rein in waverers and to isolate the enemy. European notions of normal violence. weeks after Lari signaled the beginning of President chimed in, “And I have British discourse on the Mau Mau ranged Anderson comments instructively: “Here e the demise of settler power. General Erskine myself signed some detention orders from the patronizing to the dehumanizing to face. To kill in this way required com- was no friend of settlers, writing to his wife: sitting right there too.” to the eliminationist. The patronizing dis- mitment and determination. The European “I hate the guts of them all, they are all course focused on the Mau Mau as a cul- imagination found it difficult to understand middle-class sluts.” One of his first orders Rather than see this as confirmation that tural aberration: the Kikuyu had either to how such attacks could be perpetrated un- asked the security forces to stop “‘beating Kenyatta was but a colonial stooge, it is convert to Christianity (as in J. C. Crothers, less the killers were in some way possessed up’ the inhabitants of this country just be- more illuminating to think of independence The Psychology of the Mau Mau) or to re- or controlled by dreadful forces they could cause they are the inhabitants.” Politically as a compromise between a decolonizing turn to genuine tradition (as in Louis Leaky, not defy.” Surely, the “Kikuyu who had astute, he recognized that Mau Mau would Britain and moderate nationalists at the Defeating the Mau Mau). taken the oath were no longer in their right be contained if Kenya were purged of set- expense of White settlers and Mau Mau The dehumanizing discourse was openly minds; they had been transformed and bru- tler power: “in my opinion they want a new militants, immediate adversaries at the start racist and painted the Mau Mau as “vermin” talized.” In that case, how could their set of civil servants and some decent po- of the Mau Mau war. that were “cunning” and “blood-thirsty” like actions be explained by killer and lice.” That, in short, was the British agenda It was an outcome achieved at an astro- other predatory animals. The eliminationist victim were locked together, for an independent Kenya. nomically high cost. Elkins sums up the perspective brazenly claimed that “the only face any legitimate grievances, even if the Unlike the French in Algeria, the Brit- testimony of survivors: “Many of these good Kuke is a dead Kuke” or that Mau Mau grievances were otherwise acknowledged ish succeeded in turning the anti-colonial women think of the entire Central Province – in the words of the Colonial Secretary – as real? Is it surprising that when Kenyatta and anti-settler struggle in the White High- as a kind of mass unmarked grave.” If these was “the horned shadow of the Devil him- tried to explain the nature of grievances that lands into a civil war among the Kikuyu. books can trigger soul-searching on the self.” led to the Mau Mau, Judge Thacker simply This allowed them to win the middle ground crimes of modern Western empires – even If the British justified terror as necessary shrugged it away: “Grievances have noth- and cap the Emergency with a political set- if half as serious as the post-war soul- to get their message across to “savages,” the ing whatever to do with Mau Mau and Mau tlement led by Jomo Kenyatta who personi- searching on German crimes in Europe – Mau Mau were also prone to mimic the Brit- Mau has nothing whatever to do with griev- fied that middle ground. It is worth mull- they will mark a major contribution to un- ish: Anderson cites the case of the infamous ances.” ing over Elkins’ account of the exchange derstanding the ongoing struggle for land General Tanganyika who was “advised by a between Governor Baring and President and freedom in the erstwhile colonies. woman prophet that a European be sacri- * * * Kenyatta when the two met at State House, ficed in the manner a Kikuyu elder had been Nairobi, in October 1965:

INSANIYAT N° 25-26 (Juillet-Décembre 2004)

L'Algérie avant et après 1954 Approches historiographiques et représentations

Présentation

Gilbert MEYNIER, La « Révolution » du FLN (1954-1962)

Mustapha HADDAB, La violence et l'histoire dans la pensée de Frantz Fanon

Ouanassa SIARI-TENGOUR, Adjel Adjoul 1922-1993. Un combat inachevé

Kamel KATEB, Les séparations scolaires dans l'Algérie coloniale

Didier GUIGNARD, L'affaire Beni Urjin : un cas de résistance à la mainmise foncière en Algérie coloniale

Nahas M. MAHIEDDINE, La pensée politique de Mustafa Kemal Atatürk et le Mouvement national algérien

René GALLISSOT, Deux notices du Dictionnaire biographique du mouvement ouvrier ALGERIE : Sid Ahmed Belarbi/Boualem et Mme. Emilie Busquant-Messali

Daho DJERBAL, La question démocratique dans le Mouvement national algérien 1945 – 1962

Saddek BENKADA, La revendication des libertés publiques dans le discours politique du nationalisme algérien et de l'anticolonialisme français (1919-1954)

Zineb ALI-BENALI, Les ancêtres fondateurs. Elaborations symboliques du champ intellectuel algérien (1945-1954)

Abdelkader KHELIFI, « El gaoul », la femme et la guerre de libération (en langue arabe)

Benjamin STORA, L'Histoire de l'Algérie, sources, problèmes, écritures .

Rabah LOUNISSI, Les conflits internes à la Révolution algérienne dans le discours historique algérien (en langue arabe)

Hassan REMAOUN, Les historiens algériens issus du Mouvement national

Hartmut ELSENHANS, Algérie – économie rentière : continuités et discontinuités. Perspectives

Abdelnasser DJABI, Le mythe, la génération et les Mouvements sociaux en Algérie : ou le père « niais » et le fils « habile » (en langue arabe)

Notes bibliographiques

Fouad SOUFI et Ouanassa SIARI-TENGOUR , Bibliographie : Mémoires, autobiographie, biographies et témoignages, 1962–2004

Hassan REMAOUN , Note bibliographique sur la production en France portant sur la guerre de libération nationale

Hassan REMAOUN , Quelques ouvrages récents sur la guerre de libération et la période antérieure (publiés en Algérie et en France)

Positions de recherche

Brahim SALHI , Société et religion en Kabylie. 1850 – 2000

Hommage à Mahfoud Bennoune (Par Hugh ROBERTS)

9 Africa Review of Books / Revue africaine des Livres

linor Sisulu has a written an epic and Crusaders for Human Rights and Dignity freedom the day I married” (p.622) stands moving book on her parents-in law. in stark contrast to Simone de Beauvoir’s EIt is different in two important re- Fred Hendricks famous remark that marriage reduces men spects to the flood of political biographies and almost always annihilates women. that have surfaced in South Africa since the Their marriage and partnership confounds demise of apartheid. In the first instance, Walter and Albertina Sisulu: In our Lifetime de Beauvoir’s pessimism. Albertina’s do- Elinor Sisulu had unparalleled access to her by Elinor Sisulu: mestic responsibilities did not confine her subjects and secondly, it is the biography David Philip, 2003, 672pp, 0-86486-639-9 to domesticity. Instead, she played a vital of two people rather than a single hero or leadership role in public life. Walter was heroine. These differences have profoundly clearly very important in her political awak- shaped the nature of the biography. Elinor ening and the manner in which she em- Sisulu was driven to write the book by a braced the struggle for national liberation. boundless admiration for her parents-in- Elinor Sisulu uses her illustrious sub- law, and by the urge to document the social jects to tell the story of the structures of history of black South Africans. Her admi- and struggles against apartheid. She does ration is not misplaced. Albertina and this with a depth of sensitivity about their Walter and Sisulu lived exemplary lives uniqueness and about the many qualities together and the book does great justice to that make them such special people. While their monumental contribution to the on- she catalogues the horrors of the migrant going struggle for justice in South Africa. labour system, so central to the idea of But it does much more than that. It provides apartheid, she does not forget to mention insight into the minutia of their political and the joys in the village when a migrant personal decisions and it highlights the in- (Walter himself, for example) returns laden tended and unintended consequences of with all sorts of scarce edibles for people these. The political and personal are linked in the village. Hers is a nuanced picture of in powerful ways in this book largely be- the happiness and strife of life under apart- cause Albertina and Walter Sisulu were heid. Her characters are not one dimen- jointly such a consummate embodiment of sional zombies following a pre-determined the struggle against apartheid. There are path, but multi-faceted real life people. simply insufficient superlatives to describe Having said that I must also mention that their roles in the struggle and their lives as the reality of their story is somehow unreal. partners and it is possible to disentangle The honesty, loyalty, determination, com- these only when offering a grossly distorted ultimate triumph. It is an epic saga of two due to the fact that, “Walter would grow up mitment and humanity revealed in these version of their lives. people who rose from humble beginnings knowing that he came from a clan that was pages would make even the staunchest sup- The story is captivatingly told from the to become two of the most influential South part of the powerful Thembu chiefdom, porter wonder. Could they really be that intimacy of an insider. It is honest account Africans of the 20th century - in short, a bi- which could trace its genealogy back 20 good, so exemplary, so true each other? of enduring love, despite incredible odds, ographer’s dream. generations to king Zwide” (p.27). In contrast to this moving relationship between two very remarkable people. I Walter Sisulu was born in 1912, the Besides the biological accident of his of love and struggle, Njabulo Ndebele has think it would have been just about impos- same year as the founding of the ANC and birth, Walter Sisulu grew up in precisely written an insightful piece of faction on the sible to tell the story of Walter without that his life was inextricably bound with its un- the same manner as other young boys in life of Winnie Mandela, entitled The Cry of Albertina and vice versa . The connec- folding history and the quest for national the village, herding livestock, playing the of Winnie Mandela. The story of her expe- tion between them, despite the many years liberation in South Africa. His father was a favourite game of stick fighting and listen- rience of separation from her husband, of separation, is uncanny. Yet, the physical white man named Albert Dickinson who ing to the stories of the elders as the oral Nelson, somehow appears more ordinary separation has one great advantage for the worked as a civil servant in the Transkei traditions were transmitted from generation embodied in her deceit, criminality, disloy- author - it makes the identification of during the early stages of the twentieth cen- to generation. The contexts within which alty and her involvement in kidnapping and agency relatively easy. Since this biogra- tury. The biography mentions his role thus Walter and Albertina Sisulu were raised are assault of young activists. It goes without phy is written in narrative style, the attri- (p.27): almost identical rural villages in the saying that Albertina Sisulu would lose all bution of agency is all the more important. Transkei with the extended household as respect for Winnie Mandela (p.564). Elinor The book moves seamlessly between the Walter grew up knowing that his the nurturing unit for both. In contrast to Sisulu portrays the strained relationship separate and connected stories of Albertina mother and her family had a high re- the boys’ upbringing though, Albertina between the two big women of South Afri- and Walter Sisulu. While she was part of gard for his biological father...Walter Sisulu, in stereotypical fashion for her gen- can politics in a candid manner. In many the women’s movement in the 1950s al- has vague memories of being shown der, tended the cultivated fields, collected ways they represent polar opposites. Winnie ready, Albertina only really emerged as a photographs of his father and his fa- fire wood and cared for younger children Mandela was flamboyant and charismatic major figure in the politics of struggle after ther’s sisters...but...(H)is father re- in the extended family. Her subsequent el- with an uncanny knack for articulating the Walter Sisulu was banished to Robben Is- mained on the periphery of Walter’s evation into politics was the catalyst to un- concerns of the downtrodden in a manner land. We may wonder what it would have consciousness, but played no part in his tie these traditional gender roles, a far cry which generated a prodigious fount of been like if he had not gone to prison, but upbringing. Dyantyi Hlakula was the from the tea-serving hostess described in popular (or populist) appeal. She became a such counterfactuals are, in the end, not main father figure in his life...Walter Ellen Kuzwayo’s Call me Woman. But folk heroine in the townships notwithstand- very helpful. identified completely with the Hlakula/ Albertina was special from a much earlier ing the fact that she had been censured by Writing a biography of a couple poses Sisulu family and it was their philo- age. On his dying bed, her father entrusted the ANC for her alleged involvement in il- a whole range of special challenges. How sophical outlook and way of life that her (instead of her elder brother) with the licit violence against members of the com- to ensure that each subject is accurately shaped his worldview. enormous responsibility of taking care of munity. Albertina Sisulu on the other hand, portrayed, how to represent the line of in- the three younger children when she was a was the exact opposite of the demagogue fluence between them, how to place them A more powerful statement of the so- mere fifteen years of age. “I know you are as she worked quietly, systematically and separately and yet together within a social cial construction of identity will be hard to strong,” said her father (p.50). Albertina honourably to dismantle apartheid. context, how to understand the gender re- find. In response to suggestions that he took this role very seriously indeed. In fact At the tender age of sixteen Walter lations in such a special partnership are just could utilize his phenotypical characteris- when Walter proposed marriage she men- Sisulu left Engcobo deep in the heart of the some of the difficulties that a joint biogra- tics, especially the lightness of his skin col- tioned that “I have children”. To which a Transkei for work on the mines. His trans- phy encounters. Elinor Sisulu succeeds in our, to evade prosecution under pass laws stunned and confused Walter replied, “ How formation from an independent rural- meeting these challenges. She does so elo- (as many others had taken on so-called col- many?” (p.102). This momentary misunder- dweller working as a peasant on the family quently as she traces the separate but con- oured identity documents), Walter de- standing was quickly resolved with Walter fields to an urban proletarian mirrored the nected lives of her subjects. She captures scribed his own identity in the following being hugely impressed by Albertina’s experience of millions of South African the intricate details of Walter’s emergence unambiguous manner (p.72): sense of responsibility over her siblings. In youth. But this transformation did not hap- as a national protagonist in the African addition he took on the role of guardian pen as a solitary one way affair. It was com- National Congress and in liberation poli- I am a black man, I am an African, I over these children himself. plicated by apartheid. In fact, territorial tics more generally, but she does not ignore am subject to all the laws that affect While loosening the traditional gender segregation drove a wedge between the the inestimable role played by Mama Sisulu my people... because I never want my roles, Albertina Sisulu’s elevation into na- processes of urbanisation and before and after the formation of the UDF colour to determine my race. I was an tional politics as a leading figure in the proletarianisation through the system of during the long years of his incarceration. African in every sense of the word. No struggle for liberation in her own right did migrant labour and pass laws which com- While the bulk of the narrative deals with less, no more. not automatically obliterate her domestic pelled many prospective urban dwellers to Walter, she keeps the balance between them responsibilities. For example, prior to re- return annually to the rural reserves. This by cementing the story with a candid ac- Elinor Sisulu makes the following ob- ceiving her first washing machine at the age to and fro movement of people was cou- count of their marriage and partnership. The servation (p.73): “(H)aving grown up in the of 54, as a present from her children, she pled with the political exclusion of blacks biography neatly sums up the story of their warm embrace of his extended family and did all the laundry for her extended house- from the central institutions of the state. The lives in the following terms (p.17): guided by the powerful paternal figure of hold by hand. The early gender stereotypes systematic disenfranchisement of the ma- Theirs is a story of persecution, bitter Dyantyi Hlakula, who he worshipped, were real, and they persisted in an uneven jority was the major grievance of the op- struggle and painful separation. It is also Walter was stable and secure in his iden- manner during Walter’s incarceration. pressed and it is not surprising that it stimu- one of patience, hope, enduring love and tity”. Part of this security, no doubt, was Albertina Sisulu’s statement that “I got my lated such concerted opposition. Walter and

10 Mars / March 2006

Albertina Sisulu’s life experiences reflected not on paper, but in the hearts of our peo- spired violence in KwaZulu-Natal, contin- these broader processes in the country. They Albertina Sisulu’s work experience as a ple, where they are beyond the reach of ued detentions without trial of political op- were ordinary South Africans coping with nurse in Johannesburg was also shaped by government interference. ponents, police and army occupation of life under apartheid and responding through the endemic racism of the time. One par- townships, deaths in detention, killing of organised agency in the African National ticular event had a profound impact on her. The book deals with the many debates in youth activists, lack of freedom of move- Congress. After a major accident at Park Station, the the struggle against apartheid, especially ment or association and so on. When Walter Walter experienced a typical example hospital was flooded with seriously injured around the questions of class and national- and Albertina embraced each other after his of the mistreatment of black workers in his people, but there were not enough beds in ism. Walter Sisulu came into his own as a return to their Soweto home, “That embrace second job on a dairy farm on the outskirts the black section of the hospital. “Mean- pragmatic strategist and tactician. The most marked the end of a long and painful era of Johannesburg, after it was decided that while, beds in the ‘European’ section of the memorable occasion for his skill in this re- for the Sisulu family” (p.589). As if to ce- he was far too young for underground work hospital were empty as only a few of those spect is the fact that he was the chief wit- ment their love for each other, they both in the mines. His job was particularly ar- injured in the accident were white. Senior ness for the defence at the Rivonia Trial and threw themselves into the very many po- duous. He had to start at 2am and regularly black medical staff appealed to the hospital Bram Fischer led his evidence. It is testi- litical crises of the time. The public and the worked a 12 hour day. After working on authorities to allow black patients into the mony to his stature that the more formally private were united in their partnership. the farm for 8 months he was involved in a white section, as an emergency measure. educated members of the accused, even Elinor Sisulu paid meticulous attention quarrel with his boss who whipped him until Their appeals fell on deaf ears” (p.87). those with legal training, placed their trust to the detail and accuracy of her story but he bled. He decided to report the matter to It was out of their familiarity with the in Walter Sisulu. It was the trust of their lives she committed one error concerning the fate the police only to be “...clouted across the everyday experiences of ordinary South Af- because the spectre of the death sentence of the PEBCO Three: Sipho Hashe, Cham- face by a policeman. In addition to hand- ricans under apartheid that the Sisulus con- hung ominously over the entire trial. The pion Galela and Qaqawuli Godolozi ing our verbal and physical abuse, the po- structed their political awakening and their book covers the intricate details of the trial (p.465). Her claim that they disappeared liceman detained and sent a message to his deeply-felt commitment to transform the and Walter Sisulu was the undoubted pro- after a UDF meeting and that their bodies employer to collect him” (p.58). These were society. Albertina was the only woman tagonist in this crucial moment in the his- were found a few weeks later fly in the face the ordinary, everyday racist experiences of present at the inaugural meeting of the Youth tory of the struggle in South Africa. of the evidence that has emerged. The cur- an oppressed people and Walter’s con- League, the body that eventually trans- While in prison, Walter’s humanity rent version of events is that at the height sciousness was shaped by such events. His formed the ANC into a mass movement. In shone through the correspondence with his of apartheid repression, the PEBCO Three subsequent jobs included domestic work, a speech at their wedding, the Africanist beloved wife. While his concerns revolved were abducted from the Port Elizabeth air- cleaning and acting as a waiter. Despite his philosopher, Anton Lembede “...warned mainly around family and education mat- port by the security police, killed, burnt and lack of formal education (he left school in Albertina that she was marrying a man who ters, the depth of feeling between them then tossed into the Fish River. Their re- standard four, ie after merely six years of was already married to the nation” (p.104). comes through their letters to each other. mains were never found. schooling) Govan Mbeki states (p.80) that Elinor Sisulu mentions the various fac- These were love letters with a difference. It The titles for the five parts in the book he was “...able to hold his own among the tors involved in Walter’s decision to join the is obvious that Walter Sisulu had a genu- vividly capture the unfolding chronologi- most formidable intellects of the time”. South African Communist Party in 1955, inely warm personality. He felt things for cal story: Beginnings (1912- 1939, The Mandela’s (p.99) remarks are also telling: immediately prior to the Congress of the others, most notably those nearest and dear- Forging: Marriage and Politics (1940- People - his affinity to Marxism, his over- est to him. Elinor Sisulu does wonderfully 1964), The Scattering: Detention and Ex- ...more and more I came under the wise seas travel, his respect for communists such well in capturing this humane side of the ile (1964- 1977), Riding Out the Darkness tutelage of Walter Sisulu. Walter was as Rusty and Hilda Bernstein, Jack Hodgson, great man. But she does so, while also re- (1978-1989) and a New Dawn (1990- strong, reasonable, practical and dedi- Michael Harmel, JB Marks, Yusuf Dadoo, vealing his own admiration for his wife and 2002). But this is no mere narrative. It is cated. He never lost his head in a crisis; Moses Kotane and Brian Bunting and his her increasingly important public role. instead both a vital document of the libera- he was often silent when others were unwavering dedication to the cause of eco- Albertina Sisulu went on her first over- tion struggle in South Africa and of the spe- shouting. He believed that the African nomic as well as political liberation (p.181). seas trip in 1989. She was ambassador for cial relationship of equality, love and re- national Congress was the means to ef- Walter Sisulu was banned in 1955 when both the UDF and the ANC, meeting with spect between Albertina and Walter Sisulu. fect change in South Africa, the reposi- he was secretary general of the ANC. Pro- presidents and prime ministers in USA, I was moved by this book because it is such tory of black hopes and aspirations. fessor ZK Mathews responded very elo- France, Sweden and Britain. She was given a poignant reminder of what it took to get Sometimes one can judge an organisa- quently to the banning (p.180): a special 31 day passport to make this sig- rid of apartheid and how, notwithstanding tion by the people who belong to it, and nificant trip during the dying days of apart- incredible odds (including a 26 year sepa- I knew that I would be proud to belong It is of course impossible for any Minis- heid when reform and repression were the ration), they maintained a loving relation- to any organisation of which Walter was ter to ban anyone from the ANC. As far twin orders of the day. Walter’s release from ship. All those interested in South African a member. as the ANC is concerned, these sons of prison in 1989 after 26 years was part of history from the inside should read this Africa are still members of our organi- the reform, but it happened in a climate of book. sation with their names written indelibly political repression marked by the state-in-

