Research: racial and ethnic belonging; memories and the uses of the past; nationalism and cosmopolitanism; the "postcolonial archive" Areas: Tanzania, Zanzibar, Kenya, Oman, Indian Ocean
Socialismes africains, socialismes en Afrique, 2021
In: Socialismes africains, socialismes en Afrique, edited by F. Blum et al. Paris, Éditions de la... more In: Socialismes africains, socialismes en Afrique, edited by F. Blum et al. Paris, Éditions de la FMSH
EN: "'The Derrida effect' in South Africa: Derrida, Harris, and the Notion of Archive(s) Against ... more EN: "'The Derrida effect' in South Africa: Derrida, Harris, and the Notion of Archive(s) Against Apartheid": This article explores the encounter between the world of the state archives of South Africa and the philosophy of Jacques Derrida as mediated by archivist Verne Harris. More broadly, it sheds an original light on the fortune of the book Mal d'archive and Derrida’s notion of “archive”, in the singular, within the archival turn and the contemporary internationalized intellectual space. It aims to elucidate the conditions of possibility of the transfer and reinterpretation of the notion of “archive”, as formulated in Mal d'archive, in order to create an epistemological tool for the re-foundation of the South African archives. Beyond this, those who re-appropriated the ‘archive’ strove to reinvent the South African nation at the historic moment of its emergence from apartheid in the 1990s. In a country struggling with archives that were documenting above all the policies of a racist state – “a sinister swelling on the body of the world" according to Derrida –, the "archive" seemed able to connect usually dissociated fields: the archival, the political and the ethical. Mal d'archive drew much attention because Derrida’s reflexion weaves together archive(s), knowledge, power and memory and as a result of his early political engagement against apartheid. This happened in the perspective of the issues of memory, reconciliation and forgiveness, but also of oblivion, that South Africa was then facing.
FR: Cet article interroge la rencontre entre le monde des archives de l’État sud-africain et la philosophie de Jacques Derrida par l’intermédiaire de l’archiviste Verne Harris. Il apporte plus largement un éclairage original sur la fortune de l’ouvrage Mal d’archive et de la notion derridienne d’« archive », au singulier, au sein du tournant archivistique et dans l’espace intellectuel internationalisé contemporain. Son objectif est d’élucider les conditions de possibilité du transfert et de la réinterprétation de la notion d’« archive », telle qu’exposée dans Mal d’archive, pour élaborer un outil épistémologique de refondation des archives sud-africaines. Au-delà, il s’est agi, pour les passeurs d’« archive », de tenter de réinventer la nation sud-africaine au moment historique de la sortie de l’apartheid dans les années 1990. Dans un pays aux prises avec des archives documentant avant tout les politiques d’un État raciste, « sinistre boursouflure sur le corps du monde » selon Derrida, l’« archive » paraissait à même de raccorder des champs habituellement dissociés – l’archivistique, la politique et l’éthique. Les liens que Derrida tisse entre archive(s), savoir, pouvoir et mémoire et l’engagement politique précoce du philosophe contre l’apartheid expliquent l’attention portée à Mal d’archive à l’horizon des enjeux de mémoire, de réconciliation et de pardon mais aussi d’oubli auxquels l’Afrique du Sud était alors confrontée.
EN: This article focuses on the slave market in Zanzibar, a heritage site of the slave trade and ... more EN: This article focuses on the slave market in Zanzibar, a heritage site of the slave trade and slavery in Africa and the Indian Ocean that has not been widely accepted by the population. It brings to light significant gaps between recent efforts to upgrade the site in 2016—through an exhibition that is more in line with historical reality than it was in the past—and local representations of slavery that tourist guides convey to visitors. Based on interviews with the guides and participant observation of the visits, this article shows that the slave market remains a friction zone where racialized identity constructions from the past are re-enacted. FR: Cet article s’intéresse au marché aux esclaves à Zanzibar, un site du patrimoine de la traite et de l’esclavage en Afrique et dans l’océan Indien qui ne fait pas consensus au sein de la population. Il met à jour d’importants écarts entre les efforts de revalorisation du site en 2016 – grâce à une exposition en meilleure adéquation avec la réalité historique qu’auparavant – et les représentations locales de l’esclavage, transmises aux visiteurs par les guides touristiques. À partir d’entretiens avec les guides et de l’observation participante des visites, l’article montre que le marché aux esclaves reste une zone de friction où se rejouent les constructions identitaires racialisées issues du passé
Social Memory, Silenced Voices, and Political Struggle: Remembering the Revolution in Zanzibar, 2018
This collection of essays takes the official commemoration of the 50th
anniversary of the Revolut... more This collection of essays takes the official commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Revolution in Zanzibar as its point of departure, focusing on the remembrance of the revolution and its reverberations in everyday life. As ethnographers, historians, and cultural geographers engaged with the complexities of postcolonial Zanzibar, we have been often struck by the ongoing impact of the revolution in ways great and small. Beyond any doubt, the uprising and its immediate aftermath built new conceptions of community and identity, new notions of race and cultural belonging, and new ideals of nationhood, citizenship, and sovereignty. Rather than seeking to define the revolution and strictly establish its meanings, we intend instead to trace its continuing echoes down to today, exploring complicated legacies, diverse representations, and mediated memories
Monumental Uneasiness, Commemorative Discomfort. Zanzibar and its Revolution Tower — Zanzibar’s R... more Monumental Uneasiness, Commemorative Discomfort. Zanzibar and its Revolution Tower — Zanzibar’s Revolution Tower, built in Michenzani, was a central feature of the
fiftieth anniversary commemorations of the 1964 Revolution. This massive and highly visible monument created uneasiness both for government employees and opponents to the regime. This article aims to explain this new state monumentalism by situating it between a neglected revolutionary monumentality and an invasive, yet contested, revolutionary rhetoric of modernization. It analyses negotiations among several state actors over the Tower’s formal attributes and location. It also accounts for public protests in order to highlight how much this architecture of power—initially intended to celebrate the nation and praise state power—ironically signals a crisis of state hegemony.
