Book review: "Les Ethnies ont une histoire"

Résumé du document

Les Ethnies ont une histoire, is a book which was written after a conference internationally organized in 1986 by the African research center. During this meeting, there were many African researchers along with the Europeans who assisted them. The main topic at the conference was "the historical dimension of the ethnicity in Africa". The definition of the ethnicity and the contents of this term remain the same, in spite of various debates, that are often not clear and contradictory. The various studies gathered in this book analyze the dynamic histories which forged the ethnic consciences like other communities. Ethnic conscience and mobilization are deeply implied by the political and social measures of the contemporary States.

Extraits

[...] But it put really ahead notions of time and the space of the hard and precarious life of Nuer. Evans-Pritchard thus studied the way of life of Nuer, a political company without laws and capacities. At Nuer, there is not government, and one could characterize their State like a "ordered anarchy". Only the chiefs with skin of leopard and the prophets are the only specialists in the ritual, who have according to Evans-Pritchard so much is little of political importance. [...]

[...] The evolution of the elomwen lies within a space and temporal scope. Gilbert GONNIN, studied to him Tura of the West of the Ivory Coast, which is a population occupying the West of Ivory Coast since the XVIIème century. He will try to define an ethnos group, Une ethnie est donc un ensemble ouvert qui se construit et se déconstruit sans cesse ; elle se définit aussi bien de l'intérieur que de l'extérieur (page 169). It also will study the process of formation of an ethnos group, with an installation of the ethnic structures. [...]

[...] The "tribalism", used by the French by opposing Merina to the non-Merina, was advantageous with the two parts, which were had to be meant when their common interests were concerned. Odile GOERG, in Chefs de quartiers et “Tribal Headmen”, studies two visions of colonized downtown. Its study will be based more on Conakry and Freetown and Dar be -Salaam. By studying these cities, that gives an outline of what were the urban policies relating to the control of the African population. [...]

[...] Carlos LOPES, in Transition historique et ethnicité en Guinée Bissau, stresses the handling of the ethnic fact as an instrument of political action. He goes studied the various terms "ethnos groups, ethnicity, ethnisms" It is in this field that the differences in opinion are more the sharp, in particular when he acts to know if the handling of the ethnic fact is an abuse reality or a total construction aiming at occulting another reality. In Conflits ethniques dans un Etat révolutionnaire, Alpha Mohamed SOW studies the Guinean case through a historical interpretation of Fuuta Jaloo and the revolutionary period. [...]

[...] And in a last time, they come from there to speak about l'ethnicité et politique dans les Etats contemporains, where two great subjects were evoked: evolution of the ethnic problems under the impact of the various forms of modernization and that of the relationship between State and ethnos groups. These various researchers, at the time of this conference, brought new arguments, new analyses, which makes it possible to include/understand the situation of certain countries. Some analyzed political strategies and with very current ideological assemblies. The ethnic conscience and the mobilization are deeply implied by the political and social stakes of the contemporary States. Each study requires an attentive reading, because it is necessary to make the distinction between the cultural heritage of the past, and the current situation. [...]