AFRICA REVIEW OF BOOKS Revue africaine des livres / Revista Africana de Livros

December 2005

Special Issue on Lusophone Africa Guest Editors: Teresa Cruz e Silva, Carlos Lopes, and Carlos Cardoso

Foreword 3 Carlos Lopes

Publishing and Visibility in Guinea-Bissau (2002-2005) 5 Carlos Cardoso The Political Economy of Budgets in Mozambique 13 António Alberto da Silva Francisco Identity Series - PROMÉDIA: A Mozambican Treasure 6 Jeanne Marie Penvenne João Paulo Borges Coelho, Índicos Indícios I – Setentrião 15 Fátima Mendonça Ruy Duarte de Carvalho: anthropology, fiction and the representation 7 Rita Chaves Quantas madrugadas tem a noite Ondjaki 16 Rita Gameiro Aleixo Pais The Persistence of Race. Anthropological essays on Brazil 9 and Southern Africa Media in Mozambique 17 Paula Cristina da Silva Barreto Amélia Neves de Souto

Os Filhos da Terra do Sol: a formação do Estado-nação em Cabo Verde 10 Aumentando o conhecimento sobre a História de Cabo Verde 18 Leopoldo Amado Carlos Lopes

Henrique Texeira de Sousa’s Place and that of the Novel 11 The Dilution of Africa : An Interpretation of the Identity Saga 19 Ilheu de Contenda in the Emergence of Post-Enlightenment Cape Verde Fiction on the Post Colonial Political Panorama José Luís Hopffer Almada Daniel Henrique Costa

11 Africa Review of Books / Revue africaine des Livres

“This civil war was not caused by a Africans Do Not Live By Bread Alone: Against Greed, in short, the lumpenproletariat! The disjunc- political vision or for religious reasons Not Grievance ture between insurgency dialogue and preda- or for ethnic reasons. This was done tory rebellion poses troubling questions for for pure greed. This was done to con- any explanation that hinges on greed as the trol a commodity, and that commodity Ibrahim Abdullah primary cause of armed conflict in Sierra was diamonds.” (David Craine, Chief Leone. Prosecutor, Special Court, PBS inter- Even if we accept, for argument’ sake, view, 10 January 2003, pbs.org). absent in the wars of liberation against set- that the revolutionary project of the college tler domination in Southern Africa, the Phase Two: Guerilla Warfare, 1993-1997 students was hijacked by the predominantly “To put it very simply, there are many Eritrean war of independence, the National lumpen combatants, we still have to flesh side issues but the cause of this conflict Resistance Army (NRA) in Uganda in the Phase Three: Reign of Terror and out and explain the extent to which those is diamonds. Fundamentally the cause 1980s and Sudan before the 1990s? Criminality, 1997-2000 who were “recruited” were “conscientized”, of this war was to control a commod- I want to suggest that the differences to use a tired “revolutionary” formulation, ity and that was diamonds.” (David between these wars have nothing to do with about the economic motive of the rebellion Africans Do Not live By Bread Alone: The Craine, Chief Prosecutor, Special Court, the availability/non-availability of resources and its feasibility as well as how it was bound Economic Argument Press Conference, Freetown, 18 March or the opportunity or feasibility of rebellion to succeed. Indeed, we will be on shaky 2003). as a criminal enterprise. These differences, ground considering the fact that the RUF was in my view, have to do with the context The underlying assumption in all of Collier’s unpopular and highly dependent on forced Introduction within which they unfolded. By context I work can be summarized as simply one of recruitment of all sorts to replenish its fight- refer to the changing fortunes of the African greed/economic calculation.4 Rebels are ing force. cholars, NGO activists, and state: a) from the era of prosperity in the motivated by the desire to profit from chaos; The question of timing is also crucial in journalists have fed the official mind immediate post-independence period right such calculations are supposedly propelled understanding the economic factor in the and popular imagination with a par- to the mid-1970s; b) the period of acute eco- by the degree to which such a criminal en- Sierra Leone conflict. A criminal enterprise S nomic and political crisis in the 1980s and ticular kind of explanation of conflict that terprise can become a viable economic solely crafted for economic gain would have privileges the economic. Civil war is about 1990s and right up to the present moment. project. How to raise revenue to support had as its prime target the immediate takeo- resources: rebels are motivated by greed, not The former typifies an era of relative pros- such a project might begin to explain why ver of the diamondiferous areas. This did grievance. Rebels mine diamonds to buy perity; the latter a period of mass poverty. rebels without a cause have a better chance not happen. And from 1991 to 1993, the arms. Diamonds are the heart of the matter. These differences are fundamental to under- of succeeding in the third world than in the RUF was buttoned down in the rural/ agri- A robust campaign against “blood dia- stand contemporary armed conflicts in Af- first world. Viability is therefore key to the cultural districts of Kailahun and Pujehun monds” - diamond coming from conflict ar- rica. Armed rebellion may appear as a crimi- understanding the dynamics of rebel move- in the southeast. They were forced to retreat eas - is one way of depriving rebels of funds nal enterprise, and in the case of Sierra ments. The rebel movement needs source of with heavy loses when they attempted to take to make war. Devoid of historical context, Leone did assume some character of support, finance to be precise, for the project the rich diamond fields in Kono in late 1991. explanations such as these remain captivat- criminality. But this has less to do with the to stay alive. “It is this, rather than any ob- It would take them another four years be- ing but unhelpful. insurgency discourse, which Collier dis- jective grounds for grievance which deter- fore they would retake Kono and hold it for I want to suggest that the greed problem- misses as propaganda, than with the com- mine whether a country will experience civil any considerable length of time to allow 2 atic is reductionist partly because it limits position of such movements . war”. Violence, predatory behavior, and them to exploit the resources in the area. And our understanding of rebellion as a political Let me make a couple of observations other anti-social acts “may not be the objec- this happened only in collaboration with the project and partly because it fails to explain on the specificity of the Sierra Leone con- tive of the rebel organization, but it is the Sierra Leone military. My point here is that rebellion in non-resources areas. By reduc- flict. means of financing the conflict”. Rebellion the economic factor was not salient during ing everything to greed, by labeling rebel- is therefore economic power by all means the first phase of the war. • lion as a criminal enterprise, the greed prob- Sierra Leone is perhaps the only coun- necessary! But Collier’s main argument is about the lematic jettisons legitimate struggles that are try in Africa where non-conventional Extreme dependence on primary com- economic causes of armed conflict, not rooted in the desire to right the wrongs of political actors have staked their claim modity exports, low average income and about how resources fuelled armed conflict. 3 everyday life or yester years. My argument to political leadership by taking up arms. slow economic growth are the conditions The latter might be relevant to the Sierra is that ethnic struggles, youth agitation for The leadership in such movements usu- under which such predatory rebellions are Leone situation particularly during the third inclusion, the marginalisation of women, and ally come from marginalized members likely to occur. Primary commodity exports, phase of the war, that is to say, from 1997- separatists demand for regional autonomy of the power bloc/established political particularly diamonds, are prime candidates 2000, when the RUF became linked to the constitute an integral part of the broad strug- class, as was the case with Charles Taylor because they are the “most looted of all eco- international criminal syndicate - arms for gle for citizenship in post-colonial Africa. in Liberia, Asumana Mane in Guine- nomic activities”. Diamonds are easy to con- diamonds - via Monrovia. RUF sources re- The challenge, in my view, is to understand Bissau and Alhassan Ouatara in Cote ceal; they are an economic asset coveted by veal the perennial need for funds to replen- how the citizenship question poses itself as d’Ivoire. This is significant for it helps government and rebels alike. A rebel move- ish arms supply, feed combatants, purchase an ethnic/minority/communal struggle in the explain why the Revolutionary United ment in a diamond-producing country would medical drugs and other essentials. In June erstwhile colonial territories. Front (RUF) was the way it was, why obviously concentrate on controlling the 1996, the RUF leader, Foday Sankoh, wrote In what follows, I first present a case for the movement was silent for the first four source of this important economic asset if to the Libyan Arab Peoples Jamahiriyya rep- the specificity of the Sierra Leonean con- years of the war, and why it doggedly only because it is central to its survival and resentative Mohamed Talibi thanking him flict. I then turn to Paul Collier’s argument: held on to its belief that power was only continued reproduction. Revenue from dia- for the “half million United States dollars how it illuminates the Sierra Leone case. I attainable through military means. monds is important to both the government (500,000 USD) which I received through • offer an outline for an alternative interpre- It is the first example of a marginalized and the rebels: predatory war therefore be- you for the purchase of needed material to tation centered on grievance and the inau- social group, in this case youths, appro- comes one of control over key resources in pursue the military mission”.6 The RUF even guration of an insurgency discourse an- priating the language of revolution from a country. “High primary commodity ex- asked for more: “I now need one and half chored on pan-Africanism. I conclude by radical college students to contest politi- ports, low income and slow growth are a million United States dollars invoking citizenship as a way of understand- cal power. cocktail which makes predatory rebellions (USD1,500,000) in order to purchase twice • ing contemporary conflicts in Africa. Subaltern officers, young men in their more financially viable”. the listed materials for effective and smooth 20s, seized power a year after war com- The above is admittedly a crisp summary operation”. In another letter written in De- The Specificity of the Sierra Leone menced and proclaimed a revolution. of Collier’s argument as it relates to Sierra cember 1996, the RUF leader made a request • Conflict: A Conceptual Statement Throughout the war no member of the Leone.5 His approach, in my view, consti- for two million dollars for the purchase of established political class in Sierra Leone tutes an exercise in writing outside history; arms and ammunition. Sankoh was writing My first point is conceptual: How do we or the Diaspora lent any covert or overt it is as if only rational calculations for profit after the Abidjan peace accord in Novem- explain the differences between the wars of support to the movement in furtherance matters. Yet there is much more to human ber which had given him the “opportunity the 1990s - Rwanda, Congo, Sierra Leone, of its political/economic objectives. action/ interaction than simple calculation to transact my business in getting our fight- • Liberia, Guine-Bissau, Cote d’Ivoire - and After six years of war something unprec- for profit motive; humans/Africans do not ing materials freely and easily”. He then in- the wars of liberation against settler minor- edented happened: 95% of the Sierra live by bread alone! formed the Libyan representative that the ity regimes in Southern Africa? How do we Leone military joined the rebellion. Is it the case that the RUF - leadership RUF had started to “organize serious min- • explain the differences between the wars of The RUF was composed of young men and rank and file - knew a priori that rebel- ing operations in precious minerals which I liberation in Eritrea and Sudan and that of in their 20s and 30s. Sam Bockarie the lion was a profitable project? Were they believe will help us to generate the needed the sans culottes1 in the 1990s? Are there notorious field commander was twenty- aware of the viability or feasibility of such a foreign exchange for our mission”.7 any similarities between what unfolded in eight when he became a combatant; Issa project? Did the RUF, as a rebel movement, Fresh arms and ammunition from East- Chad in the 1970s - the first casualty to rebel Sesay who succeeded him was a teen- conceive of resources, ab initio, as central ern European countries, huge diamond ex- movements in Africa - and what transpired ager when he enlisted in the RUF. to their survival and continued reproduction? port from Liberia to Antwerp and Tel Aviv, • in Uganda in the 1980s - the first example This was perhaps the only war in Africa These are difficult questions to tackle from mercenaries from South Africa and Eastern of a rebel movement capturing state power without an ethnic factor. the perspective of greed precisely because Europe all suggest the new networks that the in post-colonial Africa? How do we make those who inaugurated or participated in the rebels had established with the help of sense of the predominance of forced recruit- Below is a periodisation to guide our RUF project were NEVER involved in the Charles Taylor in neighboring Liberia and ment, press-ganging, kidnapping, wide- understanding of the trajectory of the war in insurgency dialogue that preceded armed Blaise Campaore in Burkina Faso. Al -Qaeda spread looting, rape, excessive drug abuse Sierra Leone: conflict. The primary agents in that dialogue would enter the picture and follow the RUF and unbridled terror in the sans culottes’ were college students; the combatants in the to the diamond fields to launder their enor- wars of the 1990s? How do we make sense Phase One: Conventional Warfare, 1991- RUF project were predominantly marginal mous loot on the eve of 9/11. of these happenings that were manifestly 1993 youths from urban and rural Sierra Leone -

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These developments unfolded at a time • youth culture, political repression and the objective conditions than with the avail- struggle for inclusion, for citizenship broadly when the rhetoric of liberation had ceased globalization; ability of resources or the feasibility of re- defined, that we must turn if we want to un- to have any meaning. Even so, the RUF still • the invention of an imagined commu- bellion as an economic project. The disjunc- derstand conflict in contemporary Africa and continued, in collaboration with the ren- nity of youth with shared interests; ture between those who took part in the elsewhere. egade Sierra Leone military, to push for po- • the inauguration of an insurgency dis- insurgency discourse and those who ex- litical power. In this sense politics can be course. ecuted the RUF project poses enormous Notes read as an extension of economics: political problems for the greed problematic in un- 1 A French expression, literally meaning those The Context: power will give them more security (legiti- derstanding the Sierra Leone conflict. without pants, loosely referring to the macy?) to continue their predatory regime. • dwindling revenue from mining and appearance of poor people. It captures the rag- tag character and bizarre outfit of the armed Greed, predatory rebellion and its con- agriculture; Rethinking Post-colonial Conflicts: The movements and militia all over the continent. tinued reproduction only became a marked • structural adjustment policies in the Citizenship Question in Africa 2 Paul Collier et al have made no attempt to feature of the Sierra Leone conflict in 1996/ 80s: cutbacks on education, social examine the dynamics and composition of 97. It cannot explain why war broke out in services, and jobs. I would like to suggest that ethnicity and the any rebel movement. 1991 or why marginal youths were at the • the establishment of a one-party dic- struggle for inclusivity by marginalized so- 3 This is probably true of the Lord Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda and possibly of the center of the drama and its continuation. To tatorship; cial/cultural groups is the form in which the fighters in Western Sudan. understand why war broke out in 1991 we • the emergence of college students as citizenship question poses itself in Africa. 4 Paul Collier and his collaborators in the World have to go back and look at the grievances. an informal/de facto opposition; The wrangling over political rights and the Bank-sponsored research project are • the extreme centralization of resources talk about economic and political marginal- notorious for repeating the same argument in Bringing Back Grievance and the creation of an alternative net- ity in the Sudan, Cote d’Ivoire and the Great different publications with absolutely no new information. Neither Collier nor any of his work; Lakes are really about citizenship. The associates have studied or tried to understand How do we explain the preponderance of • large-scale political corruption and Anyanya rebellion in the 1950s, the confla- any rebel movement anywhere in the world. marginal and alienated youths as combat- mismanagement. gration in the Congo in the 1960s, the Nige- See, for instance, Paul Collier and Anke ants/leaders in the nasty war that ravaged rian civil war, the Chadian musical chairs in Hoeffler,’ Greed and Grievance in Civil War’. Sierra Leone for a decade? Why did young Paul Collier et al invoke Marx and Lenin, the 1970s were all about citizenship: the World Bank, Policy Research Working Paper 2355 (2001), 32pp. military officers in their 20s seize political tongue in cheek, to substantiate their point right of groups to actively participate in the 5 In Collier’s “Economic causes of civil conflict power a year after the war started? What about the primacy of the economic in ex- nation-state project without discrimination. and their implications for policy”, we learn propelled young men, and some women, to plaining armed conflicts. But they should We need to recall that the pogroms directed that “the rebel leader was offered and organize a political party to contest for have gone further to elaborate on the sub- against the Igbos in Kano City in 1966 were accepted the vice-presidency of the power in 2002? jective factor à la Lenin and Che Guevara. the immediate catalyst for the declaration of country.….He had one further demand, which once conceded, produced (temporary) Answers to these questions take us back By this I refer to the willingness and the the independent state of Biafra. The Igbos settlement. His demand was to be the Minister to what I consider to be the central issue in “revolutionary” commitment of a select were simply told to leave Kano City, where of Mining.” Sankoh was never offered the African conflict: the political question. The group of people to start the “revolution”. they had lived all their lives, and to return vice-presidency or the ministry of mines. He history, character and dynamics of armed This is a critical factor in insurgency. It was to their “native land”. Their sojourn in Kano was made Chairman of the Mineral Resources movements in Africa suggest that they are college students who inaugurated the insur- in the Sabon Gari quarters was a painful re- Commission with the protocol status of Vice- President! initially propelled by political considera- gency discourse and spearheaded the call to minder that they were indeed non-indigene 6 Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone tions. By this I mean the often popular but arms in Sierra Leone. They recruited mar- and could be asked to leave at any time. (RUF/SL), From Cpl. Foday S. Sankoh, sometimes not clearly articulated call for ginal youths, including the future leader of Twenty-some odd years later, Tutsis who had Leader, RUF/SL to Brother Mohamed Talibi, inclusivity, openness, and democracy in the the RUF, for military training in Tajura, fought with Museveni in the NRM were Libyan Arab Peoples Jamahiriyya, Accra, determination of how decisions are made Libya, from 1987 to 1989. The issue of re- asked to leave Uganda, where most of them Ghana, dated 26 June 1996. 7 Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone, and resources allocated. Below is an outline sources was never discussed in student cir- were born or which they knew as home, for From Cpl. Foday S. Sankoh, Leader, RUF/SL, of how this process unfolded: cles nor was the issue of finance or suste- a place called Rwanda that only existed in Abidjan, La Cote d’Ivoire to Brother nance regarded as a key element in the their imagination. It was a painful reminder Mohamed Talibi, Peoples Bureau of Libyan Agency: proposed project. The main emphasis was of their alien “otherness”. Even though con- Arab Peoples Jamahiriya, Accra, Ghana, 4 • the invention of youth as a political on commitment and willingness to acquire tinuous residency had granted them some December, 1996. identity; military training to start a guerrilla war. What respite during the period of struggle, the new • the convergence between the main- propelled college students to assume the role post-1986 parliament would turn down their stream and the marginal youth; of vanguard à la Lenin has more to do with request for Ugandan citizenship. It is to the