"Electoral Posters: Art, Strategy and Materials for Politics. The Revolution, the Opposition, and... more "Electoral Posters: Art, Strategy and Materials for Politics. The Revolution, the Opposition, and Zanzibar’s 2015 Election". The political efficacy of electoral posters does not merely result from the power of the image. This article shows that political support and action also arise from an engagement with electoral materials that mobilizes the body. Drawing upon a fine-grained ethnography of the 2015 elections in the Tanzanian archipelago of Zanzibar, it combines a biography of electoral posters – more particularly by focusing on the social life of an opposition poster – and a praxeological approach of the uses of posters in the public space. Putting up and removing posters as well as appropriating, recomposing, and singularising them shed light on the ordinary production of political subjectivities. This approach offers news ways of studying political cultures and party mobilisation.
Ambivalences patrimoniales au Sud. Mises en scène et jeux d'acteurs, 2016
À Zanzibar, les différends qui existent sur la traite esclavagiste et l'esclavage interne expliqu... more À Zanzibar, les différends qui existent sur la traite esclavagiste et l'esclavage interne expliquent leur difficile patrimonialisation. Les représentations locales de cette expérience historique renvoient à différentes strates de discours mémoriels politisés aujourd'hui entremêlées. Ces discours s'expriment à partir de répertoires raciaux, culturels et religieux polarisés qui ont été fortement modelés par l'histoire postcoloniale de Zanzibar à partir de la Révolution de 1964. L'article traite du cas du site du marché aux esclaves, situé au coeur du centre historique de Stone Town, et s'appuie plus particulièrement sur une ethnographie des visites du site pour saisir en contexte les discours mémoriels et patrimoniaux tenus par les guides touristiques.
The Italian shock documentary Africa Addio contains a sequence about massacres that occurred duri... more The Italian shock documentary Africa Addio contains a sequence about massacres that occurred during the Zanzibar revolution of 1964. Perceived by some of its Zanzibari viewers as a container of factual evidence of the brutality of this epochal event, this sequence is contested by others who assert that it was staged or re-enacted. One critical aspect of these oppositional views concerns the very status of this documentary and the trust that can be placed in it as an archival record. Whether Africa Addio is seen as authentic or fabricated, it provides Zanzibaris with a medium through which to revisit the past and rethink Zanzibari society in the present.
Celui pour qui le swahili (ou kiswahili) est un instrument d’enquête et non un objet d’étude parl... more Celui pour qui le swahili (ou kiswahili) est un instrument d’enquête et non un objet d’étude parle de cette langue à partir d’une position inconfortable. Ceci est d’autant plus vrai lorsque les propos qu’il tient s’adressent aux spécialistes en études swahili. Cet inconfort qui est le mien — en tant qu’anthropologue travaillant depuis une quinzaine d’années en Tanzanie continentale et à Zanzibar et...
Une nouvelle Afrique de l’Est se dessine. Des régimes politiques hybrides, un capitalisme dévelop... more Une nouvelle Afrique de l’Est se dessine. Des régimes politiques hybrides, un capitalisme développemental, de grands chantiers d’infrastructures et des enjeux sécuritaires partagés forment les principales entrées de ce numéro d’Afrique contemporaine coordonné par Marie-Aude Fouéré et Hervé Maupeu. Élise Dufief, Marie-Aude Fouéré, Elsje Fourie, Alain Gascon, Hervé Maupeu et Jérémy Révillon montrent en quoi cet espace régional est une construction politique et rhétorique jamais totalement stabilisée.
