African Languages and Societies Commons^™

Free Frank Leaves Descendants A Legacy Of Freedom, Deborah Gertz Husar

African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter

No abstract provided.

African-American History Museum Opens Doors, Margaret Horton Edsall

African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Blacks Pin Hope On Dna To Fill Slavery's Gaps In Family Trees, Amy Harmon

African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Pan-African History: Political Figures From Africa And The Diaspora Since 1787, Hakim Adi, Marika Sherwood, Robert Trent Vinson

African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Le Fou, Le Rebelle, L’Enfant Et La Révolution Haïtienne, Gilbert Doho

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The proliferation of fools in independent African nations’ capitals and major cities should have entailed profound analyses. The period after 1804 in Haiti and after 1960 for Africa is marked by irrationality. From this point of view, Aimé Césaire, doom prophet, uses the Haitian past to warn newly independent African nations. The attempt to understand the phenomena has so far been based on psychoanalysis and other euro-centric methods. In this paper, we will attempt to centre our approach on the gaze and thought of the lunatics themselves in order to understand the madness that has taken hold of post-colonial periods. …

Haïti Et Sa Diaspora Ou Le Pays En Dehors, Marie-Hélène Koffi-Tessio

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The article looks at the causes of large migratory movements in Haiti. Anthropologist Gérard Barthélemy suggests that emigration from the countryside stems from aspects of rural society, namely the need to accumulate wealth to start one’s own production unit and the need to chase out those who will not stick to and perpetuate the rules of the community. However, according to Jean Métellus and Jean-Claude Icart, migration movements are tightly linked to political and historical upheavals, which force people out of the country in search of safety and survival. For many migrants, the consequence is a feeling of loss and …

Du Bateau Négrier À L’Avion Négrier : Haïti, Les Puissances Esclavagistes Et Le Monde Noir, Cilas Kemedjio

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The main argument of this study may be outlined as follows: colonized communities in the world economy being integrated by means of “historical fatality” from slavery to colonialism and neo-colonialism. The counter-movement of decolonization, as exemplified in the Haitian revolution, was meant to propose a more humane outbreak of enslaved peoples on the world scene. The account of globalization reveals that Haiti was forced into the world economy through the modality of extortion, which denied the most vulnerable members of Haitian society their basic humanity. The failure of the Haitian revolution to reverse the course of historical fatality opened the …

Satire, Désordre, Folie Et Régénérescence : Lecture De Quelques Romans Africains, Augustin H. Asaah

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Satire has the goal of reforming society and humans through the exposure and denunciation of evils. Using four novels, Beyala’s Tu t’appelleras Tanga, Touré’s Destins parallèles, Ken Bugul’s La folie et la mort and Nganang’s Tempsde chien as reference points, this article attempts to demonstrate how postcolonial Francophone African satire meets the criteria of the sub-genre. The four works deploy weapons of satire such as irony, contrast, verbal violence and exaggeration to lay bare the stench, madness and degeneration associated with neo-colonial order. As in all satirical works, the tableau of collective misery here encompasses a challenge to readers to …

Haïti Et L’Afrique Noire : De La Primauté À La Marginalité, Du Modèle Au Contre-Modèle, André Ntonfo

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

As we know, Haiti, the first Black republic in the world, commemorated the bicentennial of its independence in 2004. This paper examines how that unique experience has been received by the Black world in general and by independent African states in particular, as well look at the place that Haiti occupies in their imagination. This paper will examine Haiti’s role as an ideological place of structuring and as a real space for experimentation with post-colonial strategies applied to independent Black nations, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. The author will demonstrate how Haiti, from its position as a pioneer for these nations, …

Réalisme Merveilleux Et Rire Macabre Contre La Zombification, Anastasil Delarose Makambo

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The substance of this analysis is to use fiction, especially the novel, to observe Haiti and Black Africa some 200 years and 40 years, respectively, after independence. The contemporary novelists of these two time periods stress “zombification”, which is their common destiny. They denounce it by means of several scriptural strategies, such as magic realism and macabre laughter. The first contributes to reveal “zombifying” authorities such as houngans, wizards, politicians and their militia. The second is used to make “zombificators” ridiculous by showing how their ranting leads them to appear weak before their rebel victims.