13 Africa Review of Books / Revue africaine des Livres

n order to understand the various Slow Death in the Niger Delta tion to the country’s foreign reserves. In the ramifications of the Ogoni crisis, it is short space of three months - between the end Inecessary to track how the combination of December 1998 and the end of March 1999 of local and global political violence Sanya Osha - $2.7 billion had vanished from the national unleashed the peculiar brew that has coffers” (p. 40). transformed in ecological terms not only So both the governments that set up Where Vultures Feast: Shell, Human Rights, and Oil Ogoniland but the Niger Delta as a whole. organisations to address the problems of oil- It is the mix of local and global terror that by Ike Okonta and Oro producing regions as well as the organisations created the volatile situation that affects the themselves were riddled with corruption. entire region. The expansion of capital, to Even the Petroleum (Special) Task Force author and environmentalist who was hanged However, OMPADEC as an agency to a large extent, must be blamed for the various (PTF) that was established in 1995 with the alongside eight other Ogoni indigenes by improve the conditions in the oil producing forms of destruction affecting the Niger supposedly upright Muhammadu Buhari, a the Abacha military junta. After the defeat areas was a woeful failure under both the Delta. We are often reminded that “the Niger former Head of State, at its helm has been of Biafra by the federal forces, a process of Babangida and Abacha regimes. For instance, Delta has substantial oil and gas reserves. “accused of nepotism and financial reckless- internal colonization commenced which has three years after it commenced operations, Oil mined in the area accounts for 95 percent ness” (p. 38). Successive governments of Ni- not been reversed. OMPADEC had committed itself to projects of the country’s foreign exchange earnings geria have generally not acted responsibly to This particular form of political violence worth $500 million. Interestingly, the bulk of and about one-fourth of Gross Domestic its citizenry as a whole, let alone the oil-pro- was part of the strategy to maintain the “pe- money paid out for projects “completed” was Product” (p. 18). It is necessary to provide ducing regions. In pursuing their narrow in- ripheral-capitalist structure of the economy” to contractors whose addresses could not be various interpretations for political terror in terests they have created criminal conditions of Nigeria. Accordingly, the concept of the traced. When Eric Opia, head of the panel set relation to the crisis in the Niger Delta. In of chaos and neglect in the Niger Delta. After rentier state has been applied to the coun- up by the Abacha junta to probe Horsfall, was order to do so, I will address Ike Okonta the failures of OMPADEC and the PTF, the try: appointed Sole Administrator in his place, he and Oronto-Douglas’s study of the ecological proceeded to loot OMPADEC in an even more post-Abacha democratic dispensation set up crisis in the Niger Delta and suggest ways the Niger Delta Development Commission to Terisa Turner has applied Ruth First’s brazen fashion. By September 1998, when he in which it can be construed theoretically. I address the needs of the oil-producing com- concept of the “Rentier State” to was kicked out for “gross financial misappro- shall also address broader phenomenologies munities just like its predecessors had done. Nigeria’s post-civil-war political priation,” Opia had embezzled some $200 mil- of political violence which their study does It remains to be seen how successful this economy, pointing out that the coun- lion set aside for the development of the im- not completely foreground even though it organisation would become. Indeed, it was set try is sustained not by what it pro- poverished communities of the Niger Delta provides excellent descriptions of gross up within a context of extreme politicisation duces, but on “rent” on production: (p. 35). Perhaps the failure of the agency is to governmental corruption and the duplicity and strife so it is likely to be only more mar- here, the oil industry, where invest- be expected since it was not properly equipped of multinational capital. ginally successful that its predecessors. ments, production, marketing, and to carry out its functions. A World Bank team In this instance, there are two main ways Shell, the multinational oil company, does sundry expertise are completely domi- that studied the workings of the agency in to imagine and interpret the kind of politi- not have an enviable record in the Niger Delta nated by multinational corporations 1995 discovered that “(1) there was no em- cal violence one has in mind. The first will and within human rights circles. For instance, that simply pay taxes and royalties to phasis on environmentally sustainable devel- be to analyse the political violence caused it has been revealed that Shell collaborated the state. Thus the entire state appara- opment; (2) the commission did not have the by multinational capital and the second, the with the apartheid regime in South Africa: tus becomes a commodity for rent to requisite personnel to enable it to meet its eco- violence endangered by the postcolonial “Shell’s business interests in the country date the highest bidder, a bizarre bazaar logical mandate; (3) there was an absence of state. In this regard, Shell is the biggest oil back to the 1920s. The company has always presided over by a “commercial tri- long-term planning; (4) there was little or no corporation operating in the Niger Delta. maintained a cozy relationship with Afrikaner angle” of state officials, local middle- project assessment, and where projects were Before the discovery of oil, we will recall merchants in South Africa. Today the con- men, and foreign suppliers. This group initiated, maintenance requirements were not that the region was the most significant palm glomerate owns 50-percent stake in Abecol, cannot thrive outside the state politi- built into them; and (5) there was no integrated oil exporting zone in Africa. The palm oil asphalt manufacturing firm, and another 50- cal economy, which partly explains the approach to development planning, which exporting business created an opportunity percent holding in the controversial Rietspruit dizzying succession of military coups should have involved the local communities for the beginning of colonial relations that open-cast mine in the Transvaal. Shell also and electoral frauds the country has and other government agencies in the area” were essentially driven by the expansion of owns over eight hundred gas stations in the been afflicted with since indepen- (p. 35). global capital. George Goldie Taubman, a country” (p. 48). It has also been pointed out dence. State power is everything, and The problem of corruption was not just British merchant, was instrumental to the that Shell’s hands in the hanging of Ken Saro- to be without power is to be con- limited to OMPADEC. In fact, it had assumed making of modern Nigeria and we are in- Wiwa are not all together clean: demned to unremitting poverty” (p. national proportions and has not really sub- formed that he “embarked on trading prac- 29). sided since then. Babangida started the prac- tices that cut off the once flourishing Delta tice of billion dollar embezzlements. The Pius It is the measure of how powerful Shell ports from the outside world which plunged has become in Nigeria and the extent As the oil based economy grew so did gov- Okigbo panel that looked into the (mis)use of the populace into unprecedented penury from to which its business interests had ernmental corruption. As Okonta and Oronto- funds that accrued to the national treasury as which it has never been able to recover” (p. merged with the designs of one of the Douglas point out, “everybody wanted a a result of the Gulf Oil crisis of 1990-91 re- 13). most brutal and corrupt regimes in the piece of the action, not least British Aero- vealed that “between September 1988 and When the indigenous traders of the re- world that Dr. Owens Wiwa, brother of space, which concluded a controversial £22 June 1994, $ 12.2 billion of the $12.4 billion gion revolted against the economic block- the environmentalist, told journalists he million ($35 million) kickback deal with [in the dedicated accounts] was liquidated in age, “the Consul General of the newly es- had a meeting with the former manag- Nigerian government officials in order to less than six years…they were spent on what tablished Niger Coast Protectorate sent a ing director, Brian Anderson, in his secure a contract for the supply of eighteen could neither be adjudged genuine high pri- naval force to Nembe Creek, attacked the home in Lagos in May 1995, and that Jaguar ground-attack fighters worth £300 ority nor truly regenerative investment; nei- town, and razed it to the ground. Two thou- Anderson said he could effect Ken million ($480 million). It was in fact the ‘Jag- ther the President nor the Central Bank Gov- sand unarmed people, mostly women and Saro-Wiwa’s release from detention but uar deal’ that finally pushed junior military ernor accounted to anyone for these massive children, were murdered” (p. 14). The point would only do so if MOSOP [Move- officers to demand an end to the Second Re- extra-budgetary expenditures…” (pp. 36-37, is, economic factors were the primary rea- ment for the Survival of the Ogoni public and subsequently brought General citing Pius Okigbo). In view of this scale of sons for the British incursion and subjuga- People] called off its international cam- Muhammadu Buhari to power after a mili- brigandage, Okonta and Oronto-Douglas tion of the geographical space that came to paign against his company (p. 48). tary coup in December 1983" (p. 30). By the point out “the only legacy that Ibrahim be known as Nigeria. Indeed, “Nigeria was time, Buhari took over the reins of power, Babangida bequeathed to Nigerians before he created by British merchants and soldiers There are also policemen specially assigned “twenty percent of the nation’s oil was be- was removed from office was the democrati- of fortune primarily to serve the mother to provide security for the company’s opera- ing smuggled out of the country” (p. 30). The zation of corruption and the corruption of de- country’s interests as nineteenth-century tions in Nigeria. Their duties include provid- IMF-imposed Structural Adjustment mocracy” (pp. 36-37). There is certainly a lot capitalism entered the stage of imperialism, ing administrative assistance, intelligence and Programme (SAP) did the rest of the eco- of truth in this assessment. Sani and desired even more sources of cheap raw surveillance operations and supervision of the nomic damage. In the mid eighties, 44 per- Abacha was no better. In fact, in some ways material and also new markets for its prod- armories (p. 49). This collaboration with cent of Nigeria’s entire export earnings was he was worse. For example, at the time of his ucts” (p. 27). armed personnel was evident in September being used to reduce its debt dependenc” (p. death in June 1998, Nigeria had over eight The violence that began in the Niger 1993 when “over a thousand Ogoni were 30). thousand prisoners in its prisons. Also, in less Delta at the dawn of colonialism worsened killed in the villages of Eaken, Gwara, and As the economic downturn continued, oil than five years, Abacha and his henchmen had in the postcolonial era when petroleum was Kenwigbara. An estimated twenty thousand producing communities in the Niger Delta looted $10 billion from the national treasury. discovered. As such “oil is the stuff of con- more were rendered homeless” (p. 125). In agitated for better treatment from the federal General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who took temporary Nigerian politics, and the Niger fact, it is claimed that Shell officials met with government and the multinational oil con- over from Abacha and who handled over to Delta is the field on which the vicious battle senior military men and security operatives cerns. In response to these agitations, the the democratic dispensation of Olusegun to control this money spinner is waged. The over plans to exterminate the Ogoni. Babangida regime set up an agency, the Oil Obasanjo, is also heavily tainted by the civil war that raged between the breakaway The amount of damage the company’s Mineral Producing Areas Development Com- scourge of corruption. It is noted that Eastern Region and the rest of the country operations does to Nigeria is quite enormous. mission (OMPADEC) in 1993 “with the re- “Abubakar awarded to himself, the disgraced from July 1967 to January 1970 was not so The Niger Delta used to be a region blessed sponsibility of monitoring and managing eco- former Head of State Ibrahim Babangida, and much a war to maintain the unity and in- with wildlife and it is claimed that “it has more logical problems associated with the a handful of senior generals and business as- tegrity of the country […] as a desperate freshwater fish species than any other coastal production and exploitation activities of the sociates - including the ubiquitous Gilbert gambit by the federal government to win system in West Africa” (p. 63). Furthermore, oil companies. It was also expected to act as Chagouri - eleven oil exploration blocks and back the oil fields of the Niger Delta from “the World Bank has drawn attention to its mediator between them and the communi- eight oil-lifting contracts worth billions of Biafra” (p. 24). This argument was also made importance as home to a great variety of ties when problems arose” (p. 33). dollars. Then the generals turned their atten- by Ken Saro-Wiwa, the famous Nigerian threatened coastal and estuarine fauna and

14 Mars / March 2006

flora, and to the need for preservation of the already in the tank, to form a potent ecological racism, as the standards the com- There are detailed explanations of instances biodiversity of the area because of its rich mixture. This hazardous substance is pany applies in Western nations are much bet- of corruption and charges of ecological rac- biological resources” (p. 63). However, it is then discharged into the swamps and ter than what the Niger Delta receives. ism. A sentence sums up the main argument unlikely that the biodiversity of the region rivers. The Bonny River estuary, the In order to cover up the violence of its of the book: “the oil-producing minorities of would be preserved due to fact that the com- swamps around Forcados, and the activities, Shell has had to resort to spin-doc- the Niger Delta have become living carrion pany is “one of the biggest contributors to Warri River near Ughelli, where Shell toring. The authors write: “Shell has found on which successive regimes in Nigeria and global warming” (p. 67). Indeed some of the discharges its production water, have common cause with the trinity of Andrew their foreign collaborators, like insatiable damage already done cannot be undone: “ap- been contaminated after nearly four Neil, former editor of the London Sunday vultures, have feasted, are still feasting, with- proximately twenty-two square miles of man- decades of receiving this cocktail of Times; Donu Kogbara, another journalist, out letup (p. 115). grove has been cut by Shell in its Eastern dissolved and dispersed hydrocarbons, who is, incidentally, Saro-Wiwa’s niece; and On the whole, the book presents an an- division alone in the course of its seismic op- sludge, and fighting agents (p. 87). Richard D. North, the ex-Independent jour- gry and graphic picture of life being slowly erations and a considerable amount of fauna nalist whose controversial book, Life on a destroyed in the Niger Delta without bother- and flora have been destroyed, expelled, or The above description gives a picture of Modern Planet: A Manifesto for Progress, is ing to provide useful theoretical insights for damaged beyond repair during the period” what life is like in the rural areas. In major a battering ram of the resurgent right-wing more clues into the nature of this particular (p. 69). Bush pig, iguana, monkeys (some cities such as Port Harcourt, the politics of oil attack on the environmental movement in the kind of structural and political violence. The rare) have had to flee the destroyed and pol- production has also affected the manner and United Kingdom” (p. 172). nature of this kind of violence indeed has luted forests. Some species have become ex- quality of life as “the poor majority are ban- The book is a graphic account of how global dimensions and can be better under- tinct. Acid rains corrode not only zinc roof- ished to the sprawling waterfront slums and global capital in collaboration with local stood via numerous critiques of neo-liberal- ing but also contribute to the destruction of the other ghettos where there is no electricity, power unleashes terror on the poor, of how ism. Such necessary critiques of neo-liberal- fauna and flora. water supply, or sanitation facilities. Here also, it destroys human beings and the environ- ism are absent from the book. Okonta and Creeks and swamps are not left out of the refuse collection and dumping is inefficient ment and also how it erects elaborate mecha- Douglas write as activists and sometimes al- relentless assault: and badly managed, and waste dumps have nisms to hide the extent and gravity of its low their anger to get the better of them. taken over whole streets, vying with human violence. It not only destroys human lives Nonetheless, their book remains one of the In the course of separating the oil from beings for space” (p. 192). Also, in cities such but constructs elaborate lies to conceal from most engaging accounts of systematic eco- water, Shell officials use chemicals to as Warri and Port Harcourt, “armed robbery, history the extent of its destructive activities. logical destruction available. induce settlement in the tanks. The end hooliganism, prostitution, and sudden, seem- Okonta and Douglas offer a vivid descrip- product of this separation process is ingly inexplicable explosions of street vio- tion of the modes of collaboration between thick, oily sludge which combines lence have become a way of life” (p. 192). Shell and the Nigerian ruling class in under- with firefighting chemicals like Halon, Okonta and Douglas claim that Shell practices mining important facets of Nigerian life.

