Ferdinand de Jong

Cultures of the Lusophone Black Atlantic

This book addresses the Lusophone Black Atlantic as a space of historical and cultural production between Portugal, Brazil, and Africa. The authors demonstrate how it has been shaped by diverse colonial cultures including the Portuguese imperial project. The Lusophone context offers a unique perspective on the history of the Atlantic.

Masquerades of modernity : power and secrecy in Casamance, Senegal

Part I Introduction Power of Secrecy Part II Transitions Jola Initiations, Gendered Localities Out of Diaspora, Into the Forest The Politics of Representation Part III: Trajectories Mandinko Initiation: The Making of an Urban Locality Secrecy, Sacrilege and the State Part IV Traces Masquerade and Migration The Art of Tradition Writing Secrecy.

A Joking Nation: Conflict Resolution in Senegal

ResumeLe conflit qui oppose le Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casamance et l’Etat senegalais a fait l’objet de mediation par diverses institutions, chacune ayant pour but de mettre fin au conflit. Cet article porte sur l’une de ces interventions qui se pretend issue de la tradition de la parente a plaisanterie entre les Diolas et les Sereres. Il examine comment la parente a plaisanterie entre les Jolas et les Sereres devient “instrumentalisee” en tant que methode de gestion du conflit arme. L’article montre comment une pratique culturelle est transformee pour devenir un instrument de politique et donc, comment la tradition devient politisee. En passant, l’auteur montre qui la logique de l’instrumentalisation s’inscrit dans un imaginaire senegalais portant sur l’etat-nation. L’action inscrit le conflit dans un discours nationaliste et fait l’impasse sur l’economie politique qui est au fond du conflit. Il s’agit donc d’une contribution au debat actuel sur la resolution autochtone des conflits. Les me...Résumé Le conflit qui oppose le Mouvement des forces démocratiques de Casamance et l’État sénégalais a fait l’objet de médiation par diverses institutions, chacune ayant pour but de mettre fin au conflit. Cet article porte sur l’une de ces interventions qui se prétend issue de la tradition de la parenté à plaisanterie entre les Diolas et les Sérères. Il examine comment la parenté à plaisanterie entre les Jolas et les Sérères devient “instrumentalisée” en tant que méthode de gestion du conflit armé. L’article montre comment une pratique culturelle est transformée pour devenir un instrument de politique et donc, comment la tradition devient politisée. En passant, l’auteur montre qui la logique de l’instrumentalisation s’inscrit dans un imaginaire sénégalais portant sûr l’état-nation. L’action inscrit le conflit dans un discours nationaliste et fait l’impasse sur l’économie politique qui est au fond du conflit. Il s’agit donc d’une contribution au débat actuel sur la résolution autochtone des conflits. Les méthodes traditionnelles de résolution des conflits ne devraient pas être comprises en tant que tradition a-historique mais plutôt en tant que geste de ré-interprétation du conflit par les organisations non-gouvernementales et l’État.

Contested Casamance: Introduction

ResumeLe conflit oppose en Casamance le Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casamance (MFDC) a l’Etat senegalais. Le MFDC, ne et operant dans la region de Casamance au Senegal, reclame l’independance politique de la region, pretendant que la Casamance n’a jamais fait partie du Senegal. Le MFDC fait etat de nombreux griefs, parmi lesquels l’accusation que le regime senegalais a regulierement manque a sa responsabilite d’investir dans le developpement economique de la region de Casamance. Les premiers mouvements d’agitation publique ont eu lieu en Casamance en 1982. En 1990, le MFDC a officiellement declare que le conflit arme etait le seul moyen d’acceder a l’independance. Depuis 23 ans, environ 700 000 Casamancais vivent dans un climat d’insecurite, dans la crainte de vols a main armee dont les rebelles ou les bandits se rendent coupables, et de violations des droits humains de la part des forces gouvernementales. Il reste tres difficile de maintenir une quelconque activite economique. L’infrastructure ...

Utopian archives, decolonial affordances:Introduction to special issue

Colonial archives constituted a technology that enabled the collection, storage, ordering, retrieval and exchange of knowledge as an instrument of colonial governance. It is not surprising that when such archives were inherited by independent nation-states they were not given the authority previously granted them and have often been neglected. What, then, is the future of colonial archives in postcolonial nations? How should we rethink these archives in relation to decolonial futures? This essay introduces a collection of articles that explore the repertoires of action latent in archives and how colonial archives are being reconfigured to imagine decolonial futures.