La Vie Et Demie Ou Les Corps Chaotiques Des Mots Et Des Êtres, Caroline Giguère

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Due to its polysemy, corporality has several functions in the works of Sony Labou Tansi. More than descriptive or thematic elements, the novelistic bodies in La vie et demie are at the same time meeting points for multiple meanings, objects and producers of discourse. This study aims to demonstrate how the writing of the body is symbolic of a disorder that characterizes the forms and contents of Sony Labou Tansi’s novels and invites the reader to reflect on language and its power.

Chaos Temporel Et Chaos Romanesque Dans Allah N'Est Pas Obligé D'Ahmadou Kourouma, Nathalie Roy

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This paper proposes an analysis of time representation in Allah n’est pas obligé with concepts taken from Temps et récit. It aims to show that in relation to Kourouma’s novel, one of Ricoeur’s hypothesis is revealingly insufficient. This hypothesis actually questions representation modes occuring in the text, exposing one of the sources of fictional chaos.

Folie Et Écriture Dans Calomnies De Linda Lê, Ching Selao

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This article proposes to explore the many faces of madness through a reading of Linda Lê’s Calomnies, in which two narrative voices are presented. The following shall demonstrate how this novel reproduces a “romantic” perception of madness as encountered in Michel Foucault’s work. Although this narrative text introduces a mad narrator speaking in the “I” persona, it nonetheless points out the difficulties of letting madness speak for itself. These difficulties are also examined in this study.

Face À La Meute – Narration Et Folie Dans Les Romans De Boubacar Boris Diop, Susanne Gehrmann

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The article analyses the narrative techniques and the theme of madness in three novels by the Senegalese writer Boubacar Boris Diop, caracterised by narrative polyphony and metatextual reflexion on the production of a story. The speech of protagonists affected by “intellectual madness” plays a strategic role in the structure of the novel which, as a hybrid genre, draws on oral and literary traditions in a still splintered aesthetic. The image of the pack represents an unreasonnable society condemning a so-called mad individual whose madness consists in bringing a counter-memory of the foundation myths.

Transcrire L'Horreur Sur L'Espace De La Page, Bernadette Ginestet-Levine

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Rachid Boudjedra’s Timimoun uses the theatrical convention of a minibus taking tourists to the desert. In this mini-bus, news from the outside world is brought through the radio, which plays the part of a messenger. The narration moves forward by a progression of press releases that report bombings committed by terrorists. The barbarian nature of the acts is transcribed on the page by means of typography. The spatial/visual convention itself is set in concentric lexical fields – liquid, then desertic – erected as fences in an attempt to confine the unbearable.

Trop De Soleil Tue L'Amour : Une Expression De L'Écriture Du Mal-Être De Mongo Beti, Rodolphine Sylvie Wamba

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The classical and dissident African writer Mongo Beti perpetually uses the theme of man’s quest for freedom in everything he does. In fact, the philosophy of “Rubénism” is found in each of his works. Given that man must survive in the “ocean of shit” he lives in, the writer, using a popular language, freely chooses to add some humour to everyday life. Thus, the text we studied appeared as a genuine thriller, complete with comedy and tragedy, which presents a deviation from more formal writing. This is the main idea of this analysis, which consists of showing Trop de soleil …

Les Pouvoirs Du Récit : Un Remède Au Chaos Du Monde? En Attentant Le Vote Des Bêtes Sauvages, Madeleine Borgomano

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Right from his first novel, Les Soleils des Indépendances (1970), Kourouma introduced the theme of the reversed world, a baroque metaphor for the state of Africa after Independence. In Monnè (1990), telling the history of this reversal, he insisted on its linguistic roots. Consequently, En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages (1998) shows how this reversal in the context of Cold War, favoured the genesis and development of dictatorial powers leading to an actual apocalypse. This victory of Chaos is told as a donsomana, traditional song of expiation among the Malinke hunters. The forms and magic virtues of this song …

Parties Annexes

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

No abstract provided.