rancis B. Nyamnjoh’s academic and Pentecostal Hubris as Parable for the Theatre or two I was drained by pain, humbled creative itinerary has embraced a by hunger and mastered by fear. But Fwide range of subjects and moods. then came a glimmer of hope from an The topography of Mind Searching Bate Besong angle I least expected (Kucena 1991) and its sequel, The Disillu- sioned African (Nooremac Press 1995), for The Convert CHORUS: Alleluia, Praise the Lord. instance, fundamentally explore fragmented by Francis Nyamnjoh landscapes in which ethnic consciousness, Mmegi Publishing House, 2003, 44pp, ISBN 99912-525-0-9 CHARITY: Jesus Christ offered me his bigotry, exclusivist sentiments and narrow- bosom and tendered me the key to his minded irredentism have become the de- heavenly mansion. I seized it with vig- terminants of an evolving material culture. and distortion, it also has to liberate these Nyamnjoh’s play begins with an imbal- our and joy; for I thought I was lost. These abnormalities have given rise to same productive capacities from their ance of forces resulting in the loss of equi- But I had been found. May the Lord the institutional and systemic defacements present prostration. librium by the tragic heroine, Charity, who be praised (The Convert, 12, 13) ingrained in the aberrant mode of national Conflict, which by its modus operandi seems to have repudiated material goods and intercourse and further adumbrated by suggests contrast, is important to sensual pleasures. The uniqueness of the The Convert has its internal laws and its sham-democratization circuses that have Nyamnjoh’s social novels; but it is even drama as a performed literary art has a pro- own framework, which gives it shape, brought massive concussions to the aborigi- more vital to the unity of dramatic structure found impact on structure and meaning: strength and meaning. There is a deep, en- nal, neo-colonial Cameroonian state struc- of The Convert, for it reinforces the explo- gaging humanism that pervades Nyamnjoh’s ture. The lack of vision of successive ration of the complex and ambiguous rela- CHARITY: I abused my flesh in every way play but it is an emblematic humanism; to francophone leaders and their legendary tionship between reality and illusion in the as I thought myself queen of the world. speak analogously, of the Aeschylean obduracy to utilize the gifts and gains of theatre. I smoked cannabis, downed beer, took colouration. Re-Unification have rendered the federa- In The Convert - set in Gaborone, Bot- strong drinks, Visited medicine men Perspective in the drama is derived from tion artificial in structure and content.1 swana - Nyamnjoh is fascinated with the and adorned myself with charms and the events, the conflicts and the characters Clearly, then, the idealism of Re-Unifica- ethically complex issue of Christian funda- amulets; I bought the latest dresses in involved in them, all of which have been tion has been imprisoned in an imploding mentalism. The preoccupations of members fashion and chased after men to make conveyed by dialogues and non-verbal ac- time-capsule. of the Ultimate Church of Christ for better money. As the most famous girl in town, tion of the dramatis personae. The play- Like most expository prose writers and or worse has been the focus of his play. I drove in the latest cars. Mercedes, wright’s blend of styles - satiric commen- socio-cultural activists, Nyamnjoh has tried Whereas in Mind Searching and The BMW, Pajero, Hyundai, you name tary, tense confrontation, and heightened to observe, as closely and objectively as Disillusioned African, the plot is told, in The them. I frequented the best chicken par- ritualistic comments - challenge not only possible, the character, the patterns, and Convert it develops before the eyes and ears lours and sampled the thickest wallets audiences but production teams as well. dynamics of the evolution of the killer-in- of the audience with a sense of now-ness. in hotels of exceeding comfort. Noth- In more technical terms, Nyamnjoh has cisors of the Gaullist power structure in The need stemming from performance has ing ever pricked my conscience that paid attention to plot, character and theme. Cameroonian politics; to revisit old ideas affected plot structure in that it has obviously what I did was wrong. For I was always His use of choric elements, stage objects, and beliefs in line with new findings and regulated the playwright’s arrangement and in time to confess my sins on Saturday nightmare visions, mimes and gestures in the realities in his polemical and scholarly writ- grouping of his characters and the actions in preparation for Sunday mass, where theatre to give form to his social vision has ings.2 By targeting the mediocre calibre of arising thereform. The social problems and I was a permanent and privileged com- been most effective the national bourgeoisie emerging from the psychological pressures which give rise to municant. For I knew the priests with The theatre does not pretend to be a fac- womb of the Federal behemoth since 1972, the born-again phenomenon and the strong some of whom I smiled deep. tual correspondence to human nature and the satirical novelist of Mind Searching and addiction of fundamentalist, freak religions norms. Within the cosmology of The Con- The Disillusioned African, in true are given full rein in The Convert. CHORUS: The Devil at work. What a devi- vert itself, we are primarily and unremit- caricatural frenzy, was taking a poke at the The fictional Ultimate Church of Christ ous creature. tingly concerned with the truth of coherence, idiocy of political leadership (francophone provides a window through which to ap- with how the parts cohere into a total, mean- and anglophone) in which the nation’s his- praise the explosion of Pentecostal belief CHARITY: Then, most suddenly, most un- ingful pattern. That is the truest epiphany of torical journey has been one of constant system tapping into the deep veins of hu- expectedly, I began to Reap what I the theatre as a LIE. omissions and ineffectualites. man desperation. And, since people in the sowed. My beauty began to wilt. I had But, although the combative and utili- theatre often define themselves by the way used bleaching creams without know- Notes tarian aspects of these novels were recog- they handle challenge and respond to life, ing of their ugly and harmful side ef- 1 See Richard Joseph, Gaullist Africa: Cameroon nized and identified, Mind Searching and their hopes, their fears and their foibles, it is fects. I had hopped into bed with Tom, under Ahmadou Ahidjo (Enugu: Fourth Dimension The Disillusioned African manifest no ideo- Publishing House, 1978) and Piet Konings and Francis not surprising that The Convert would spring Dick and Harry, paying scant attention Nyamnjoh, Negotiating an Anglophone Identity: A logical commitment. At the core of the im- from a plot abounding with so much tension to the ills of lust. Fear took hold of Study of the Politics of Recognition and plicit philosophy of Nyamnjoh’s noves is and pathos and containing so many memo- me. But that was just the beginning. I Representation in Cameroon, vol. I (Leiden: Brill, the literary manifesto that bourgeois soci- rable scenes of religious angst and vivid failed my finalsin college and my par- 2003). ety has not only got to liberate itself and its 2 See ibid. and Francis Nyamnjoh, “Cameroon: A eschatological images of suffering. ents died of grief. My sugar daddies country united by ethnic ambition and difference,” productive powers from prebendal hubris fled when my beauty retired. For a year African Affairs, Vol. 98, No. 390 (1999), 1010-108.

15 Africa Review of Books / Revue africaine des Livres

et essai n’a rien d’une élaboration Qu’est-ce que la Postcolonie? sation aussi galopante que démoralisante. Vu philosophique. Même si la question Contribution à un débat francophone trop afrocentré sous cet angle, le succès des expositions Cdu titre fait songer à un Kant du coloniales en métropole ou des publicités « Was ist Aufklärung ? », un Sartre de métropolitaines mobilisant les indigènes Qu’est-ce la littérature ? ou encore à un Abou B.Bamba acquiert une intelligibilité plus accrue. Foucault de « Qu’est-ce que les lumières? ». Cette histoire du concept de colonisation, Il a moins la prétention d’être un exercice «On ne sort pas indemne d’un siècle d’africanisme, même traversé de fécondes quoiqu’elle soit télescopée, aura suggéré théorique. Encore que les discussions sur la remises en causes successives. » qu’en tant que procès, la colonisation était postcolonialité ne le sont guère que très Olivier Barlet, Africultures, ¹ 28 d’abord un événement interactif ; un fait à rarement. Plutôt, ce texte est la contribution la fois transcontinental et multisitué. En d’un américaniste, observateur de surcroît que les races les mieux douées ont complaire dans l’écriture d’une histoire somme, elle était un processus bidirectionnel des sociétés et espaces publics franco- prévalu, soit en éliminant les autres, unisituée de la colonisation. C’est que la dans un univers asymétrique. Et dire cela, africains de l’après Deuxième Guerre soit en se les subordonnant. Bien narration du passé colonial a longtemps été c’est rappeler que la rencontre coloniale a mondiale ; contribution à un débat initié— qu’on puisse très justement appliquer dominée par le grand récit de l’homme créé les cadres de l’émergence de nouvelles il y a quelques temps déjà, par A. Waberi le mot de colonisation à l’expansion blanc, héros/héraut d’une civilisation sociétés et cultures non seulement branchées 1 dans la revue Notre librairie. De quoi s’agit- méthodique des Chinois dans l’Asie émancipatrice pour le bonheur des indigènes entre elles mais aussi (et partiellement à il ? Dans sa tentative de caractérisation des orientale, des Russes dans l’Asie vivant outre-mer, et donc en colonie. À cette cause de cela) poétiquement métissées. écrivains africains francophones, l’écrivain occidentale, on a surtout réservé ce manière européocentriste d’écrire l’histoire Toutefois si cette logique métisse était déjà cum critique littéraire djiboutien notait à nom à la fondation de cités ou de de la colonisation ont succédé, depuis la fin à l’œuvre dans la « situation coloniale, » [4] propos de ce qu’il croit être la dernière groupes sociaux relativement éloignés de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, les récits elle le deviendra davantage, comme on le génération de ces auteurs—ceux qu’il de la métropole et nettement séparés nationalistes et philo-nationalistes, qui verra, après les indépendances lorsque colo- nomme les « enfants de la postcolonie »: d’elle ; c’est par mer que se sont cependant qu’ils décentrent le colon comme nies et métropole seront contraintes de signer accomplies la plupart des expéditions acteur premier de la scène coloniale, devant le parterre international leur acte de C’est toujours une gageure que de coloniales depuis trois mille années. continuent à centrer la colonie comme le lieu divorce. prétendre définir un phénomène par excellence où se joue le drame de la générationnel et une école littéraire. C’est par ces mots que La Grande ency- colonisation. Logiques et Pratiques en Postcolonie : À défaut d’avoir la science infuse, clopédie introduit son article sur la coloni- M. Diouf a montré quelles sont, dans le Images éclatées d’un Métissage nous nous contenterons de relever sation. Malgré son relent ethnocentrique, cas africain, les raisons qui expliquent cet quelques traits communs à une cette note liminaire a le mérite d’insister sur état de fait. Avec l’historien sénégalais l’on Le moins qu’on puisse dire, c’est que la vingtaine d’écrivains africains vivants le caractère multiséculaire du phénomène peut dire certes que l’approche postcolonie est un espace non-cristallisé, un pour la plupart en France. Est-ce colonial. Mais le terme de colonisation a une nationalisante rétablissait l’épaisseur lieu où les pratiques sociales/sociétales ne suffisant pour parler d’une véritable histoire plutôt récente. Car jusqu’au XIVe actantielle (agency) des colonisés (Diouf sont pas exclusivement contrôlées par des génération ? Il est difficile d’être siècle, l’on ne l’utilise guère en français. 1999:10-14) [2]; mais écrire le fait colonial États-nations fussent-ils autoritaires. catégorique, mais nous inclinons à Comme le confirme l’Encyclopédie à partir de l’Afrique tout en excluant les Métaphoriquement, elle évoque ces univers penser qu’il y a là quelque chose de universalis, ce sont « les mots colonie et métropoles des empires coloniaux, c’est là aux contours fluides (scapes) dont parle A. nouveau et susceptible d’attirer l’œil colon [qui] sont utilisés. » Aussi, il est peut- oublier l’aspect le plus saillant de la coloni- Appadurai (1996) ou même les « contact du critique. Pour le reste, le débat ne être judicieux de chercher à définir ces ter- sation : son caractère à la fois transconti- zones » de Mary L. Pratt (1992). Mais un fait que commencer (Waberi mes. Le Dictionnaire historique de l’ancien nental, interactif et multisitué. N’est-ce pas espace transnational singulièrement in situ 1998:11). langage François (1877) nous enseigne que ce que nous suggérait déjà H. Brunschwig plurum. Car elle est cette Afrique plurielle l’on appelait autrefois colon quelqu’un qui dans le premier numéro des Cahiers d’Étu- indocile que tente de réhabiliter A. Plus loin, Waberi explicite sa pensée a « cultivé et ensemencé la terre. » En ce des Africaines lorsqu’il définissait les co- Mbembé (1988); elle est cette nébuleuse lorsqu’il suggère que ce nouveau groupe sens, un colon était simplement un cultiva- lons comme « ceux qui s’expatrient pour franco-africaine que dénonce F.-X. d’écrivains africains auquel lui-même teur. Si cette définition est proche du latin aller cultiver des terres vacantes. Ils forment Verschave (2003); elle est aussi cet espace appartient d’ailleurs pourrait être appelé les colere, elle s’avère toutefois partielle. Et des colonies qui restent en rapports plus ou humain habité par « ceux qui ne sont ni tout « Franco-quelque chose » (Waberi 1998:12). pour cause : si à l’origine tout colon est cul- moins étroits avec la métropole » à fait dedans ni tout à fait dehors » dont parle Par là, le romancier djiboutien voulait in- tivateur, tout cultivateur n’est pas pour autant (Brunschwig 1960:44, c’est moi qui souli- un Waberi paraphrasant Salman Rushdie sister sur l’identité-à-trait-d’union de colon. gne). Ainsi donc, le fait colonial est un pro- (Waberi 1998:15). nombre d’auteurs appartenant à la dernière Pour compléter donc cette première cès qui lie les métropoles des empires avec Plus concrètement, la postcolonie c’est génération des écrivains francophones définition, l’on doit se référer au deuxième leurs divers outre-mers dans un rapport dy- le drame de ces pays africains qui tout en africains. sens que nous propose Le trésor de la langue namique multilatéral. C’est, en tout cas, ce applaudissant le départ de la France (à la Il est difficile, voire prétentieux, de française qui définit le colon comme « celui que montrent les travaux de R. Aldrich faveur des indépendances) ne peuvent vouloir résumer par le biais de quelques mots qui a quitté son pays pour aller occuper, (1996), A. Conklin (1997), ou de F. Cooper concevoir leur destin hors de la Franco- la contribution de Waberi, qui d’ailleurs défricher, cultiver une terre de colonisa- et A. Stoler (1997). Dans le même registre, phonie. Viol de l’imaginaire dénoncera A. opère sur un mode suggestif. Pour un homme tion. » Voila qui éclaire un peu plus. En effet, on pourrait évoquer le travail monumental Traoré (2002) dans un langage aussi mili- de lettres, quoi de plus normal ! Mais, à en mettant en relief le fait de « quitte[r] son mais controversé de J. Marseille (1984) sur tant qu’anti-colonialiste. La postcolonie, l’instar d’autres intellectuels africains qui ont pays pour aller … », cette caractérisation a les entreprises coloniales française ou en- c’est cette langue bâtarde, et donc poétique, réfléchi sur la thématique postcoloniale, l’avantage de nous rappeler que la coloni- core les travaux de certains historiens des qu’exhibe A. Kourouma (1968) dans ses l’écrivain paraît établir un rapport essentiel sation suppose, avant tout, un mouvement « sciences coloniales » (Petitjean 1996 ; Soleils des indépendances ; elle est ce entre postcolonialité, les territoires de personnes vers un pays, un territoire ou Sibeud 2002) [3]. nouchi parlé dans les rues d’Abidjan, anciennement colonisés, les cultures et les une contrée qui n’est pas originairement la Mais c’est surtout dans les travaux diri- Bouaké, voire de Daloa. De fait, elle est cette artistes issus de ces territoires. Chez lui, leur. De ce fait, la définition du Trésor de la gés par P. Blanchard et S. Lemaire (2003, prise d’initiatives et cette marge de comme chez A. Mbembé par exemple, langue française nous rétablit le lien 2004) que l’on se rend compte que le pro- manœuvre/autonomie dont se dotent les l’événement postcolonial semble alors se ontologique entre colonisation et émigration. cès colonial n’était pas seulement un phé- Africains aux fins de se réapproprier la donner comme « l’ensemble des choses qui Mais pas n’importe quelle émigration nous nomène touchant les sphères de la haute France (son espace et sa culture) et au besoin sont arrivées à l’Africain depuis les enjoint un A. Girault, chauvin qui précisait politique en métropole, mais qu’un pan plus la cannibaliser. On conviendra alors avec A. indépendances » (Mbembé 1991:92, 2000). déjà à la fin du XIXe siècle que: large de la société française a été refaçonné Meddeb (2000) et B. Mongo-Mboussa N’est-ce pas là tomber dans le dans les rapports de l’Hexagone avec son (2000) que certaines pratiques post- réductionnisme ? La postcolonialité se Pour que l’on puisse parler de colo- outre-mer. Et ce en dépit du fait que la rela- coloniales sont des efforts de décentrement résumerait-elle à la seule condition des ex- nisation, il faut faire intervenir la tion coloniale était une asymétrie globale- de la France dans ses relations avec son an- colonisés? Qu’en est-il des ex-colons et leurs réponse à cette question : D’où ment en faveur de la métropole ; en dépit, cien outre-mer. métropoles ? Le reste de cet article tentera viennent et où vont les émigrants ? Il en effet, du fait que le drame colonial effec- Ainsi, s’il est évident que la logique sous- d’étayer ces questions certes rhétoriques faut supposer des émigrants sortis tuait une relation dissymétrique qui se nour- tendant certaines des pratiques post- mais combien cruciales pour quiconque veut d’un pays civilisé et allant s’établir, rissait régulièrement des nombreuses moda- coloniales est de maintenir la relation des comprendre un événement aussi rétif que le soit sur une côte inhabitée, soit sur un lités de la violence impériale. Africains avec la France dans un rapport fait postcolonial. Pour ce faire, je partirai territoire occupé par une population Ainsi, s’il est vrai que la colonisation a exécrable de type paternaliste, d’autres d’abord d’une histoire étymologique/ sauvage ou tout au moins à demi- restructuré l’économie des pays colonisés logiques cherchent à capaciter (au sens épistémologique du concept de colonisation sauvage, mais qui, dans tous les cas, (cf. pacte colonial, extraversion, etc.), s’il anglais de empower) ces « damnés de la pour aboutir sur les images éclatées de la n’a pu s’élever toute seule jusqu’à la est tout aussi probable qu’elle a désarticulé terre » par le biais d’une reconnaissance de postcolonie —vue comme un espace géo- civilisation. On conçoit alors, de la la personnalité des colonisés (cf. indigénat, leur épaisseurs actantielles. Mais comme le sociologique non-cristallisé traversé par part de ces émigrants, une double ac- interdiction des langues locales, etc.), l’on suggèrent de plus en plus fortement un plusieurs temporalités. tion civilisatrice s’exerçant à la fois devrait se rappeler aussi qu’elle a nombre croissant d’intellectuel(le)s, sur les choses et sur les hommes interactivement permis à certaines classes l’Afrique (ou même les anciennes colonies) De la colonisation : la colonie, les colons (Girault 1907:2-3). sociales métropolitaines de s’enrichir (cf. n’est pas la scène unique où se joue le drame et les colonisés comptoirs commerciaux) ; et en exhibant postcolonial. Il suffit de faire un tour dans Des paroles qui feront certes sourire plus l’indigène comme « l’autre absolu » un supermarché hexagonal pour s’en La colonisation a eu dans l’histoire d’un chercheur contemporain travaillant sur (Mudimbe 1988, Mbembé 2000), elle a convaincre. des sociétés humaines un rôle im- les questions coloniales. Mais nombreux permis à d’autres de se rassurer de leur Plusieurs observateurs américains de la mense. C’est principalement par elle sont ceux d’entre eux qui continuent à se humanité mise en doute par une industriali- société/culture française ont longtemps re-