"Maintaining competitive hegemony against all odds : the 2015 general elections in Tanzania and Z... more "Maintaining competitive hegemony against all odds : the 2015 general elections in Tanzania and Zanzibar": In Tanzania, for the fifth time since the reintroduction of multipartism, the former single party CCM (Party of the Revolution) won the October 2015 general elections with a large majority. Tanzania’s ruling party successfully remained in power by using different strategies : it managed to overcome its internal divisions ; it built its presidential candidate’s popularity by drawing upon political morality ; it used its networks of patronage, cooptation and surveillance of the population ; and finally it manipulated to its advantage the institutional and electoral system. In Zanzibar, however, the faltering regime revealed its weakness when it resorted to authoritarian measures to prevent the opposition from winning. Since the annulment of its elections, the archipelago has plunged into a crisis with an uncertain outcome.
Indian Africa: Minorities of Indian-Pakistani Origin in Eastern Africa, ed. Michel Adam, 2015.
Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have minorities from the Indian sub-continent amongst their population... more Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have minorities from the Indian sub-continent amongst their population. The East African Indians mostly reside in the main cities, particularly Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, Mombasa, Kampala; they can also be found in smaller urban centres and in the remotest of rural townships. They play a leading social and economic role as they work in business, manufacturing and the service industry, and make up a large proportion of the liberal professions. They are divided into multiple socio-religious communities, but united in a mutual feeling of meta-cultural identity.
This book aims at painting a broad picture of the communities of Indian origin in East Africa, striving to include changes that have occurred since the end of the 1980s. The contributions explore questions of race and citizenship, national loyalties and cosmopolitan identities, local attachment and transnational networks. Drawing upon anthropology, history, sociology and demography, Indian Africa depicts a multifaceted population and analyses how the past and the present shape their sense of belonging, their relations with others, their professional and political engagement.
This paper argues that the broadening over time of definitions of heritage has had
strong implica... more This paper argues that the broadening over time of definitions of heritage has had strong implications for researchers working in East Africa today. Moving away from material preservationist issues of concern to governments and international heritage bodies, most scholars have recently focused their research on the entanglement of heritage with memory, politics, identity and social healing processes. They also increasingly investigate the growing agency and centrality of civil society stakeholders, as well as the negotiation of power and authority between the different levels — local, national, international — involved in heritage making and heritage promotion. Focusing on the case of slavery and the slave trade, the rise of civil society engagement and the contestations that continue to swirl around the commemoration of liberation heroes, the paper depicts how heritage and memory have become a site of struggle — symbolically, ethically and emotionally charged — in today’s East Africa.
In Zanzibar, the figure of Julius Nyerere is being recast in debates over sovereignty, belonging ... more In Zanzibar, the figure of Julius Nyerere is being recast in debates over sovereignty, belonging and nationhood. Unlike mainland Tanzania, where he is upheld as the Father of the Nation, the first president of Tanganyika and Tanzania is increasingly portrayed in Zanzibar as the Enemy of the Nation responsible for the Isles' predicament. This article gives insight into the terms, actors and circulation of this pejorative narrative in relation to two central historical events: the 1964 Revolution and the Union. It also shows how such anti-Nyererism mediates anxious concerns over cultural distinctiveness and Islam.
Since the 2000s, Tanzania has witnessed the return in the public sphere of a reconfigured version... more Since the 2000s, Tanzania has witnessed the return in the public sphere of a reconfigured version of Ujamaa as a set of moral principles embodied in the figure of the first president of Tanzania, Julius Kambarage Nyerere. The persisting traces of Nyerere and Ujamaa are not so evident in actual political practices or economic policies, but rather in collective debates about politics and morality—in short, in contemporary imaginaries of the nation. Contributing to a long-standing discussion of the moral stature of Tanzania’s “father of the nation,” the article explores how and why a shared historical memory of Nyerere is being built or contested to define, mediate, and construct Tanzanian conceptions of morality, belonging, and citizenship in the polis today.
For years, the official narrative of the Zanzibari nation imposed a specific conception of identi... more For years, the official narrative of the Zanzibari nation imposed a specific conception of identity and citizenship built on a racial understanding of the Isles' history and the silencing of collective memories of violence perpetrated by the 1964–1972 regime. The democratization process of the mid-1990s allowed for the emergence of a critical public sphere which contributed to the public circulation of alternative national imaginaries and the resurfacing of clandestine collective memories. This paper explores the role of the press in the production and circulation of alternative narratives of the 1964 Revolution and its aftermath by focusing on a newspaper called Dira. It shows how issues raised by the newspaper's memory entrepreneurs engage with collective representations of belonging and the nation in Zanzibar.
