June 2004
@ Edward R. McMahon , founding director of the Center on Democratic Performance (CDP, United States, http://cdp.binghamton.edu/), has accepted a teaching and research position at the University of Vermont, from where he will remain an adjunct fellow of the CDP. His successor as director is Patrick Regan, professor of political science at Binghamton University, whose teaching and research interests include U.S. foreign policy, conflict management and resolution, and political repression.
@ Catherine Boone (*) has published “Political Topographies of the African State: Territorial Authority and Institutional Choice” (Cambridge University Press, 2003; $75.00-ISBN: 0521825571 – Ppb. $28.00- ISBN 0521532647), which draws upon research originally presented at the October 1994 GRAF conference (“Brazzaville + 50”). She has also written “State, Capital and the Politics of Banking Reform in Sub-Saharan Africa”, to be published in the Fall 2004 issue of Comparative Politics .
@ Guy Martin (*) is taking up a new position as professor and director of the Institute of Peace, Leadership and Governance at Africa University in Mutare (Zimbabwe), as of June 2004. His wife Mueni wa Muiu has also been appointed senior lecturer in Governmental Studies at the same institution. Guy’s new professional e-mail address is: iplgdirector@africau.ac.zw
@ Andreas Eckert (*) , together with Juergen Zimmerer (Coimbra) and Jan-Bart Gewald (Leiden), is organizing a conference “Genocides: Forms, Causes and Consequences. The Herero War (1904-08) in historical perspective” to be held at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin between 13th and 15th January 2005. The conference is intended to mark the centennial of the first genocide of the 20th century, the Herero War of 1904-1908 that took place in German South West Africa (Namibia). Starting from the genocide committed in Namibia 100 years ago the conference aims to come to an informed understanding regarding the origins of genocide. Issues to be dealt with in the conference relate to, among others, definitions and problems of comparison, the roots of genocide, genocide and the state, singularities and continuities, genocide and law and genocide, memory and identity. A number of scholars on genocide from Australia, Canada, Germany, Namibia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the USA, have been invited to present their research. In order to facilitate a truly comparative approach, they will give papers on structural features of genocide rather than on specific cases. This focus will identify theoretical and typological linkages between genocides in history. The selection will enable the conference to come to, not only an empirically, but also – and more importantly – a theoretically informed comparison between genocides. The conference will also serve as a the foundation meeting of a European network of genocide scholars. The conference language is English. Graduate students who are about to finish their thesis or have done so recently are invited to present posters on their research if they send a short outline and CV to: namibian-war@freenet.de. More information on the conference website: http://www.hist.net/ag-genozid/namibianwar or from Andreas Eckert: Universität Hamburg ,Von-Melle-Park 6 D-20146 Hamburg Tel: +49-40-428382591 e-mail: andreas.eckert@uni-hamburg.de
# René Lemarchand (*) a présenté le 1 er juin au Musée Royal de l’Afrique Centrale (MRAC) de Tervuren ses réflexions sur “La place du Musée dans la politique de la mémoire :le cas des Grands Lacs”. Quel est le rôle d’un musée de l’Afrique dans la réalisation d’une coexistence pacifique en Afrique centrale? Un musée est un lieu de mémoire. Cette mémoire, fausse ou vraie, joue un rôle important dans le développement des conflits dans la région. Les partis en se querellant se réfèrent constamment à cette histoire. Quel est notre rôle et responsabilité envers le rôle de l’histoire dans ces conflits? Que pouvons-nous faire afin de s’y prendre d’une manière constructive?
# Edmond Bernus (*), spécialiste du Sahel et notamment de ses populations Twareg, est décédé à Paris le 13 juillet. Il avait fait partie de l’ORSTOM depuis ses débuts puis de l’IRD, où il avait été Directeur de Recherche jusqu’à sa retraite.