16 Mars / March 2006

levé les paradoxes de cette autre postcolonie. sépare surtout d’un héritage et tente de caractère capillaire (cf. M. Foucault) et métissés que multisitués. La postcolonie, en Ainsi dans son Fast Cars, Clean Bodies, K. tourner une page de l’histoire de France sans subtilement partagé en France. En effet, ce sens, c’est aussi bien les pays africains Ross (1996) montre que les soubresauts de véritablement mesurer la profondeur de son prenant la fin de l’empire comme son point que les anciennes métropoles impériales, y la décolonisation avaient forcé la France à enracinement » (Blanchard & Lemaire de départ, Lebovics nous retrace le parcours compris la France. Plus généralement, la amorcer sa modernisation, et ce parce 2004:29). de certains des administrateurs coloniaux de postcolonie c’est tous ces espaces qu’elle était mue à la fois par un élan pour Blanchard et Lemaire n’avaient pas tort. la France d’Outre-mer dont Emile Biasini, hétérogènes où les mémoires de la situation se distancier des indigènes (qu’une France Car le démantèlement de l’empire colonial ancien administrateur en Afrique Equatoriale coloniale continuent à structurer les désirs de plus en plus marshallisée se les représen- n’a nullement signifié la fin des interactions Française (AEF), qui deviendra un haut et les manières d’être, de vivre et d’habiter tait comme sales) et une volonté de réinvestir à relent paternaliste entre la France et ses fonctionnaire dans l’administration française le monde des individus et des collectivités les capitaux coloniaux en métropole. Cette (anciens) indigènes. Bien au contraire ! Les après les indépendances africaines. En après l’effondrement des empires coloniaux thèse nous rappelle les propos d’un insider accords de coopération signés entre Paris et suivant le parcours post-colonial de ce haut [7]. des ballets socio-politiques de la décoloni- de nombreuses capitales africaines en sont fonctionnaire, entre autres, l’historien Dire cela, c’est interpeller les africanistes sation, l’administrateur colonial Louis une preuve. Mais l’enracinement dont américain montre comment les pratiques francophones (surtout ceux et celles qui se Sanmarco qui déclarait dans son mémoire parlent Blanchard et Lemaire trouverait « coloniales » ont été remobilisées pour considèrent comme des postcolonial schol- que « Quand la métropole vit qu’allait se aussi sa confirmation dans l’immigration prolonger le regard disciplinaire de l’État ars) afin qu’ils élargissent les contours de réaliser cette plus grande France, elle eut post-coloniale avec les risques supposés dans les provinces hexagonales. (Et dire que leur champ d’investigation. Car si l’on peur d’y être submergée, et préféra alors l’in- qu’elle fait peser sur la cohésion, voire la la France voulait se prémunir de la submer- accepte Le Roman d’un spahi de Pierre Loti dépendance pour ses anciennes colonies – pureté d’une certaine république française. sion des indigènes des colonies). Il y a certes ou les nombreux récits de G. Simenon et pour elle-même » (Sanmarco 1983:14). De fait, la présence en Hexagone d’immigrés là une pratique éprouvée de jacobinisme, comme faisant partie de la littérature Comment en pourrait-il être autrement ? provenant des anciennes possessions mais un jacobinisme à la sauce bien coloniale, pourquoi alors récuser Les Nègres Géographiquement, l’Hexagone n’était-il coloniales françaises ainsi que les politiques tropicale ! ou Les Paravents de J. Genet, pourquoi ig- pas « que la vingt-troisième partie de l’Em- d’identité qu’elle alimente, démontrent que norer L’État sauvage de Georges Conchon pire français … [cependant que] la France la postcolonie, c’est aussi la France. C’est En guise de Conclusion comme des littératures postcoloniales? Dans métropolitaine [avait] le plus grand territoire ce que tentaient de montrer, il y a quelque la même logique, pourquoi les études de l’Europe après la Russie ? » [5]. temps, A. Hargreaves et M. McKinney On conviendra que ces quelques lignes postcoloniales francophones ne devraient- Ainsi la crainte d’une submersion de la (1997) dans leur ouvrage collectif sur les lancées ici comme en labour ne donnent pas elles pas s’intéresser à des institutions métropole par les indigènes aurait donc cultures post-coloniales en France. Plus toute sa valeur heuristique à cette notion scientifiques telles que l’Institut de Recher- motivé la rupture coloniale. En forçant la explicitement, quand Salif Keita (1989) aussi rétive que la postcolonie. Tel n’était che pour le Développement (IRD, ex- métaphore, on pourrait même dire que la chante son « Nou pas bouger, » quand le pas d’ailleurs le but de cet essai. Plutôt, j’ai ORSTOM) et faire une anthropologie de peur d’un abâtardissement de la République Groupe Zebda (1995) psalmodie son « Le voulu interpeller sur un fait : le risque de leurs pratiques épistémiques en France après et ses valeurs par l’invasion massive des Bruit et l’odeur » sur le discours d’un rétrécir la portée du concept de postcolonie les indépendances africaines ? Les « damnés de la terre » aura eu raison des Jacques Chirac plus lepéniste que le Front (et, partant, de rendre stérile tout le champ européanistes américains, dans leurs travaux dernières résistances d’un Charles de Gaulle National, l’on doit penser immédiatement à sémantique se rattachant à lui) à vouloir le récents sur la France, ont ouvert des rappelé in extremis en 1958 pour bâtir une la postcolonie et aux micropolitiques qui la cantonner exclusivement aux réalités des chantiers, il appartient peut-être aux Ve République à défaut de sauver la IVe et nourrissent en France. On doit y songer en- anciennes colonies après leur accession à la africanistes des questions postcoloniales de son empire embrasé. C’est certainement core plus en observant les « Indigènes de la souveraineté nationale et internationale. Si leur emboîter le pas, de peur que leurs pro- pourquoi Sanmarco pense, entre autres, que République » et leurs politiques de la l’on accepte que le procès de la colonisa- ductions scientifiques ne restent piteusement la décolonisation ne doit pas être perçue mémoire qui, tout en rappelant à la France tion soit fondé sur une « poétique unidimensionnelles. comme un échec. Car de Gaulle « en fit un qu’elle n’est plus en colonie, lui enjoint de relationnelle » (E. Glissant) qui liait les succès, et la séparation s’opéra dans l’amitié, ne pas oublier son passé colonial [6]. colonisés, les colons ainsi que diverses le général assurant à la France un leader- C’est peut-être dans le dernier ouvrage catégories sociales en métropole, on ship incontesté » (Sanmarco 1983:14). Mais de l’américain H. Lebovics (2004) que l’on admettra alors que les événements post- comme le notent Blanchard et Lemaire, « en se rend compte de l’enracinement de ces coloniaux soient également des procès aussi réalisant cette décolonisation, de Gaulle se pratiques postcoloniales, et surtout de leur

Notes

1 Notre librairie 135 (Paris : Clef, septembre-décembre 1998). 2 C’est moi qui traduis agency par « épaisseur actantielle ». La référence à A. J. Greimas est évidente. Dans ce même élan, l’on pourrait parler aussi d’« épaisseur agentielle ». Tout en optant pour une telle glose, je suis conscient de l’existence d’autres traductions telles « agencivité » (Josée Tamiozzo), « marge d’autonomie » (Marianne G. Ainley), « agencéité » (Marie-France Labrecque). Mais compte tenu de la plasticité du concept d’agency, ces dernières s’avèrent partielles ou forcées. 3 Signalons que Sibeud fait une distinction entre une « science impériale » plus autonome vis-à-vis du politique et des « sciences coloniales » qui seraient « des sciences nouvelles […] explicitement et entièrement dévouées à la colonisation. » (cf. p. 275-76). 4 Si ce concept fait immanquablement référence à G. Balandier, son utilisation ici est plus large que l’acception balandiérienne. Car la « situation coloniale » recouvre dans le présent essai un espace et des pratiques tant en colonie qu’en métropole. 5 Paul Reynaud, cité in Blanchard & Lemaire 2004:5. 6 « Nous sommes les indigènes de la République !... » (Appel pour les assises de l’anti-colonialisme post-colonial) in http://lmsi.net/article.php3?id_article=336, [accédé le 18 mai 2005]. Voir aussi http://toutesegaux.free.fr/article.php3?id_article=90, [accédé le 18 mai 2005] ou encore http://oumma.com/petition-colonisation.php3?id_article=1355, [accédé le 18 mai 2005]. 7 Même s’il ne le réclame guère, je pense au travail de Jean-Pierre Dozon ( 2003) qui suggère admirablement une telle thèse. Bien sur, il va sans dire que la mémoire de la colonisation n’est pas le seul paramètre qui façonne les individus après l’effondrement des empires.

Bibliographie

Aldrich, R. 1996. Greater France: A History of French Overseas Expansion. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Lebovics, H. 2004. Bringing the Empire Back Home: France in the Global Age. Durham & London: Duke Appadurai, A. 1996. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press. University Press. Marseille, J. 1984. Empire colonial et capitalisme français. Histoire d’un divorce. Paris: Albin Michel. Blanchard, P. & Lemaire, S. 2003. Culture coloniale. La France conquise par son empire, 1871-1931. Mbembé, A.1988. Afriques indociles : Christianisme, pouvoir et État en société postcoloniale. Paris : Karthala. Paris : Autrement. Mbembé, A. 1991. « Domaines de la nuit et autorité onirique dans les maquis du Sud-Cameroun (1955- Blanchard, P. & Lemaire, S (eds.). 2004. Culture impériale. Les colonies au cœur de la République, 1931- 1958), » Journal of African History, Vol. 32, 1. 1961. Paris : Autrement. Mbembé, A. 2000. De la postcolonie : Essai sur l’imagination politique dans l’Afrique contemporaine. Brunschwig, H., Janvier. 1960. « Colonisation-Décolonisation: Essai sur le vocabulaire usuel de la politique Paris : Karthala. coloniale » in Cahiers d’Etudes Africaines 1. Paris & La Haye : Mouton & Co. Mongo-Mboussa, B., Mai. 2000. « Le Postcolonialisme revisité » in Africultures ¹ 28. Paris : Harmattan. Conklin, A. 1997. A Mission to Civilize: The Republican Idea of Empire in France and West Africa, 1895- Mudimbe, V. Y. 1988. The Invention of Africa. Bloomington : Indiana University Press. 1930. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Petitjean, P. 1996. Les Sciences coloniales : Figures et institutions. Paris : ORSTOM Editions. Cooper, F. & Stoler, A. 1997. Tensions of Empire: Colonial Cultures in Bourgeois World. Berkeley: University Pratt, M. L. 1992. Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation. London: Routledge. of California Press. Ross, K. 1996. Fast Cars, Clean Bodies: Decolonization and the Reordering of French Culture. Cambridge: Diouf, M. 1999. L’historiographie indienne en débat : Colonialisme, nationalisme et sociétés postcoloniales. The MIT Press. Paris & Amsterdam : Karthala & Sephis. Sanmarco, L. 1983. Le colonisateur colonisé. Paris : Editions Pierre-Marcel. Dozon, J.-P. 2003. Frères et sujets. La France et l’Afrique en perspective. Paris, Flammarion. Sibeud, E. 2002. Une science coloniale pour l’Afrique ? La construction des savoirs africanistes en France, Girault, A. 1907 [1894]. Principes de colonisation et de législation coloniale, 3eme Ed. Paris : Société du 1878-1930. Paris : Éditions de l’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. Recueil J.-B. Sirey & du Journal du Palais. Traoré, A. 2002. Viol de l’imaginaire. Paris : Fayard/Actes Sud. Hargreaves, A &McKinney, M. 1997. Post-Colonial Cultures in France. London: Routledge. Verschave, F-X 2003. Françafrique : Le plus long scandale de la République. Paris : Stock. Keita, S. 1989. Ko-yan. Island Records. Waberi, A. 1998. « Les Enfants de la postcolonie: Esquisse d’une nouvelle génération d’écrivains francophones Keita, S. 1989. Nous pas bouger/Fe-so. Mango. d’Afrique noire, » in Notre librairie 135. Paris : Clef, septembre-décembre. Kourouma, A. 1968. Les Soleils des indépendances. Montréal : Presses de l’Université du Québec. Zebda. 1995. Le Bruit et l’odeur. Barclay.

17 Africa Review of Books / Revue africaine des Livres

The Crisis of the State and Regionalism in West Africa: Identity, Citizenship and Conflict

Edited by W. Alade Fawole and Charles Ukeje

‘A new generation of West African social scientists takes on a new generation of postcolonial problems and possibilities – transitional justice, regional integration and collective security, refugee flows, and the complex interplay of local identities, state institutions and global forces. Theoretically informed and publicly engaged scholarship!’ Ron Kassimir, Program Director, SSRC, USA

‘This volume on a deeply troubled yet blessed part of Africa weaves together a complex interface of history, democracy, identity, conflict and reconciliation in the West African sub-region. Refreshingly illuminating in theoretical and empirical depth, the book addresses cutting edge precepts, processes and prospects provoked by citizenship, identity politics and conflict in the often unpredictable search for democracy that works. An indispensable addition to the libraries of those concerned about the future of the state in contemporary West Africa’. Professor Adigun A.B. Agbaje, Dean, Faculty of the Social Sciences University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

West Africa, with its large number of mini-states, has suffered more political misfortunes than any other sub-region of Africa. No doubt, the glaring artificiality of the post-colonial state, coupled with the failure of the local ruling elites to rise above the limitations of their provenance, is to blame for the myriad crises. The sub-region has been plagued by one-party authoritarianism, ISBN 2-86978-166-0 violent coups and military dictatorship, leading to the progressive alienation of the people from the state, and thus raising the 240 pages; critical issues of identity and citizenship which are at the base of political crisis and conflict. Many decades after independence, Africa: US$20.00, 10000CFA the sub-region continues to grapple with the problems of intra-state conflict, political instability, state failure and outright Elsewhere : £16.95 /$29.95 collapse, thus calling into question the viability and survivability of the Westphalian state model in Africa. Collectively, West African states are still in search of democratic nationhood.

The book critically interrogates the internal dimensions of the identity and citizenship conflicts at the root of state crisis and the steps so far taken to tackle them. Scholars and students of contemporary African politics and development as well as policy makers should find much of relevance in this well researched volume.

W. Alade Fawole is currently a professor in the Department of International Relations, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from George Washington University, USA. He specializes in Nigerian politics and foreign policy, an area in which he has published a number of books.

Charles Ukeje, Ph.D. is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of International Relations, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

‘LUSOFONIA’ EM ÁFRICA História, Democracia e Integração Africana

Teresa Cruz e Silva, Manuel G. Mendes de Araújo, e Carlos Cardoso (orgs.)

A obra traz importantes reflexões teóricas sobre a temática “lusofonia”, ou sobre redes que tomando como identida de a língua Portuguesa, ultrapassam o continente Africano. Ela contém ainda inquietações teóricas sobre o concei- to de renda, questionando a sua pertinência para a análise dos contextos africanos, e questões voltadas para o desenvolvimento, que exemplificam como o habitat, o território, a ecotécnica são corolários sistémicos para um desenvolvimento ecologicamente sustentado a que se devem aliar novos comportamentos e atitudes solidárias consentâneas com as aspirações da justiça social. Ana Maria Loforte, Departamento de Antropologia e Arqueologia, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo, Moçambique.

O desafio deste livro não é de subsumir numa visão dominante as reflexões expostas nesta assembleia de estudio- sos, mas proporcionar uma confluência onde várias correntes de pensamentos se misturem e criem um fluxo maior, rico de contribuições vindas de diferentes quadrantes. Trata-se de um grande desafio, pois o encontro de correntes numa confluência não se faz sem turbulências. No leito da corrente maior criada pela confluência destas pesquisas e reflexões, sobrenadam quatro conceitos que servem de balizas para a navegação nesta obra: mutação, transição, espaço e fronteira. Estes quatro conceitos operam finalmente como dois binómios, mutação/transição e espaço/ ISBN: 2-86978-174-1 fronteira, que podem ser comparados às luminescências alternadas dos faróis que orientam toda a navegação no 260 pages; mar dos conhecimentos, à procura do bom porto. Africa: US$20; 10000CFA Elsewhere: £16.95 /$29.95 Fafali Koudawo, INEP/UCB, Bissau, Guine-Bissau Nascido no âmbito da Iniciativa Lusófona do CODESRIA e na sequência do simpósio internacional que decorreu sob o mesmo lema, ‘Lusofonia’ em África: História, Democracia e Integração Africana reune trabalhos de um con- junto de 14 autores de diferentes disciplinas de Ciências Sociais. A obra desconstrói e desmistifica o conceito de ‘lusofonia’ através de uma análise rigorosa das identidades e diferenças económicas, políticas e culturais que carac- terizam os cinco países. Os autores fazem uma incursão a aspectos tão variados como o colonialismo, as lutas pela CODESRIA libertação nacional e o consequente desabrochar de novos regimes políticos no período pós-independência, as Publications & Dissémination transições económicas e políticas que marcaram estes países desde as economias centralizadas e as tentativas de email: [email protected] construção de sistemas políticos de tipo socialista. São igualmente analisados a introdução de economias neo- www.codesria.org liberais, de sistemas multipartidários e a construção de sistemas democráticos, sem descurar os casos permeados por situações de conflito. ‘Lusofonia em Africa...’ representa assim um espaço em que se revisita os temas referidos, expondo-os aos novos desafios das mutações económicas, sociais e políticas.