Werewere Liking Et La Poétique Du Jeu Pour Libérer L'Imaginaire Postcolonial Africain, Kasereka Kavwahirehi

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This essay addresses the issue of poetics and political stakes in Werewere Liking's novel, Elle sera de jaspe et de corail. While this novel has been presented as illustrative of the Negro-African aesthetics rooted in orality, the present article argues that Liking's poetics of hybridity is a postcolonial strategy whose aim is the liberation of African imagination and creativity. The essay ends by suggesting some similarities between Liking's project and that of the Congolese philosopher, especially in his philosophical essay, L'Afrique va-t-elle mourir? Bouscu/er l'imaginaire africain. Through their works, Ka Mana and Werewere Liking are examining the conditions for a …

Mango Beti Et Les Mythologies Postcoloniales : Héritier Et Inspirateur, Nathalie Etoke

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Mango Beti belongs to a nationalist tradition embodied by Ruben Um Nyobe, the Cameroonian revolutionary. This paper analyzes how the writer manages to rebuild the aborted Rubenist ideal through fictional devices. Charismatic leaders such as Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, who have been able to bring about social change and improve the living conditions of their people, also nurture Beti's political commitment. What is the link between the writer and these inspiring men? Is Mongo Beti himself a similar inspiration for other African writers?

L'Image Des Réfugiés Et Des Personnes Déplacées Dans La Fiction Africaine Francophone, Augustin H. Asaah

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

In their capacity as moralists and committed intellectuals, African Francophone writers such as C.C. Sow, N.N. Ndjekery, M.S. Keita, F. Couao-Zotti, Ahmadou Kourouma, Nimrod and E. Dongala portray various images of refugees and internally displaced persons in their works. This depiction is driven by the perceived need to humanize these displaced members of society by establishing moral/affective bridges between unfortunate members of society and readers. It is also sustained by the desire to reduce the damage caused by wars and natural disasters, as well as the need to reveal the plural identities of humans to the world.

Time To Make History, Time To Educate Women: A Narrative Of The Life And Work Of Christiana Thorpe Of Sierra Leone, Whitney Mcintyre Miller

Education Faculty Articles and Research

An examination of the life of Christiana Thorpe, a former nun from Sierra Leone who worked to improve education for girls and served as the only woman in a cabinet of nineteen members (as Minister of Education), then worked with the United Nations Development Programme and UNESCO amidst war and rebellion in her country.

La Critique Et Léopold Sédar Senghor / Léopold Sédar Senghor Et La Critique, Fernando Lambert

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

L. S. Senghor has maintained a double relation with criticism: his poetical work has provoked plentiful critical production and the poet has always been in dialogue with his critical examiners. Furthermore, he has practised literary criticism himself. Criticism relating to Senghor comes from two quite different sources. From 1945 to 1960, the European criticism is outstanding, while the African criticism confines itself more to peripheral questions in the Senghorian poetical work: French language

and "Negritude". The withdrawal of the poet from the political stage in 1980 is a significant date for critical production in Africa. Let us add that the …

Le Rôle De La Critique Dans La Réception De L’Oeuvre Romanesque De Rachid Boudjedra, Valérie Lotodé

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The favorable reception given by French criticism to some of Rachid Boudjedra’s novels can’t be explained by their literary quality only. In fact, the media’s opinion has been influenced by the image of the "authentically Algerian writer" that Boudjedra conveyed, as well as by the political context. Since the emergence of Algerian Literature in French journalistic and academic literary criticism, critics are bounded by ideological a priori.