(*) Names listed in the GRAF Directory / Noms figurant à l’annuaire du GRAF
# Patrick Quantin (*) a dirigé la publication de l’ouvrage: “Voter en Afrique : Comparaisons et différenciations”, paru en mai 2004 aux éditions L’Harmattan dans la Collection ‘Logiques politiques’ [ISBN 2-7475-6486-X; 360 p.; 30 €] Cet ouvrage rassemble une partie des actes du colloque organisé sous le même titre par l’Association française de sciences politiques à Bordeaux les 7 et 8 mars 2002. Les travaux rassemblés dans ce volume s’attachent à l’élaboration d’une problématique générale visant à expliquer ce que voter veut dire ou encore ce qu’est une consultation électorale dans les sociétés africaines contemporaines. S’agirait-il d’élections “pas comme les autres”? Cette question est traitée ici sous trois angles: les codes de conduite, les mobilisations électorales et l’individualisation. Outre l’introduction due à Patrick Quantin ( “Voter en Afrique : quels paradigmes pour quelles comparaisons?”), l’ouvrage inclut des contributions de Comi Toulabor (*) “Fraudes électorales et ‘démocratie coloniale’ au Togo. Cas d’une implantation du vote en colonie”, de Janvier Onana (*) “Faire voter, faire naître au monde politique : apprentissage de l’investiture démocratique et émergence historique de la figure du citoyen au Cameroun”, de Nicolas Van de Walle (*) “Presidentialism and Clientelism in Africa’s Emerging Party Systems”, ainsi que les apports de Mamoudou Gazibo, Daniel Compagnon et Céline Thiriot. L’ouvrage peut être commandé directement aux éditions L’Harmattan 21 bis rue des Ecoles 75005 Paris [ Tél. : (+33)(0)1 46 34 13 71, ou par e-mail à: diffusion.harmattan@wanadoo.fr
@ In the series “Politics and Economics” of the University of Leipzig Papers on Africa (ULPA) edited by Ulf Engel (*), Robert Kappel (*) and Ute Rietdorf, the following titles have been published thus far in 2004:
No. 73: Cyril I. Obi: “The Oil Paradox: Reflections on the Violent Dynamics of Petro and (Mis)Governance in Nigeria’s Niger Delta”. ISBN 3-935999-32-1
No. 72: Werner Heuler-Neuhaus : “Die Arbeitsemigration von Burkinabè in die Elfenbeinküste und die Auswirkungen der ivoirischen politischen Krise auf Migrationsdynamik und Geldtransfers”. ISBN 3-935999-31-3. Pp. 85
No. 71: Norbert L. Bauer: “African Regional Integratio-The EU-SA Free Trade Agreement”. ISBN 3-935999-26-7. Pp. 34
No. 70: Esther Ishengoma: “The Role of Firm-Resources: Performance Differentials between Women- and Men-owned Micro-enterprises in Tanzania”. ISBN 3-935999-22-4. Pp. 28
No. 69: Christopher Clapham: “The Decay and Attempted Reconstruction of African Territorial Statehood” ISBN 3-935999-22-4. Pp. 12
They can be ordered from: Institut für Afrikanistik, Universität Leipzig, Beethovenstr. 15, D-04107 Leipzig. Fax: (49)-(0)341-9737048. E-mail: mgrosze@rz.uni-leipzig.de . For a list of earlier papers, see: http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~afrika
# Theodore Trefon (*) a dirigé la publication de l’ouvrage collectif: « Ordre et désordre à Kinshasa: Réponses populaires à la faillite de l’État » [ISBN : 2-7475-4289-0 ; ISSN : 1021-9994 ; 252 pp. ; 23 euro]
L’image que l’on perçoit de Kinshasa est souvent celle d’un monde désordonné livré à lui-même : confusion, crise et chaos y règnent et il en émerge une forme bizarre de cannibalisme social où la société devient sa propre proie. Mais cette vision apocalyptique de Kinshasa n’est que partiellement vraie. Cette ville tentaculaire, où de nouveaux schèmes de régulation et d’organisation se forment et se défont continuellement, est un lieu de contraste, de contradiction, voire de paradoxe. La créativité sociale s’y développe en dépit de la crise multiforme et durable que subit le pays, et même – peut-on dire – se nourrit de cette crise. Fonction et dysfonction, ordre et désordre se conjuguent au point de paraître se confondre. Les Kinois inventent de nouvelles formes d’organisation sociale afin de pallier la situation sinistrée que leur a légué l’État-nation postcolonial. C’est de cette réinvention de l’ordre que traite ce volume. Les contributions sont dues, en nombre égal, à des chercheurs congolais –parmi lesquels Claude Sumata (*) — et occidentaux (belges pour la plupart).
Co-publié par le Musée royal de l’Afrique centrale (Tervuren) et L’Harmattan (Paris), l’ouvrage peut être commandé via le site http://www.editions-harmattan.fr/index.asp?navig=catalogue&obj=collection&no=114 de L’Harmattan ou celui du Musée ( http://www.africamuseum.be/publications/publications/publinew ).