18 Mars / March 2006

C’est seulement au cours de cette rédac Pourquoi l’Afrique meurt les de vie commune et de gouvernement…et tion que j’ai découvert que le journa le premier empire celui du Ghana a existé en- lisme, même spécialisé, ne prépare guère tre le 8 et 11e siècle, celui des almoravides au « Philemon Muamba Mumbunda 5 à répondre aux questions essentielles » Avant- 11ème siècle… » propos de l’auteur. J.Vansina, ajoute pour la région limitée à Si tel est le cas, alors pourquoi écrire un «Negrologie, pourquoi L’Afrique meurt» celle de la savane au Nord du Zambèze et au ouvrage quand il sait qu’il ne peut pas répon- par Stephen Smith Sud de la forêt équatoriale que « tous les peu- dre à la question de savoir pourquoi l’Afrique ples de cette région, ou presque, ont institué meurt. Cette lucidité aurait pu l’aider à nuan- À la page 24, il écrit « des africains se Or, ces pays sont de vieilles cultures et avaient des royaumes ou des chefferies, systèmes po- cer certaines de ses affirmations du fait que massacrent en masse, voire qu’on nous par- conquis le monde ? litiques dont la structure est centralisée et qui son analyse concerne les 10 dernières années, donne, se « bouffent » entre eux. Ainsi, monsieur Smith, pense que l’Afri- sont gouvernés par un individu… seuls quel- c’est-à-dire à partir du drame rwandais et de Mais, Srebrenica, Bosnie Herzegovine, que meurt, à cause de : sa civilisation maté- ques groupes vivant entre le lac Léopold II et la fin de l’apartheid. Tchetchenie… c’est en Europe, c’était quoi ? rielle, son organisation sociale, sa culture po- le lac Tumba sont organisés en petits États…de Le mérite de cet ouvrage est d’avoir dé- Est-ce pourtant que l’Europe est constituée des litique. Ces éléments constituent un frein au même, il y a ou il y a eu des Etats dans le Sud crit beaucoup des faits qui sont exacts sur cannibales ? Est- ce pourtant que l’Europe ne développement de l’Afrique. Est africain, mais ils s’inscrivent dans la l’Afrique (la question de la religion « chapitre va pas de l’avant ? Analysons point par point les éléments qui grande tradition de l’Afrique orientale…ce li- 8) et le « chapitre 10) sur l’Afrique du Sud) Au niveau de la page 27, c’est la culture semblent expliquer selon monsieur Smith pour- vre est donc d’abord une histoire politique , même si il y a des affirmations gratuites de l’Africain qui semble expliquer pourquoi quoi l’Afrique meurt. une histoire des États africains … »6 comme la détention d’un jet privé par le pas- il meurt. Nous reviendrons sur cette question Après l’analyse de la civilisation maté- La civilisation matérielle teur Kutino en R.D.Congo. de la culture dans la suite des commentaires. rielle, de l’organisation sociale et de la cul- Nous avons eu à lire aussi deux critiques Que ça soit au British muséum, au musée ture politique en ayant pris soins de citer « un L’apologie du Banquet sur le même ouvrage : Tervuren, au musée de New York, ce sont les encyclopédiste vivant » selon les termes de «Les femmes africaines continuent à avoir en œuvres d’Afrique précoloniale qui y sont ex- monsieur Smith, Elikia M’Bokolo, la preuve - http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/livre/ moyenne huit enfants, alors que les grands posés, et aucun de ces musées ne veut parler semble faite de la fausseté de sa démonstra- Afrique/introduction/ fléaux… sont contenus. L’essor est tel que de la restitution de ces œuvres d’art qui pour- tion sur la mort de l’Afrique partant de ces trois - chronique : l’Afrique menacée par les l’historien britannique John Iliffe n’hésite pas tant étaient pillés pendant la colonisation, soi- éléments sur le passé africain. « négrologues », nouvel Afrique-Asie, fé- à écrire, rétrospectivement «l’Afrique a sur- disant des gris-gris empêchant l’Africain Au contraire, l’analyse faite aux pages 50 vrier 2004. vécu à sa croissance démographique maxi- d’évoluer. Aujourd’hui la France construit tout et 51 sur le Ghana et au chapitre 10 sur l’Afri- male ». un musée pour cet art qualifié de premier. que du Sud est exacte et peut sans peur d’être Certaines critiques sont fondées, mais ne lais- J’ose croire que le fait de mettre les en- À propos de la culture, Guy Sorman contredite s’appliquer à toute l’Afrique ; car, sent pas place à une appréciation positive fants au monde par les africains n’était pas lié déclare « imaginez la civilisation contempo- c’est la responsabilité politique qui est en cause quand il le faut sur une ou l’autre partie de aux grands fléaux. Et la suite de cette citation raine des européens ou de l’Amérique du Nord et peut expliquer la faillite des Etats africains. l’ouvrage. Pour ne pas tomber dans le même nous explique que l’Afrique devait aussi mou- sans l’Afrique. Nous n’aurions pas eu les cu- Tenez, lors de l’accession de la piège, nous allons recenser chapitre après cha- rir de sa démographie. bistes, nés de la découverte des masques afri- R.D.Congo à l’indépendance, son niveau de pitre. Mais au même moment, on accuse l’Afri- cains, et tout ce qui dans l’art s’en est suivis… développement était comparable à celui de la Ce travail aura deux points : il s’agit de que d’être sous-peuplée. La R.D.Congo avec de cette rencontre avec l’art nègre date la ge- Corée du Sud, mais des politiques comme celle la critique de l’ouvrage et de notre point de une superficie équivalente à cinq fois celle de nèse de l’art contemporain… »2 de la Zaïrianisation (confiscation des unités de vue constituant la conclusion (cri d’espoir). Cet la France pour une même population consti- Et, Jean Vansina de l’Université Wiscon- production des étrangers et leurs distribution avant-propos nous sert d’introduction à ce tra- tue un cas d’école. sin écrit « une seule fouille, peut modifier les aux barrons du régime) avaient fini par désin- vail. Cette critique partira de l’introduction de La promiscuité est un fléau par exemple perspectives de l’histoire comme ce fut le cas tégrer l’outil de production industriel, agro- l’ouvrage, du premier jusqu’au dixième cha- au Congo/Kinshasa mais seulement parce qu’il pour les fouilles de Sanga au Katanga, qui dé- alimentaire et de service, et contribuer à l’aug- pitre. Mais, ne pouvant pas surcharger l’arti- y a eu l’exode rural en masse à telle enseigne montrèrent l’existence dès le VIIIe siècle d’une mentation de la dette extérieure du pays. Moins cle, il sera mentionné par point en lettre al- qu’aucune infrastructure ne peut répondre à culture de l’age du fer pleinement dévelop- de cinq ans après, toutes ces unités de produc- phabétique. la demande. Le chômage aidant, trois généra- pée »3 tion étaient tombées en faillite. Raison pour tions vivent dans une maison prévue pour 6 Ceci démontre le contraire des affirmations laquelle Tshiyembe Mwayila qualifie l’Etat Introduction personnes, mais y vivent à 15. de monsieur Smith. post-colonial d’une féodalité, d’une autocra- e paysage peint par monsieur Smith Elikia M’Bokolo que monsieur Smith qua- tie, d’une autocratie à tentation monarchique L’organisation sociale est exact mais certaines phrases ne lifie d’encyclopédie vivante dit ceci « l’Afri- et une république esclave. En d’autres nous renseignent pas sur leurs conte- que est un continent sous-peuplé, dont les pos- Un jeune dans nos villages pratiquant encore termes « l’État post-colonial est dans sa prati- L 1 nus, comme : sibilités restent considérables ». les coutumes de nos ancêtres n’est autorisé à que quotidienne, un pouvoir tyrannique, fondé -« oui, heureusement le cadavre bouge en- Ce qui est aujourd’hui un handicap peut se marier que si et seulement s’il est capable sur l’asservissement et l’abrutissement de la core ». Un cadavre ne bouge pas parce qu’il devenir une force demain. La Chine qui avait de construire son habitation, avoir son propre majorité du peuple dont l’exploitation systé- n’a plus de vie en lui. Il ajoute « l’Afrique imposé l’enfant unique est en train de revoir champ et ses animaux domestiques. Le respect matique a débouché sur une colonisation inté- est déjà morte comme le faisait remarquer cette stratégie pour les 30 ans à venir. social dû à l’aîné. rieure savamment assurée par une classe qui John Keynes, à long terme, nous seront À la page 45, « les africains, héritiers de L’organisation sociale basée sur les pre- se dit bourgeoisie nationale ».7 tous morts ». Mais l’Europe dont parler rien et producteurs de peu du point de vue des miers occupants ou la famille ayant gagné la Elikia M’Bokolo ajoute : « cet autorita- Keynes est en vie et prospère. Pourquoi, riches déjà attablés, leur place au banquet n’est guerre contre les envahisseurs. J.Vansina risme durable représente l’un des legs, les cela ne sera pas le cas pour l’Afrique ? pas évidente ». C’est ici que l’ouvrage est une ajoute « l’organisation sociale est basée sur le moins superficiels de la domination coloniale -«L’Afrique meurt parce qu’elle se sui- injure à l’Afrique car aucun peuple au monde régime matrilinéaire qui est en vigueur chez à l’Afrique indépendante »8 cide». Mais à la page 20 quand il parle de n’est pas sans héritage. la plupart des peuples de la savane en matière L’État Phénix « Bismarck des grands lacs », il montre que Poursuivant son idée, il écrit « trois décen- de descendance, de statut social, de succession les régimes de Museveni et Kagame reçoi- nies, ils sont toujours trop nombreux, parce et d’héritage et ce régime influe sur les règles Nous partageons l’idée centrale de ce chapitre vent de l’argent des USA leur permettant que seulement candidats à la charité ». Cette du mariage et de la résidence… il y a partout qui est celle de l’existence des États patrimo- d’acheter les armes pour faire la guerre au charité représente combien en dollars ? interdiction de mariage avec les parents con- niaux en Afrique. Mais en même temps, la Congo/Kinshasa. Par cet exemple, l’Afri- 300 milliards de dollars depuis les années sanguins… »4 démonstration à la page 74 sur la multiplica- que ne meurt pas parce qu’elle se suicide 60 contre 350 milliards de dollars comme sub- Ceci n’exclue pas que certaines pratiques tion des institutions, du nombre des députés, elle-même comme il l’affirme, mais parce ventions à l’agriculture par an en occident. sociales ne permettent pas à certains africains de conseillers et des provinces…n’explique qu’elle est assistée dans son suicide par la Cela représente 31 $ par habitant pendant 40 d’évoluer, comme le parasitisme. L’exode ru- pas la faillite de l’État, ni son endettement du communauté internationale qui a refusé par ans. Peut-on avec 31$ permettre à un africain ral a des conséquences néfastes sur la vie en fait qu’au même moment par exemple la po- exemple depuis 1998 d’accepter que la de se développer, car cela représente moins ville. Ces personnes qui arrivent en ville, n’ont pulation a presque doublé, triplé dans certains R.D.Congo était envahie par ses voisins et de 1$ par an. ni travail, ni logement et sont obligés de vivre pays, tout en gardant les mêmes structures. que l’envoi d’une force Onusienne était Et comme les riches sont déjà attablés, il chez les membres de leur famille déjà instal- Le gouvernement américain avait moins de urgente. N’ayant pas oublié sa responsa- n’ y a plus de place pour les africains, alors lés . Ces derniers parfois sont confrontés à de 50 conseillers à l’époque de Nixon, mais ils bilité dans le génocide rwandais, cette que faut-il faire ? Il n’ y a aucune proposition graves difficultés de survie. Leur présence ne sont plus de 300 aujourd’hui avec Bush fils. communauté internationale n’a pas voulue de la part de l’auteur de la négrologie du fait fait qu’accentuer la misère des citadins. La R.D.Congo, avec une superficie de se fâcher avec Kagame. L’ONU acceptera que l’Afrique est un cadavre même si il bouge Cet état de chose doit être dénoncé mais 2.345.000 km2 équivalant aux superficies la réalité 4 ans après sans condamner les encore. ne peut pas expliquer la situation chaotique de cumulées de la France (544.000 km2), Rwandais et Ougandais après la mort de l’Afrique. l’Espagne (505.00 km2), l’Allemagne Fédérale De la Pauvreté globale Laurent Désiré Kabila en janvier 2001, (356.000 km2), l’Italie(301.000 km2), la Grèce mais il y a en 3,5 millions de morts sans À la page 49, l’auteur laisse éclater son ra- La culture politique (132.000 km2), le Portugal (92.000 km2), que cela n’émeuve personne du fait que cisme quand il pense qu’en remplaçant la po- l’Autriche (84.000 km2), la Hongrie (93.000 l’objectif de la caméra n’était pas présent. pulation du Nigeria par celle du Japon et de la S’agissant de ce point, que ça soit le pouvoir km2), la Suisse (41.293 km2), la Hollande R.D.Congo par la française, il n’ y aurait plus personnel, le pouvoir charismatique et le pou- (33.491 km2) et le Luxembourg (2.586 km2) Là où le bât blesse, c’est quand Smith parle de soucis à se faire au monde. voir légal, l’Afrique a connu toutes ces formes n’a que 11 provinces. d’un demi million de Tutsi sans citer une seule Mais pourquoi l’Espagne et le Portugal comme le confirme Elikia M’Bokolo « il faut La France a 33.000 maires mais la fois les 200.000 morts Hutu modérés tués au viennent aujourd’hui en bas du classement souligner la très remarquable vitalité politique R.D.Congo en a 198. La France possède seu- même moment. pour le développement en Europe de l’Ouest ? qui s’est manifestée au cours des siècles, par lement pour son secteur de l’éducation natio- la recherche permanente des meilleures formu- nale près d’un million de fonctionnaires, mais

19 Africa Review of Books / Revue africaine des Livres

toute la fonction publique congolaise compte Maudits Dons du Ciel mais en ayant gardé les mêmes objectifs, per- L’apocalypse au pluriel moins de 300.000 fonctionnaires. Dans le sonnels et critères d’exploitation. Rien n’est Concernant l’aide, monsieur Smith donne des La description sur le fait religieux est exacte même temps, on demande à la R.D.Congo par fait par l’Europe sans intérêts. De la même chiffres à la page 103. Ces statistiques pou- malgré certaines exagérations du genre, « Fer- les institutions de Bretton Woods d’assainir, manière que la recherche de nouvelles terres vaient l’aider à revoir ses conclusions, ce qui nando Kutino possède un jet privé ». Mais, le mais comment assurer l’éducation, la santé, était une exigence pour trouver de nouveaux n’a pas été le cas. Mais est-ce que avec 31$ reste du texte est vrai surtout concernant la l’agriculture dans nos villages ? débouchés et matières premières, la coopéra- par tête d’habitant pendant 44 ans, on peut ar- R.D. Congo. Monsieur Smith a démontré que malgré la tion n’est que la suite de ceci avec son ma- river à se développer ? Cela équivaut à moins tentative de balkanisation, les Congolais ont quillage d’aide. de 1$ par an. Peut-on attendre le développe- L’éthique des Naufrages développé un sentiment national très fort, un C’est ainsi que nous demandons à mon- ment de la part d’une personne recevant moins vouloir vivre collectif qui a sauvé le pays de sieur Smith, qui aide qui ? Et qui prétend dé- L’idée centrale de ce chapitre est que l’ennemi de 1$ par an ? Car au dernier paragraphe, il l’émiettement malgré la multiplicité des eth- velopper qui ? La Belgique a laissé comme de la démocratie en Afrique est la pauvreté montre que l’Afrique a reçu en termes d’aides nies. Ceci démontre qu’il y a un avenir pour le héritage aux Congolais leurs problèmes ethni- extrême. Oui, la pauvreté extrême est un han- 300 milliards de $ mais que chaque année les continent et non que l’Afrique est un cadavre. ques et linguistiques. dicap en Afrique pour sa démocratisation mais pays riches subventionnent leur agriculture à pas le seul. Et, l’Afrique n’est pas pauvre en Les Portes de l’oubli concurrence de 350 milliards de dollars. En Au Paradis de la Cruauté potentialités ni en capacités. sachant que ces subventions tuent l’agriculture L’Afrique est pauvre par contre du fait de Affirmer que ce sont des Africains qui ont Avec le génocide rwandais, monsieur Smith en Afrique du fait que la production de ce con- l’incapacité de ses hommes politiques à pro- vendu d’autres Africains, leurs frères (page 86) conclut que l’Afrique n’est que cruauté. À la tinent ne peut pas être compétitive sur le mar- duire des schèmes de développement pragma- et que c’est une imposture de parler de la mai- page 136, il déclare que « la mort en Afrique ché à cause du prix (Le coton malien). tique pour transformer en richesses ses poten- son des esclaves de Gorée car en vérité, « si est perçue comme gratuite, sans frais, du fait À la page 115, il écrit « le masque de tialités que l’auteur cite pourtant comme le ces sous-sols voûtés abritèrent des captifs, de la facilité avec laquelle elle est infligée par l’anarchie est le vrai visage de l’Afrique coltan dernièrement découvert dans l’Est de ceux-ci firent uniquement partie de la domes- des Africains ». déboussolée par la modernité. L’occident la R.D.Congo. ticité d’une riche métisse, la signare-du portu- Ceci n’est que pur racisme car au même pourra apaiser la grimace en multipliant ses Ce qui empêche l’Afrique de se démocra- gais Senhora-Anne Cocas- laquelle n’a jamais moment que se passait le génocide rwandais, «cadeaux». Mais il ne changera pas la nature tiser, c’est un ensemble d’éléments dont : la servi d’embarcadère à des milliers il y avait un autre génocide qui s’est passé en du monstre qu’il a créé…tout ce qui est gra- culture politique démocratique qui s’avère as- d’esclaves » est de la pire provocation teintée Europe à Srebrenica. Est-ce pourtant que l’on tuit rend ingrat ». sez précaire, l’instrumentalisation par les hom- du racisme et un esprit révisionniste comme qualifie l’Europe de barbare ? À propos de l’aide, nous prendrons une mes politiques pour leur positionnement, les Jean Marie Le Pen qui déclarait que les cham- Sur 4 génocides reconnus par l’ONU, trois longue citation de Gautier de Villers sur la différences claniques, intra-ethniques, provin- bres à gaz pour les juifs sont un détail de l’his- se sont passés en Europe : des Arméniens, des question de l’aide entre la R.D.Congo et la ciales, pseudo-raciales et cette extrême situa- toire. Juifs et celui des Srebrenica. Que se passe t-il Belgique. Ceci peut valoir pour toute tion de pauvreté. Oui, les Africains ont vendu d’autres Afri- en Tchetchenie aujourd’hui ? l’Afrique : « pour combattre l’illusion que peut Donc, la pauvreté n’est pas le seul ennemi cains. Mais remontons l’histoire qui nous ap- Il y a lieu de relativiser certaines affirma- entretenir la seule observation des relations de de la démocratie, car les pauvres de l’inde vo- prends aussi qu’avant l’arrivée des arabes et tions car le « Leviathan » nous vient de l’Eu- coopération, Baudouin Piret et un collectif tent toujours malgré aussi les problèmes eth- européens sur le continent, il n’y a jamais eu rope avec Thomas Hobbes (1651). d’auteurs ont cherché à démontrer, sur la base niques, linguistiques et religieux très accen- de trafic d’esclaves entre Africains. L’escla- d’une analyse de la balance des paiements, La Tribu enchantée tués. vage n’est apparu qu’avec les comptoirs ara- qu’en 1980 les revenus procurés à des intérêts bes et européens. Le chef du royaume ou de privés belges par les relations avec le Zaïre Dans ce chapitre, l’auteur nous dit que, l’Afri- Le Cap des Tempêtes l’empire qui ne voulait pas de ce commerce, a que meurt parce que les chefs d’Etats mettent étaient quatre fois supérieurs au montant de Nous sommes du même avis que monsieur vu ses voisins pourvus en armement pour lui aux commandes des institutions étatiques les l’aide publique accordée par la Belgique. Smith sur la question de l’Afrique du Sud. Sauf faire la guerre et s’emparer de son royaume à membres de leurs tribus. Autrement dit, qu’un franc dépensé par celle- que l’émigration des meilleurs chercheurs des fins de razzias. Ceci, nous osons le croire Nous partageons le point de vue de mon- ci en rapportait quatre à la Belgique…il reste, s’explique en partie par la politique du gou- que monsieur Smith doit en être au courant, sieur Smith selon lequel, le tribalisme, le clien- on l’a vu, que la Belgique est gagnante dans vernement, de l’insécurité… mais est aussi le lui qui est spécialiste de l’Afrique. télisme et le patrimonialisme sont les maux ses relations avec le Zaïre. Le contenu et la résultat de la mondialisation. Les meilleurs Si les déclarations du père Roger de qui rongent les systèmes politiques africains. nature des rapports de coopération contribuent chercheurs européens émigrent tous vers les Benoist constituent pour lui une preuve irré- Mais, nous sommes contre la vision selon la- à expliquer le déséquilibre des relations au USA à la recherche des meilleures conditions futable que la maison des esclaves de Gorée quelle cela est à mettre sur le compte de spé- profit de la Belgique. En termes nets, cette coo- de travail et de salaire. La grève et la démis- n’en était pas une, la logique simple exige qu’il cificité africaine. pération constitue en effet un apport financier sion symbolique de directeurs des centres de donne les éléments d’une nouvelle thèse et Car, si en Afrique, c’est la tribu qui est la très limité pour le bénéficiaire…La coopéra- recherches de la France sont dues, pour Axel d’un autre emplacement. Mais aussi, nous ne gangrène du système politique, en Europe, le tion en personnel, bien qu’en diminution, de- Khan, à la mondialisation qui est à la base de comprenons pas pourquoi les déclarations du clientélisme est sa sœur. Pourquoi Jacques meure très importante, il y avait 1.627 coopé- cette situation. Chaque personne cherche les seul prêtre peuvent avoir plus d’autorité scien- Chirac ne veut pas de Sarkozy qui semble être rants belges au Zaïre en 1971, il en reste 1.052 meilleures conditions de travail et de tifique à ses yeux que des milliers d’autres fai- le plus populaire aujourd’hui au sein l’UMP, en 1980. Le coût de cette assistance technique salaire, car « au fur et à mesure que les fron- tes sur le même sujet affirmant que Gorée était mais lui préfère Raffarin. À propos de la grève lourdement le budget de la coopération. tières perdent leur sens en termes économiques, un passage obligé de la traite sur la côte. Que France, Jean François Revel écrit « le prési- Il représente 62% en 1971 et 52% en 1980 les citoyens les mieux placés pour réussir sur pense monsieur Smith de El Mina au Ghana? dent nomme à tous les emplois publics et, par du montant de l’aide au Zaïre…Si l’on prend le marché mondial sont tentés de relâcher leurs À propos de l’esclavage et du développe- la bande, à maints emplois privés. À la veille encore en considération des postes de la coo- liens d’allégeance envers leur pays ».13 ment du capitalisme occidental, Guy Sorman de la cohabitation (Mitterand) avait d’ailleurs pération bilatérale tels que les subsides aux Si en Afrique du Sud, on tue pour 10$, au écrit « il n’est pas contestable que le profit re- pris la précaution d’étirer jusque dans le moin- écoles belges du Zaïre, les bourses d’études Congo/Kinshasa des milliers de dollars sont tiré de l’esclavage a contribué à l’édification dres recoins du parc prébendier la liste des pla- et de stage pour une formation en Belgique, échangés à même le sol et à travers toute la du capitalisme occidental…. La main-d’œuvre ces à sa disposition directe…l’opiniâtre éner- les allocations de fonctionnement accordées ville par les cambistes sans que cela donne lieu africaine a permis la valorisation des deux gie avec laquelle Mitterrand a utilisé l’État aux Universités Belges recevant des étudiants à des tueries et braquages. Ceci pour dire que Amériques et des Caraïbes. La traite des Noirs comme une immense machine à distribuer des du Zaïre, les achats en Belgique de matériel l’Afrique n’est pas un cadavre qui bouge. Mais, a servi à l’accumulation primitive du capital d’équipements, de services pour la réalisation situations, des revenus, des avantages maté- 9 l’Afrique vit à son rythme et à sa manière. Elle par des négociants français et britanniques » riels, de coûteuses faveurs, des positions de des actions de coopération, l’on est amené à est à la recherche dans ses tourments d’une À la page 90, pour balayer la thèse selon pouvoir, des satisfactions d’amour propre, des constater (sans pouvoir le mesurer avec préci- voie de salut. L’impératif demeure le change- laquelle la richesse des métropoles coloniales agréments des logements, des instruments sion) qu’une assez faible part seulement de ment de ses systèmes politiques. serait due au pillage de leurs anciennes pos- d’enrichissements, des moyens de transport, l’aide constitue un apport direct de ressources L’Estonie, La Slovaquie, hier pauvre, sessions, monsieur Smith donne l’exemple du des voyages gratuits ou des distinctions hono- pour l’administration et l’économie du aujourd’hui qualifiés des dragons de l’Europe Portugal qui est pauvre. Mais peut-il nous dire rifiques a pu s’engouffrer dans notre constitu- pays «bénéficiaire» et qu’une grande part en de l’Est, les sont devenues juste par le chan- pourquoi y a-t-il plus de portugais autour de tion comme dans du beurre. Ainsi, le levier est dépensée en Belgique même (les coopé- gement des systèmes politiques. Paris et au Brésil qu’au Portugal ? rants perçoivent le principal de leur salaire) ».10 présidentiel qui devait arracher aux intrigues Nous savons tous que les dictatures au Nous n’oublierons pas le détournement par privées, aux intérêts partisans et aux appétits Cri d’espoir Portugal, surtout celle de Salazar avaient vu les dirigeants des deux parties et l’affectation courtisans l’accession aux postes de respon- Tout ne glisse pas sur l’Afrique. Tout entre en fuir ses meilleurs enfants pour le Brésil et la d’une plus grande partie des miettes qui res- sabilité sert désormais à ployer l’État sous le Afrique, mais les manifestations ne viennent banlieue parisienne. Ainsi, ce qui avait appau- tent à la garde prétorienne pour la sécurité du joug des membres d’une amicale…La faveur pas au même moment. Les Églises catholiques vri le Portugal hier, appauvrit aujourd’hui chef. présidentielle accouche de nominations sau- remplissent encore les bancs en Afrique, mais l’Afrique, c’est-à-dire des systèmes politiques Nous terminerons ce chapitre de l’aide en grenues et les chroniqueurs du règne et de la au même moment en Europe, les bancs sont autoritaires. Si monsieur Smith pense le con- nous référant à René Dumont que monsieur presse se sont souvent gaussés. Le fils du pré- vides. À Kinshasa, on répare le téléphone por- traire, alors qu’il nous dise que le Portugal Smith a cité à plusieurs reprises pour justifier sident, sa sœur, son beau-frère, son ancienne table et l’ordinateur sans qu’il y ait dans la manque de culture, d’organisation sociale et ses démonstrations et qui dit que « ces grands secrétaire privée, ses vieux amis, leurs veu- 12 ville des ingénieurs occidentaux pour cette de civilisation matérielle. contrats naissent d’un affreux mariage entre ves, ses anciens collaborateurs… ». formation. Après sa démonstration aux pages 92 et 93 l’affairisme et la corruption. Ils endettent les Que dire de l’affaire Alain Juppe à la mai- Aujourd’hui, nous écrivons et parlons les sur la situation du Congo/Kinshasa liée aux peuples pauvres sans contrepartie valable. La rie de Paris concernant les emplois fictifs de langues européennes, mais avant la colonisa- détournements de l’aide, pourquoi conclure part justifiable de cette énorme dette du Tiers- membres du RPR. Les pratiques patrimonia- tion en dehors de l’Égypte, l’Éthiopie, Tom- que l’Afrique ne se développe pas parce qu’elle monde est très faible : sans doute, bien moins les ne sont pas propres à l’Afrique. Que dire bouctou…, le reste relevait de la culture orale. continue à être aidé quand on sait que cette du tiers »11 de la famille Bush aux USA ? Bien sûr l’Afri- Il y a encore de l’espoir en Afrique car une aide est nulle ? Ceci démontre à suffisance que les anciens que doit inscrire la méritocratie aux nombres bonne partie de ses dignes fils et filles y vi- ministères des colonies ont juste changé leurs des exigences d’une gestion saine de la chose vent encore et y travaillent. La science de la étiquettes en ministères de la coopération ; publique.