Animating the archive: the trial and testimony of a Sufi saint

In 1895 the colonial administration of Senegal sentenced Sheikh Amadu Bamba to exile for stirring anti-colonial disobedience. At his trial, Bamba allegedly recited a prayer in defiance of the French authorities. Although there is no archival record to prove that the prayer was recited, since the 1970s Bambas disciples have flocked to the former seat of colonial power to commemorate his act of resistance; their testimony has displaced the authority of the colonial archive and imagines a decolonial utopia in archival absence. This article examines how their prayer subverts the colonial archive, while it remains entangled in its substrate.

Art from the Archive

Mbembe (2010) have struggled to rethink African subjectivity and define a register that does not reduce the continent to eternal suffering or victimhood. The current interest in the archive is driven by a strong desire to examine the temporal and spatial mechanisms that have delivered us to a “posthistorical” moment of contemporaneity. In this context, contemporary artists have started to revisit the colonial archives (Demos 2013). Such returns are not gratuitous, but rather display serious engagements with the colonial past, present the possibility to inter vene in that history, and sate the desire to imagine an alternative future. Returns to the archive enable artists to tack backwards and forwards in time and to address perceived problems in the present. In this special issue, articles examine some of these questions in the work of individual African artists as they intervene in archival

Recycling Recognition: The Monument as Objet Trouvé of the Postcolony

This article examines the recycling of a colonial memorial to African veterans in Dakar, Senegal. This act of appropriation by the Senegalese government radically transformed the significance of the memorial and reconfigured the citys memoryscape. Whilst the Senegalese government thus reclaimed colonial history as constitutive for the postcolony, it simultaneously underwrote a postcolonial claim for recognition. The article examines this case as indicative for a wider trend to claims for recognition for which recyclia seem to lend themselves par excellence. As objects of mimetic appropriation, colonial memorials can be seen as the objets trouvés of the postcolony.This article examines the recycling of a colonial memorial to African veterans in Dakar, Senegal. This act of appropriation by the Senegalese government radically transformed the significance of th...

At work in the archive: introduction to special issue

In the last two decades, an increasing number of artists have engaged the spectres of colonialism that continue to haunt us in our postcolonial present. Interrupting established historical narratives of colonial domination, artists have started to address the legacy of imperialism by examining the colonial archive. At work in the archive, these artists examine the possibilities of decolonialising colonial subjectivities. Through the return, recuperation, and re-enactment of archives, archival art points to the potential of forgotten pasts and unanticipated futures lingering in the imperial archive. As the articles in this volume demonstrate, such archival interventions often serve an emancipatory agenda.In the last two decades, an increasing number of artists have engaged the spectres of colonialism that continue to haunt us in our postcolonial present. Interrupting established historical narratives of colonial domination, artists have started to address the legacy of imperialism by examining the colonial archive. At work in the archive, these artists examine the possibilities of decolonialising colonial subjectivities. Through the return, recuperation, and re-enactment of archives, archival art points to the potential of forgotten pasts and unanticipated futures lingering in the imperial archive. As the articles in this volume demonstrate, such archival interventions often serve an emancipatory agenda.

Le secret exposé:Révélation et reconnaissance d’un patrimoine immatériel au Sénégal

En 2005, la ceremonie du kankurang et les rites d’initiation mandingues ont ete inscrits au Patrimoine mondial de l’UNESCO. Je propose ici d’analyser la facon dont la patrimonialisation de la ceremonie a progressivement conduit a sa marchandisation. Cet article, qui rejette l’idee d’une culture « originale », s’inscrit dans les reflexions actuelles sur la marchandisation du patrimoine selon lesquelles culture et marchandise ne s’opposent pas mais sont au contraire mutuellement constitutives l’une de l’autre. Selon ce point de vue, on considere que l’objectification du patrimoine, loin de freiner le changement culturel, y participe pleinement. En se focalisant sur la facon dont la ceremonie est objectifiee par le regard des spectateurs, je montre que les participants a la ceremonie eux-memes ont adopte un autre regime visuel afin d’obtenir la reconnaissance de leur art. Grâce a cette etude de cas, j’espere remettre en question des lectures trop pessimistes de la marchandisation qui presupposent que toute transformation culturelle ne peut aboutir qu’a la perte.