Black Polar, Françoise Naudillon

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

We would like to present some examples of the French Mystery Novel as it is being written by sub-Saharan and Maghrebin authors, as Yasmina Khadra, an author from Algeria. After outlining a history of the genre itself, we will follow a few of the thematic trails taken up by the authors in question. We would like to call specific attention to the strategies of transformation, appropriation and transmutation being used on an already well defined and respected genre whose roots lie in a completely different cultural background (European and North American).

L'Incipit Dans L'Œuvre D'Ahmadou Kourouma, Sélom Komlan Gbanou

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The literary work can develop an internal identity as a particular mark. Several African writers incorporate into their novels indications of culture that derive from verbal arts. This method gives to the writing a particular aesthetic in between two cultures, creating in the writing an individuality of certain writers such as Ahmadou Kourouma. For him the question is not only to distort the French language to express his Malinke identity, but also to develop a method of incipit that belongs to verbal art.

Timbuktu: A Lesson In Underdevelopment, Riccardo Pelizzo

riccardo pelizzo

Th e purpose of the present paper is to investigate Timbuktu’s economic decline in the three centuries elapsed between 1526, when Leo Africanus reached the Mysterious City, and 1830, when the fi rst European explorers arrived in Timbuktu. It is argued that Timbuktu’s decline was neither an accident nor the result of inevitable natural conditions. Timbuktu’s decay was the product of historical and social forces. Specifi cally, it is argued that Timbuktu lost power and prestige because its market decayed. However, it is also suggested that no single factor can account individually for this event. Th e crisis of Timbuktu’s …

Kabou Dechire Le Certificat D'Innocence De L'Afrique? (Review Of Et Si L'Afrique Refusait Le Développement By Axelle Kabou), Kasongo Mulenda Kapanga

Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications

Pourquoi I' Afrique est-elle sous développée? En repondant a cette question, Axelle Kabou fait d'une pierre deux coups. D'abord, elle émet une thèse d'après laquelle I'Afrique refuserait de se développer à cause de sa léthargie. Ensuite, elle fait un réquisitoire severe en désignant du doigt I' Africain lui-meme comme source de son retard. Le refus de développement, explique-t-elle, vient d'une fausse conception manichéiste qui voit en I' Afrique une antithèse de I' Europe. Par consequent, tout emprunt des valeurs européennes indispensables au développement est vu avec méfiance. C'est ainsi qu' «à peine sortie du monde manichéiste pré-colonial, I' Afrique a …

From Military Politization To Militarization Of Power In Guinea-Conakry, Mohamed S. Camara

Mohamed S. Camara

This historical analysis of state-military society relationship in Guinea focuses on Sékou Touré's political survival due in part to his political indoctrination of an army constantly involved in Pan-African battles and overshadowed by the National Militia. It also addresses this army's transition from a single-party regime to multiparty politics via a bloodless coup. Particularly underlined in the discussion, Touré's intelligent exploitation of Cold War localized manueuvers lays the ground for a conceptual framework envisioning the Guinean military as a revolutionary army. This theoretical argument is made in light of the sociological debate on the military and politics as sustained by …

Le Héros Sonyien À La Croisée Des Principes Sartriens Et Nietzschéens, Kasongo Mulenda Kapanga

Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications

Sony Labou Tansi s'est créé une réputation de maître de la parole mordante par sa dénonciation des pouvoirs abusifs de l'ère postcoloniale. Que ce soit dans le théâtre ou dans le roman, «l'enfant prodige de Brazza» use d'une verve castigatrice et d'un style incendiaire qui lui ont valu dans les lettres francophones africaines une réputation de censeur. Même si on mettait cette agressivité verbale au compte de l'afropessimisme, le malaise que la pléthore d'écrivains africains ont décrié, il se profile dans la floraison langagière de Sony une tension entre deux modes de pensée et deux philosophies complémentaires. II y a, …