20 Mars / March 2006

mort n’est pas africaine, car en termes de guer- Notes 7. TSHIYEMBE MWAYILA, «De l’État post-colonial 12. Jean François REVEL, l’Absolutisme inefficace, à l’Etat-espace une contribution à la théorie Plon, Paris, 1992, pp.86-90. res, génocides et barbaries, c’est l’Europe qui 1. Elikia M’BOKOLO, l’Afrique au xxème siècle, éd. générale de l’État», in Afrique 2000, n°5 avri-mai- 13. Robert REICH, l’Economie mondialisée, éd. est la championne. du Seuil, Paris, 1985, p. 11. juin 1991, p.107. Dunod, Paris,1993,p.223’ 2. Guy SORMAN, Le Capital, suite et fins, éd. Fayard, 8. Elikia M’BOKOLO, op.cit.p.42 1994, Paris, p.278. 9. Guy SORMAN, le capital, suite et fins, éd. Fayard, 3. J.VANSINA, Les anciens royaumes de la savane, Paris, 1994, pp.259-60. P.U.Z., Kinshasa, 1976, p.8. 10. Gautier de VILLERS, De Mobutu à Mobutu, De 4. Idem, p.22 Boeck Université, Bruxelles, 1995, pp.103-104. 5. Elikia M’BOKOLO, op.cit., pp.34, 36,37 11. René DUMONT, Démocratie pour l’Afrique, éd. 6. J. VANSINA, op. cit. , p.8 du Seuil, Paris, 1991, p.305.

cette position, lorsqu’il prétend revenir, dans Black Athena. Les racines afro- Une mnémohistoire de l’eurocentrisme le second tome, au modèle ancien : il croit asiatiques de la civilisation tenir alors une vérité historique, sans voir classique » : Sous ce titre provocateur, « Michèle Sinapi que le « modèle antique » est une « sexy » dira-t-on, Martin Bernal faisait pa- construction tout aussi imaginaire que le raître en 1987, le premier tome d’un projet modèle aryen, et que cette construction est monumental qui devait en comporter qua- mêlée, dès le départ, à des schémas tre ; ce premier tome avait pour intitulé « The d’argumentation et d’interprétation tout Fabrication of The Ancient Greece 1785- archaïque, nous ne pouvons nous en tenir aussi intéressés. C’est le cas, pour les sources 1985 ». Dans son introduction, Martin commun d’une partie de la pensée de la au dogme positiviste, et en particulier, au antiques, de Diodore, que Bernal privilégie, Bernal donnait quelques indications sur son Grèce classique, chez les philosophes et les « positivisme archéologique » du XXe et d’Hécatée d’Abdère, dans leur apologie itinéraire intellectuel. Ancien sinologue, il rhéteurs, et chez les historiens. Ce « modèle siècle. Ce positivisme confère à toute de la monarchie égyptienne. Il en est de s’était intéressé, à un double titre, à la cul- ancien », dit M. Bernal, fut retenu jusqu’au hypothèse fondée sur l’archéologie un statut même pour le projet d’histoire universelle ture vietnamienne, et à la lutte du peuple XVIIIe siècle, et ne présentait pas de graves scientifique, au détriment des « informations de Bossuet, et l’importance du « modèle vietnamien contre les États-Unis. Son enga- défauts internes. Il fut victorieusement provenant d’autres types de sources : antique » dans les Lumières tient toujours à gement politique, non dissimulé, le condui- répudié pour des raisons externes, c’est-à- mythes, noms de lieux, cultes, distribution l’utilité politique d’un modèle monarchique sit, après 1975, à porter ses investigations dire pour des raisons idéologiques et des dialectes et des systèmes d’écriture ». éclairé. L’histoire de la Grèce archaïque sur l’Est du bassin méditerranéen. Il reven- politiques : une nouvelle image de la Grèce Le maniement de ces différentes sources doit demeure, sinon le miroir, du moins un des dique alors sa position de néophyte, venant servit à la constitution d’une image de se faire avec la plus grande précaution, et miroirs de la construction politique et de l’extérieur, pour mieux dynamiser les l’Allemagne, dans une identification qui se on ne peut penser fournir des « preuves », culturelle de l’Europe. certitudes académiques et promouvoir « un développa en particulier après la Révolution mais seulement atteindre un certain « degré changement de paradigme ». Le second tome française, dans le mouvement de réaction et de vraisemblance », donnant aux chercheurs Notes paraît en 1987-1991 sous le titre The de retour au christianisme. Pour M. Bernal, « une structure potentiellement plus riche » Archaeological and Documentary Evidence le moment de basculement se situe entre (introduction, p. 31, éd. fr.). 1 Traduction française : tome1, L’invention de la (New Brunswick)1. 1790 et 1830, dans l’Allemagne du Nord, Grèce antique, Paris, P.U.F., 1996, 612 p. ; tome Dans le cadre de ces précautions, la « Black Athena » entendait démonter alors que s’instaure la philologie, et avec 2, Les sources écrites et archéologiques, Paris, lecture de Black Africa a pu être très l’eurocentrisme en son coeur, en montrant notamment l’œuvre de Karl Otfried Müller P.U.F., 1999, 835 p. stimulante, et fournir un matériel abondant, 2 Black Athena revised, Chapel Hill-London, que la Grèce ancienne, tenue pour la source qui, dans son Histoire des tribus et des cités pour réouvrir des pistes négligées, mais University of North Carolina Press, 1996, 522pp. de la « culture occidentale » , était née de grecques en 1820, récuse les récits de l’apport du tome II, en ce qui concerne Cf. le compte-rendu de F.-X. Fauvelle dans Cahiers l’Égypte pharaonique, qui elle-même devait colonisation égyptienne, et accorde le d’études africaines, 153, 1999. l’histoire des faits, reste très discutable, beaucoup à la propagation de la civilisation premier rôle aux Doriens. Dans le 3 Talanta[Amsterdam], XXVIII-XXIX/1996-1997, laissant trop de place à des assimilations et afro-asiatique et était donc une civilisation romantisme allemand, le mouvement 272pp. Cf. le compte-rendu dans Cahiers d’études généralisations arbitraires. africaines, 158,2000. africaine. Le « miracle grec » n’en était un philhellène est inextricablement lié à L’intérêt de Black Athena réside dans le 4 Arethusa, (published by the Department of Classics, que par la volonté d’oublier et d’effacer ses l’égyptophobie et à l’antisémitisme, et le premier tome, qui ne se situe pas tant dans State University of New York at Buffalo), numéro origines exogènes. Cette reprise d’une thèse « nouveau principe de l’ethnicité » envahit spécial, automne 1989 ; on trouvera une poursuite une histoire factuelle que dans une histoire qui place l’Afrique à l’origine des cultures tous les champs du savoir : il est intolérable du débat dans Arethusa, vol. 26, n°3, automne des idées : tout en s’appuyant sur des égyptienne et grecque a entrainé un grand aux idéologies racistes et européocentristes 1993. schémas marxistes, M. Bernal tire de la 5 Moses the Egyptian. The Memory of Egypt in mouvement de recherches, en liaison avec du XIXe siècle en Allemagne que la Grèce confrontation entre développement de Western Monotheism. Harvard University Press, les théories multiculturalistes et ait pu être le résultat d’un mélange impur l’impérialisme, nouvelles relations avec Cambridge, Mass., 1997.Édition allemande : Carl afrocentristes, et alimenté un débat (dont on d’Européens et de colonisateurs africains et Hanser Verlag Munich, Vienne, 1998. Édition l’Afrique, révolutions et contre-révolutions trouve l’essentiel dans Black Athena sémites. C’est pourquoi le « modèle aryen » française : Moïse l’Égyptien. Aubier, 2001, 412p. européennes, et élaboration des nouveaux Revised, M. R. Lefkowitz et G. MacLean a fait l’hypothèse d’une invasion venue du ISBN 2-70072316-3. Jan Assmann est professeur domaines de savoir dans les universités d’égyptologie à l’université de Heidelberg. Rogers eds2 – dans les Actes de la Journée Nord – inconnue de la tradition ancienne - allemandes, des raccourcis saisissants. On 6 Aby Warburg, né à Hambourg en 1866, meurt en d’études organisée aux Pays-Bas le 28 juin de populations de langue indo-européenne, trouve aussi une attention particulière à la 1929. Père de l’iconologie, A. Warburg 1996, publiées dans Talanta3, et dans un écrasant une population indigène, mais, révolutionne l’histoire de l’art, en l’incluant dans continuité d’une tradition hermétique, qui, numéro spécial d’Arethusa, automne 19894). souligne M. Bernal, il n’a pu proposer une le projet d’une anthropologie culturelle, qui à travers des courants gnostiques, néo- La force du livre de M. Bernal est de hypothèse satisfaisante pour le problème des mettrait en relation différents champs de savoirs platoniciens, chrétiens, puis franc-maçons, et de pratiques rituelles et gestuelles, et naîtrait mettre l’accent sur la part de construction Pélasges. affirme la primauté de l’Égypte dans la de la confrontation d’objets hétérogènes. Cette idéologique et imaginaire dans l’élaboration Martin Bernal propose un retour au fondation de la politique et des sciences – anthropologie s’appuierait, non sur une histoire de l’histoire de la Grèce pré-classique. Sa « modèle ancien », mais un « modèle ancien téléologique, mais sur une histoire qui privilégierait pour en tirer des bénéfices souvent démonstration repose sur l’opposition entre révisé », comportant des modifications de l’étude des anachronismes et des latences, et contradictoires. deux versions successives de cette histoire, chronologie. Ce modèle ancien révisé repérerait les lignes de fracture et les tensions. Il Par delà les erreurs nombreuses relevées laisse une œuvre importante et un ouvrage inachevé qu’il nomme le « modèle ancien » et le intégrerait les invasions indo-européennes e e par ses critiques, Black Athena constitue appelé Mnémosyne. Pour la poursuite de ses « modèle aryen ». Le « modèle ancien » du Nord, en les situant au cours du 4 ou 3 cependant un ouvrage important, si on recherches, il crée l’Institut Warburg à Hambourg, correspond, comme il le dit lui-même, « à millénaire, en supposant que les premières puis à Londres. considère qu’il relève de « l’histoire de la la représentation traditionnellement acceptée populations parlaient une langue proche de mémoire » , de ce que Jan Assmann nomme, par les Grecs à l’époque classique et l’indo-hittite. Il situerait les colonisations dans son Moïse l’Égyptien, publié en 19975, hellénistique » et décrit le développement de égyptienne et phénicienne plus tôt, dans la e la « mnémohistoire », et qui se situe dans la la culture grecque à partir d’une colonisation première moitié du 2 millénaire avant J.- lignée d’Aby Warburg6. Ainsi, pour J. réalisée autour de 1500 ans avant J.-C. par C : Bernal dit suivre les anciennes Assmann, M. Bernal se fait historien de la les Égyptiens et les Phéniciens. Dans cette chroniques pour faire coïncider l’expulsion mémoire culturelle de l’Europe – sans perspective, la culture grecque se constitue, des Hyksos par la XVIIIe dynastie, et s’embarrasser d’une critique historique du par emprunts renouvelés et assumés, dans l’arrivée de Danaos à Argos. Le modèle souvenir - lorsqu’il déconstruit le « modèle une continuité avec les cultures du Proche- ancien révisé repose, dit Martin Bernal « sur aryen ». Mais le paradoxe est, comme le Orient. La reconnaissance de la dette de la des faits réels », si l’on veut bien admettre souligne J. Assmann, que Bernal abandonne Grèce à l’égard de l’Égypte est un lieu que, pour la reconstitution de cette histoire