@ An English language version of this book will be available in September 2004, published by ZED Books, London: http://zedbooks.co.uk. Pour d’autres informations merci de contacter: ttrefon@ulb.ac.be
@ Robert Kappel (*), has co-authored with Jann Lay and Susan Steiner “The Missing Links – Uganda’s Economic Reforms and Pro-Poor Growth”, a report commissioned by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) Eschborn, February 2004. The authors find that the Ugandan population experienced important broad-based welfare gains in terms of consumption during the 1990s. Yet, this trend does not appear to be sustainable, as large parts of the population saw their welfare levels decline recently. Despite overall growth, poverty increased between 2000 and 2003. In other words, growth has been pro-poor in the 1990s, whereas growth in recent years has been accompanied by a substantial increase in inequality and has hence not led to further poverty reduction.
The report can be accessed at: http://www.duei.de/iak/de/content/aktuelles/pdf/ProPoorGrowth.pdf
# Pierre Halen (*) nous transmet la demande de M. Louis Mombo, étudiant doctorant à l’Université Paul Valéry de Montpellier, qui souhaite entrer en contact avec toute personne possédant de la documentation ou pouvant lui renseigner des études sur le Théâtre du dramaturge congolais Norbert MIKANZA. Réponse éventuelle à Louis Mombo louis.mombo@voila.fr
Cahiers d’Etudes africaines
Call For Papers/Appel à contribution
Slavery and Contemporary Forms of Exploitation / Esclavage et formes contemporaines d’exploitation
Slavery, in its classical version, as the exploitation of human labor authorized by the law, was officially abolished throughout the world – without being completely eliminated – as was the juridical status of the slave, which disappeared from applied legislation. In Africa, former practices of slavery, taken in its former sense, have perpetuated or been transformed, adapting to contemporary situations. In these societies, and especially in Sahelian societies, “traditional” hierarchies resist; the exclude slaves and their descendents from the essential attributes of citizenship and, in so doing, contradict the juridical and democratic frameworks of the state. At times, for the trokosi (or hierodules) of Ghana, partisans of this “slavery in the name of God” claim that such a system should be maintained insofar as it is an essential component of customary culture.
At the same time, more recent and unprecedented forms of slavery evolve in tandem with the globalization of the economy. The United Nation’s research program on contemporary forms of slavery thus proposes a typology covering a large array of situations, beginning with practices known since time immemorial (servitude, forced labor, prostitution, debt servitude, etc.) to situations involving the exploitation of migrant works and the sale of women for marriage (with its modern variant: marriage by “catalogue” over the internet). More recently, other forms of slavery have emerged, such as sexual slavery in situations of armed conflict (Rwanda, former Yugoslavia), as well as the commerce in human organs and tissues. Finally, with respect to children, certain situations are now considered as forms of slavery, including the exploitation of child labor, the sale of children, child prostitution, child pornography, the sexual mutilation of young girls, the use of children in armed conflict, and incest as a form of sexual violence.
The commerce in human beings is an extremely dynamic market that is expands and is fed through the intensification of socioeconomic inequalities, political instability, humanitarian crises and/or armed struggles. South Africa is thus a hub for the commerce in people used for sexual exploitation in Europe, the United States, Canada, and Israel. Also, women coming from the Horn of Africa or Madagascar work as “domestic labor” in the Middle East and are elsewhere – from Lebanon to Saudi Arabia – vulnerable to extortion, violence, and servitude. In West Africa, traditions involving the placing and socialization of children have become vectors for the trade in child labor. In France, Great Britain, and other European countries, young girls (especially from Africa) are subjected to domestic labor without remuneration and in reclusion or in sequestration.
Generally speaking, the social sciences have demonstrated little interest in the notion of “modern slavery”, “contemporary slavery” or “domestic slavery”. We thus propose to study this phenomenon in terms of both the limits of processes of emancipation and the vicissitudes of past servile arrangements as new practices of subjectivation : in short, is it relevant to bring together, in one semantic field, the very different forms of contemporary slavery identified by international organizations? Ultimately, this exercise would contribute to the theoretical evolution of notions of slavery and liberty.
While the reference to property rights is a theme common to all debates over the nature of slavery and “analogous practices of slavery”, today, the notion of property generally refers to configurations that are historically defunct (colonial slavery) or to those that have become extremely rare (Sahelian societies). Might this reference mask other faces of slavery – some of which may have appeared through efforts to subvert abolition – linked to the total control of one person by another human being? Is the idea of “modern slavery”, proposed by the International Labor Organization in 1993, a purely ideological category that merely reflects the incapacity to conceptualize new work relations outside of preordained classifications, such as salaried labor, contractual labor, serf or slave? As Moses Finley wondered, can these statuses be defined in terms that are not structured by the free-slave dichotomy?