21 Africa Review of Books / Revue africaine des Livres

’est à une question oubliée des spé Civilisations et relations internationales La troisième partie nous livre l’essentiel cialistes de droit international public des lieux de rupture entre la civilisation oc- Cque s’attaque Yadh Ben Achour dans cidentale et la civilisation musulmane. Un cet ouvrage. Le nombre des travaux expres- Slim Laghmani chapitre premier démonte les ressorts de sément consacré à cette question est déri- hostilité. «Les figures de l’hostilité» sont soire. Il y a bien un article de Maurice Flory Le rôle des civilisations dans le système international. celles du colonisé, du décolonisé et de l’in- sur «les relations culturelles et le droit in- Droit et relations internationales tégriste dont le terroriste est un prolonge- ternational public» publié à l’Annuaire fran- ment (p.238). L’auteur met à nu les soubas- çais de droit international (1971), mais il par Yadh Ben Achour sements historiques et psychologiques du ne traite pas du cœur du sujet. Il y a, égale- Éditions Bruylant, 2003, 324 pp, 60 Euros, ISBN 2-8027-1708-1 climat d’hostilité dans la lignée des «Dam- ment, un colloque organisé en 1983 par nés de la terre» de F. Fanon et surtout du La thèse générale de l’ouvrage est que l’hostilité. Ils peuvent prendre la forme de l’Académie de Droit international alors di- «les civilisations avec et plus rarement sans «portrait du colonisé suivi du portrait du rigé par feu René Jean Dupuy qui porte sur violence officielle ou de ce que l’auteur colonisateur» d’A. Memmi. Yadh Ben l’intermédiaire des États, ont toujours été nomme «violences supplétives»: razzias, «L’avenir du droit international dans un et demeurent encore un facteur essentiel de Achour écrit : «Dans tous (les domaines), monde multiculturel» et un article de piraterie, course, terrorisme. le colonisé, maintenant décolonisé, s’af- l’impulsion des R.I et d’inspiration du droit Au centre de ces conflits se dresse le M.Virally sur «Le rôle du droit dans un con- international» (p.1). Cette impulsion et cette firme par une volonté acharnée de repren- flit de civilisations: le cas Iran-USA» pu- conflit Occident – Islam. Cette centralité dre possession de soi, y compris de ses inspiration ne sont pas univoques, elle ne s’explique selon Yadh Ben Achour par «un blié en 1988 par la revue des sciences mo- tentent pas seulement au conflit. Certes «Les archaïsmes…l’intégriste (…) est l’une des rales et politiques, mais, à ma connaissance, lourd héritage historique et par une politi- figures du colonisé» (pp.227-228). conflits de civilisation sont inévitables» (p.9) que extérieure maladroite et déséquilibrée guère plus. mais « les civilisations cultivent également Et c’est dans cette perspective que Ce n’est évidemment pas que la civilisa- de l’occident et en particulier des États- l’auteur aborde la question du terrorisme le sens du respect, de la curiosité et, par- Unis» (p.69). Ce conflit axial a été au cours tion ne travaille pas de l’intérieur les tra- fois, de l’émerveillement face à l’autre, el- qu’il traite de manière particulière. Il récuse vaux des internationalistes, et parfois, à leur des siècles théorisé par la théologie de la d’emblée, au plan philosophique, la disqua- les savent cohabiter s ‘enrichir de leurs ex- croisade, les doctrines du jihâd et plus ré- insu, c’est que les internationalistes à la dif- périences, échanger les biens…leurs lification du terrorisme comme «combat en férence des politistes et des spécialistes des cemment par l’idéologie coloniale. dehors des normes» (p.229). En vérité, il talents»(p.13).Mais au-delà de ces thèses gé- Le dernier chapitre de cette partie est relations internationales n’ont pas fait de la nérales sur le statut et les relations entre récuse les normes qui déclarent le terrorisme civilisation l’objet même de leurs travaux. consacré à un impact particulier des civili- «combat en dehors des normes» et refuse les civilisations, la thèse spécifique qui sations dans les relations internationales Et cela s’explique aisément, au moins par anime l’ouvrage, la thèse de Yadh Ben comme «philosophiquement inadmissible» trois raisons. contemporaines. En effet, la civilisation, non l’idée selon laquelle «l’État aurait, seul, le Achour, est que «une civilisation, toute ci- la Nation, peut être à la base de la création D’abord, parce que leur connaissance a vilisation n’est qu’une voie de circulation monopole de la violence juste» (p.229). pour objet un monde étatisé et un droit et de la désintégration des États. Les exem- Deux autres figures de l’hostilité sont pour toutes les autres ,et le morceau d’une ples du Pakistan, d’Israël, de la Yougosla- interétatique; ensuite, parce que la solution autre civilisation» (p.13 et p.312). Cette successivement analysées. La question de de n’importe quel différend «même s’il vie et de Chypre sont, tour à tour, exposés. l’emblème de l’organisation humanitaire: thèse est présente dans les trois parties de La deuxième partie est consacrée au droit s’agit d’un conflit de civilisation…devra l’ouvrage qui traitent successivement de (Croix rouge depuis l’origine, le Croissant être coulée dans une forme juridique» international. Le chapitre premier est con- rouge et Lion et Soleil rouges depuis 1929 l’impact des civilisations sur les relations sacré à l’hégémonie de la civilisation euro- (M.Virally, article cité) ; enfin, parce que internationales, de leur effet sur le droit in- et depuis quelques années la prétention d’Is- depuis la fin de la seconde guerre mondiale, péenne en droit international classique, hé- raël d’élever le Bouclier de David rouge au ternational et, enfin, de la détermination pré- gémonie exprimée par certaines institutions comme le relève Yadh Ben Achour, le mot cise des lieux de rupture ou comme le dit rang d’emblème officiel). L’auteur envisage, «civilisation» n’est plus en odeur de sain- de ce droit (principe de nationalité, ques- ensuite la question responsabilité de l’Oc- l’auteur «les lignes de fracture» entre les tion d’Orient, principe de liberté de naviga- teté du fait de son exploitation par l’idéolo- civilisations et de leur expression en droit cident pour les «crimes de l’histoire» (gé- gie coloniale. tion et du commerce, l’intervention d’huma- nocide des Indiens, esclavage, colonialisme) international tant public que privé. nité). Cette «prédominance de la civilisation Le fait, donc, que Yadh Ben Achour con- La première partie traite successivement soulevée lors de la Conférence de Durban sacre un ouvrage au rôle des civilisations européenne» a été remise en course par «la en 2001 et s’interroge sur la nature et les des échanges entre civilisations et de leurs nouvelle configuration du droit internatio- est, en soi, pour l’internationaliste un apport conflits. Il ne faut cependant pas y voir un effets de cette responsabilité originale. important. Une lacune béante depuis la nal» à laquelle Yadh Ben Achour consacre Le chapitre deuxième évoque la ques- clivage absolu, une séparation étanche, car le deuxième chapitre, cette nouvelle confi- guerre Iran-Irak qui a marqué la première, l’échange est aussi bien le fait de l’ouver- tion plus familière à l’internationaliste de l’irruption des civilisations dans les relations guration est marquée par l’émergence de l’opposition entre l’Occident et l’Islam à ture sur l’autre que des conflits et des guer- «l’idée de l’humanité en tant que civilisa- et le droit internationaux, est ainsi comblée. res. Ainsi est identifié comme facteur ou propos des droits de l’homme, de l’état du Mais ce n’est pas là le seul mérite de tion unique et commune» ainsi que par droit et de la démocratie. Selon «le croyant vecteur de l’échange tout d’abord le com- «l’idée de patrimoine mondial culturel et l’ouvrage. Yadh Ben Achour n’y est pas merce: «La force du commerce, c’est qu’il [musulman] majoritaire,[la théorie des droits qu’internationaliste – publiciste. Il y fait naturel» (p.144) de l’homme] abolit le sens du divin et l’es- n’a pas d’âme. Il passe par dessus des con- L’Occident n’est plus seul acteur, des montre d’une parfaite connaissance de l’his- flits de civilisations, les ignore, les oblige à sence de l’homme» (p.264). Quant aux dif- toire et de la réalité présente des civilisa- États nouveaux et des blocs de civilisations férents droits de l’homme, certains d’entre dialoguer à se reconnaître» (p.30) ; mais hostiles à l’Occident se constituent, des dis- tions et spécialement des civilisations mu- aussi l’impact des récits et des relations de eux heurtent des prescriptions divines ex- sulmanes et occidentales. Et c’est cela l’atout cours se structurent: arabisme, panafrica- plicites. voyage des marins et des aventuriers. nisme, panislamisme, afro-asiatisme. Cette des authentiques bilingues, ils sont par cela L’ouverture sur l’autre peut également pro- Un dernier chapitre traite des conflits de même biculturels, autant à l’aise en compa- nouvelle configuration condamne l’usage civilisation en droit international privé et des céder d’une décision politique à l’instar de fait en droit international classique du con- gnie d’Al-Ma’arri que de Valéry et appré- celle prise par Al-Mâ’mûn. À ces facteurs techniques juridiques en permettant à un État ciant autant la beauté sulfureuse des poè- cept de nation civilisée «Le destin final du de se fermer à la circulation des normes at- pacifiques s’ajoutent également des conflits concept de ‘nation civilisée allait être sanc- mes de Abu-Nawwâs que ceux d’Arthur idéels ou proprement militaires : Que serait tentatoires à ce qu’il estime être le noyau Rimbaud. Yadh Ben Achour témoigne éga- tionné par sa disparition du langage juri- dur de sa civilisation. ‘ilm al kalâm’ sans les disputes théoriques dique» (p.162). lement dans est ouvrage de sa maîtrise des qui opposaient les Musulmans aux Chrétiens L’auteur conclut son ouvrage par une relations internationales et y révèle des ta- C’est donc à la fois l’idée de l’unité de adhésion franche et sans réserve à ce qu’il et aux Juifs? Que serait la philosophie occi- la communauté ultime de la civilisation hu- lents de spécialiste de droit international dentale sans Ibn Rushd? Que serait l’Égypte nomme la trilogie de la civilisation occiden- privé. Il est vrai que le droit international maine et de la diversité des civilisations qui tale: les droits de l’homme, la démocratie et sans la campagne de Bonaparte? Mais ces marque la nouvelle configuration du droit privé de la famille est dans une large me- échanges sont, somme toute, soit acciden- l’état du droit parce qu’il considère que cette sure un droit international des conflits des international. C’est à l’institutionnalisation civilisation est aussi la notre: «S’il faut sui- tels soit le fait d’une volonté unilatérale. Un de cette diversité qu’est consacré le dernier civilisations. Le tout est rédigé dans le style échange volontaire et réciproque est-il pos- vre le droit, ne suivons pas le droit clos, mais propre de l’auteur, analytique, pointilleux sur chapitre de cette partie par l’exposé des di- le droit ouvert, celui des droits de l’homme sible? C’est la question du dialogue des ci- verses organisations internationales définis- les détails, fin observateur des nuances et vilisations. C’est là un phénomène récent et de la démocratie et de l’État de droit. Sui- surtout, souvent, passionné. sant ou révélant une identité civilisationelle: vons-le avec honnête…en [nous] disant sur- selon notre auteur une «utopie» construc- Le Conseil de l’Europe, l’Union de l’Europe Yadh Ben Achour a préféré le mot civi- tive. tout que s’il est occidental dans son éclo- lisation au mot culture et défint la première Occidentale, l’Organisation pour la Sécurité sion finale, cet Occident est le notre, depuis Guerres et conquêtes sont bien plus pré- et la Coopération en Europe, l’Organisation comme «l’unité morale ou spirituelle la plus sentes dans l’histoire des civilisations «Les déjà fort longtemps. Ce droit est celui qui large à laquelle puisse se rattacher une so- du Traité de l’Atlantique Nord, l’Union permet seul l’épanouissement de toutes les guerres peuvent être qualifiées de guerres Européenne, l’Organisation de la Confé- ciété, mais, plus généralement un groupe de et de civilisation dès lors qu’elles se pla- personnalités, seul il donne sens à la politi- sociétés»…. » elle comprend l’ensemble des rence Islamique, le Commonwealth, l’Orga- que qui resterait, une cité de servitude » cent sous l’égide de slogans, de doctrines, nisation des États Ibéro-Américains pour caractères aux traits spécifiques, à carac- (p.314). ayant une forte pesanteur symbolique, reli- l’Education la Science et la Culture, la Com- tère politique, linguistique, religieux, mo- gieuse ou autres, éveillant une allégeance ral, scientifique, technique, civique, qui dé- munauté des Pays de Langue Portugaise, civilisationelle» (p.61). Ces conflits et ces l’Organisation Internationale de la Franco- finissent ou marquent une société ou, plus guerres sont multiformes, ils se manifestent sûrement, un groupe de sociétés » (p.2). phonie, l’Union latine et la Ligue des États aussi bien dans le discours disqualifiant Arabes. l’autre, que dans des attitudes exprimant

22 Mars / March 2006

AFRICA DEVELOPMENT AFRIQUE ET DÉVELOPPEMENT

A Quarterly Journal of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

Africa Development is the quarterly bilingual journal of CODESRIA. It is a social science journal whose major focus is on issues which are central to the development of society. Its principal objec- tive is to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas among African scholars from a variety of intellectual persuasions and various disciplines. The journal also encourages other contributors working on Africa or those undertaking comparative analysis of Third World issues.

Africa Development welcomes contributions which cut across disciplinary boundaries. Articles with a narrow focus and incomprehensible to people outside their discipline are unlikely to be accepted. The journal is abstracted in the following indexes: International Bibliography of Social Sciences (IBSS); International African Bibliography; African Studies Abstracts Online; Abstracts on Rural Development in the Tropics; Cambridge Scientific Abstracts; Documentationselienst Africa; A Current Bibliography on African Affairs, and the African Journals Online. Back issues are also available online at www.codesria.org/Links/Publications/Journals/africa_development.htm

Contents / Sommaire Afrique et Développement est un périodique trimestriel bilingue du CODESRIA. C’est une revue Vol. XXX, No. 3, 2005 de sciences sociales consacrée pour l’essentiel aux problèmes de développement et de société. Son objectif fondamental est de créer un forum pour des échanges d’idées entre intellectuels africains Special Issue: ‘All knowledge is first of all local knowledge’ de convictions et de disciplines diverses. Il est également ouvert aux autres chercheurs travaillant Guest-editors sur l’Afrique et à ceux se consacrant à des études comparatives sur le tiers monde. Theophilus I. Okere, Chukwudi Anthony Njoku & René Devisch Afrique et Développement souhaite recevoir des articles mobilisant les acquis de différentes disciplines. Des articles trop spécialisés ou incompréhensibles aux personnes qui sont en dehors de 1. All knowledge is first of all local knowledge: An introduction la discipline ne seront probablement pas acceptés. Les articles publiés dans le périodique sont Theophilus I. Okere, Chukwudi Anthony Njoku & René Devisch indexés dans les journaux spécialisés suivants: International Bibliography of Social Sciences; International African Bibliography; African Studies Abstracts Online; Abstracts on Rural 2. Is there one science, Western science? Theophilus Okere Development in the Tropics; Cambridge Scientific Abstracts; Documentationselienst Africa; A 3. Traditional Igbo numbering system Patrick Mathias C. Ogomaka Current Bibliography on African Affairs, et African Journals Online. Les numéros disponibles de Afrique et Développement peuvent être consultés à l’adresse suivante: www.codesria.org/Link/ 4. Ethnomathematics, geometry and educational experience in Africa Publications/Journals/africa_development.htm. Paulus Gerdes 5. Domestication of medicinal plants in Southeastern Nigeria Subscriptions/Abonnement A. E. Ibe & Martin I. Nwufo 6. Understanding Igbo medicine practitioners Patrick Iroegbu (a) African Institutes/Institutions africaines: $32 US (b) Non African Institutes/Institutions non africaines $45 US 7. Cultural modes of comprehending and healing insanity: The Yaka of DR Congo (c) Individual/Particuliers $30 US René Devisch - Current individual copy / Prix du numéro $ 7 US 8. Subjectivity in servitude:The servant and indigenous family arrangement in - Back issues / Volumes antérieurs $10 US written Igbo drama Frances N. Chukwukere All editorial correspondence and manuscripts should be sent to: 9. I dance Ala Igbo (Poem) Chikwendu P. K. Anyanwu Tous les manuscrits et autres correspondances à caractère éditorial doivent être adressés au: Book Reviews/Notes de lecture Spectralizing Bergson and the Dilemmas of Decolonization. A review of Messay Editor-in-chief/Rédacteur en Chef Kebede, Africa’s Quest for a Philosophy of Decolonization, 2004.Sanya Osha Africa Development / Afrique et Développement Richard Werbner, 2004, Reasonable Radicals and Citizenship in Botswana: The Public CODESRIA, Av. Cheikh Anta Diop x Canal IV B.P. 3304, Dakar, 18524 Sénégal. Anthropology of Kalanga Elites Onalenna Doo Selolwane Tel: +221 825 98 22 / 825 98 23 - Fax: +221 824 12 89 Email: [email protected] or [email protected] Uta Wehn de Montalvo, 2003, Mapping the Determinants of Spatial Data Sharing Yoichi Mine Web Site: www.codesria.org

CODESRIA Monograph series

Hegel et l’Afrique noire – Hegel etait-il raciste ?

Amady Aly Dieng

Depuis 1978, la position de Hegel à l’égard de l’Afrique noire est très discutée. Le philosophe de Berlin a été traité de raciste. C’est l’opinion qui domine chez la plupart des chercheurs européens et africains. Mais une telle affirmation mérite d’être révisée à la suite de la thèse d’Etat soutenue en 1990 à l’Université de Paris I par un philosophe africain, Pierre Franklin Tavarès. La lecture attentive de cette thèse devrait amener beaucoup de chercheurs à nuancer leur pensée sur l’attitude de Hegel sur l’Afrique noire. « La question Hegel » en Afrique ou ce que Guy Planty-Bonjour appelle « les questions africaines de l’hégélianisme » n’est pas seulement d’ordre théorique, mais également pratique.

Des historiens, des hommes de lettres, des hommes politiques, des sociologues et quelquefois, même des philosophes africains se sont dépêchés de traiter Hegel de raciste à la suite de leur seule lecture des Leçons de la philosophie de l’histoire qui est une oeuvre posthume publiée sur la base des notes de ses étudiants. Par ailleurs beaucoup de ses auteurs ont ignoré l’ouvrage de Carl Ritter : L’Afrique (1500 pages) sur lequel s’est appuyé Hegel qui, introuvable à la Bibliothèque Nationale de France, n’est disponible qu’à l’Institut de géographie de Paris. Seul Pierre Franklin Tavarès a pu exploiter ce livre que Hegel a consulté pour avoir des 2006; Série de monographies informations sur l’Afrique à Berlin. C’est pourquoi il parle de la deuxième attitude de Hegel à l’égard de ISBN 2-86978-178-4 ; 140 pages l’Afrique motivée par la lecture de ce grand géographe allemand qui s’appuie sur le système de Schelling : le Afrique: US$10.00, 5.000CFA Tout. Ailleurs : £9.95 /$15 Beaucoup d’autres chercheurs ont apporté des informations sur l’attitude de Hegel à l’égard de la Révolution de Haïti qu’il a soutenue dans des textes allemands qui ne sont pas encore traduits en français. C’est pourquoi, l’auteur de ce livre essaie de tenir compte des progrès effectués dans les recherches portant sur Hegel, d’élargir le débat sur « Les questions africaines du hégélianisme » et d’ouvrir quelques pistes de recherche qui peuvent intéresser au premier chef les chercheurs africains.

23 CODESRIA Publications: www.codesria.org

The Potentiality of ‘Developmental States’ Potential Impacts of the New Global in Africa: Botswana and Uganda Compared Financial Architecture on Poor Countries Edited by Pamela Mbabazi and Ian Taylor Charles C. Soludo & Musunuru S. Rao

June 2005; 188 pages June 2005; 80 pages ISBN 2-86978-164-4 ISBN 2-86978-158-X Africa: CFA 10000; $20.00; Africa: CFA 5000; $10.00; Elsewhere: £19.95 /$29.95 Elswehere: £9.95 /$12.95

Le financement dans les systèmes Intellectuels, nationalisme et idéal panafricain éducatifs d’Afrique subsaharienne perspective historique Jean Bernard Rasera, Jean-Pierre Jarousse et Sous la direction de Thierno Bah Coffi Rémy Noumon

Publié septembre 2005; 208 pages; ADEA-CODESRIA ISBN 2-86978-161-X Publié avril 2005, 200 pages Afrique : CFA 10000; hors zone CFA : $20,00 ; ISBN 2-86978-156-3 ; Ailleurs : £12.95 /$27.95 Afrique : CFA 7500 ; hors zone CFA : 15,50 USD ; Ailleurs: £14,95 /$24,95

From National Liberation to Democratic East Africa: In Search of National Renaissance in Southern Africa and Regional Renewal Edited by Cheryl Hendricks and Lwazi Lushaba Edited by Felicia Arudo Yieke

December 2005; 214 pages ISBN 2-86978-162-8; April 2005; 168 pages; ISBN 2-86978-144-X Africa: CFA 7500; $15.50; Elsewhere: £12.95 /$22.95 Africa: CFA 10000; $15.50; Elsewhere: £12.95 /$22.95

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