Propositions for written articles (one page) should be sent to the editorial board of the Cahiers d’Etudes africaines (Cahiers-Afr@ehess.fr) or to Roger Botte (botte@ehess.fr) before June 15, 2004. Final submissions should be submitted to the journal before March 15 2005.
announcements of future events and deadlines should be submitted at least 3 months ahead (preferred mode: E-Mail or attachment to : ebustin@ bu.edu )
les avis ponctuels oU contenant une date-limite doivent etre transmis 3 mois d’avance au moins
(TRANSMISSION SOUHAITÉe : E-MAIL OU PIÈCe jointe à: ebustin@ bu.edu )
# Rémy Bazenguissa (*) a présenté une conférence intitulée “Frères ennemis et clients : lien social entre réfugiés et autochtones dans le Nord-Est congolais (Congo-Brazzaville)” dans le cadre du séminaire ” Errances, refuges et camps” organisé par Michel Augier à l’EHESS-Marseille (Centre de la Vieille Charité).
Cahiers du Rifal (Réseau international francophone d’aménagement linguistique)
Revue coéditée par l’Agence de la francophonie et la Communauté française de Belgique
N° thématique : « Le traitement informatique des langues africaines »
– Marcel Diki-Kidiri, Edema Atibakwa Baboya et Christian Chanard : Avant-propos, pp. 3-4
– Marcel Diki-Kidiri et Edema Atibakwa Baboya : Les langues africaines sur la toile, pp. 5-32
– Anneleen Van der Veken et Gilles-Maurice de Schryver : Les langues africaines sur la Toile : étude des cas haoussa, somali, lingala et isixhosa, pp. 33-45
– Chantal Enguehard et Cherif Mbodj : Flore : un site coopératif pour recueillir et diffuser les noms des plantes dans les langues africaines, pp. 46-55
– Andrei Popescu-Belis : Constitution de banques de textes multilingues : un mécanisme fondé sur le standard XML pp. 56-61
– Jian Yang : Tri informatique pour le lingala et le hausa dans le projet BTML, pp. 62-72
– Oliva Ramavonirina : Les caractères spéciaux dans l’orthographe courante : le cas du malgache, pp. 73-75
– Edema Atibakwa Baboya : L’orthographes des langues de la République démocratique du Congo : entre usages et norme, pp. 76-83
– Jean de Dieu Karangwa : Le kiswahili à l’épreuve de la modernité, pp. 84-100
– Louis-Jean Rousseau : Le Rifal et la normalisation internationale en matière de langue, pp. 101
– Louis-Jean Rousseau : Le Rifal et l’information des langues et l’ingéniérie linguistique, pp. 101-102
Abonnement et commande à: Claire Martin Secrétariat du Rifal : Office québécois de la langue française, 125 rue Sherbrooke Ouest Montréal, Québec H2X 1X4 Canada rifal@oqlf.gouv.qc.ca. Site Internet : http://www.rifal.org
Contacts en Afrique :
CLAD-UCAD, Dakar, Sénégal chembodj@ucad.refer.sn
Centre des langues de l’Académie malgache tenymalagasy@dts.mg
Institut de linguistique appliquée, Bangui ila@intnet.cf
Centre de linguistique théorique et appliquee, Kinshasa anyembwe@yahoo.fr
Institut d”études et de recherches pour l’arabisation, Rabat fassi@atlasnet.net.ma
@ The GRAF Newsletter and other information about GRAF (including a list of available publications) can be accessed on the web through the African Studies Center’s home page at http://www.bu.edu/africa/research/projects/graf/grafnews/index.html
The Centre d’étude d’Afrique noire (CEAN) at Bordeaux also has its web site at: http://www.cean.u-bordeaux.fr/
# Le Bulletin du GRAF ainsi que d’autres informations relatives au GRAF (y compris la liste des publications disponibles) sont accessibles par Internet à l’adresse http://www.bu.edu/africa/research/projects/graf/grafnews
Le Centre d’étude d’Afrique noire (CEAN) à Bordeaux dispose aussi d’un site Internet http://www.cean.u-bordeaux.fr/
@ Kassim Kone (*) has contributed an article titled: “When male becomes female and female becomes male in Mande” in the first issue of Wagadu- A Journal of Transnational Women’s and Gender Studies (Vol.I, no.1; Spring 2004) published at SUNY-Cortland. The article can be accessed at : http://web.cortland.edu/wagadu/issue1/Kone.html
With our apologies for the lateness of this issue
Veuillez excuser le retard de parution de ce numéro