The Revolution of 1964 and its aftermath (1964–1975) constitute a central episode in the history ... more The Revolution of 1964 and its aftermath (1964–1975) constitute a central episode in the history of Zanzibar, one that shapes contemporary representations of belonging and the nation. Several initiatives attest to the beginning of a new era since the mid-1990s, characterized by the dissemination in the public space of collective memories formerly transmitted privately, and associated with the rewriting of the history of the revolutionary period, which contests the official version long imposed by the state. In the context of past repression, occlusion, and the silencing of a murky past, today's remembering of the 1964 violence and the subsequent years of repression triggers memory disputes, which are expressed along political and community lines. Instead of leading to a pacified memory and social reconciliation, the resurfacing and politicization of collective memories in contemporary Zanzibar reactivate shifting perceptions of autochthony and allochthony, of belonging and citizenship. 05_Dark Years (113).indd 113 9/17/12 11:06 PM
Socialismes africains, socialismes en Afrique, 2021
In: Socialismes africains, socialismes en Afrique, edited by F. Blum et al. Paris, Éditions de la... more In: Socialismes africains, socialismes en Afrique, edited by F. Blum et al. Paris, Éditions de la FMSH
EN: "'The Derrida effect' in South Africa: Derrida, Harris, and the Notion of Archive(s) Against ... more EN: "'The Derrida effect' in South Africa: Derrida, Harris, and the Notion of Archive(s) Against Apartheid": This article explores the encounter between the world of the state archives of South Africa and the philosophy of Jacques Derrida as mediated by archivist Verne Harris. More broadly, it sheds an original light on the fortune of the book Mal d'archive and Derrida’s notion of “archive”, in the singular, within the archival turn and the contemporary internationalized intellectual space. It aims to elucidate the conditions of possibility of the transfer and reinterpretation of the notion of “archive”, as formulated in Mal d'archive, in order to create an epistemological tool for the re-foundation of the South African archives. Beyond this, those who re-appropriated the ‘archive’ strove to reinvent the South African nation at the historic moment of its emergence from apartheid in the 1990s. In a country struggling with archives that were documenting above all the policies of a racist state – “a sinister swelling on the body of the world" according to Derrida –, the "archive" seemed able to connect usually dissociated fields: the archival, the political and the ethical. Mal d'archive drew much attention because Derrida’s reflexion weaves together archive(s), knowledge, power and memory and as a result of his early political engagement against apartheid. This happened in the perspective of the issues of memory, reconciliation and forgiveness, but also of oblivion, that South Africa was then facing.
FR: Cet article interroge la rencontre entre le monde des archives de l’État sud-africain et la philosophie de Jacques Derrida par l’intermédiaire de l’archiviste Verne Harris. Il apporte plus largement un éclairage original sur la fortune de l’ouvrage Mal d’archive et de la notion derridienne d’« archive », au singulier, au sein du tournant archivistique et dans l’espace intellectuel internationalisé contemporain. Son objectif est d’élucider les conditions de possibilité du transfert et de la réinterprétation de la notion d’« archive », telle qu’exposée dans Mal d’archive, pour élaborer un outil épistémologique de refondation des archives sud-africaines. Au-delà, il s’est agi, pour les passeurs d’« archive », de tenter de réinventer la nation sud-africaine au moment historique de la sortie de l’apartheid dans les années 1990. Dans un pays aux prises avec des archives documentant avant tout les politiques d’un État raciste, « sinistre boursouflure sur le corps du monde » selon Derrida, l’« archive » paraissait à même de raccorder des champs habituellement dissociés – l’archivistique, la politique et l’éthique. Les liens que Derrida tisse entre archive(s), savoir, pouvoir et mémoire et l’engagement politique précoce du philosophe contre l’apartheid expliquent l’attention portée à Mal d’archive à l’horizon des enjeux de mémoire, de réconciliation et de pardon mais aussi d’oubli auxquels l’Afrique du Sud était alors confrontée.
EN: This article focuses on the slave market in Zanzibar, a heritage site of the slave trade and ... more EN: This article focuses on the slave market in Zanzibar, a heritage site of the slave trade and slavery in Africa and the Indian Ocean that has not been widely accepted by the population. It brings to light significant gaps between recent efforts to upgrade the site in 2016—through an exhibition that is more in line with historical reality than it was in the past—and local representations of slavery that tourist guides convey to visitors. Based on interviews with the guides and participant observation of the visits, this article shows that the slave market remains a friction zone where racialized identity constructions from the past are re-enacted. FR: Cet article s’intéresse au marché aux esclaves à Zanzibar, un site du patrimoine de la traite et de l’esclavage en Afrique et dans l’océan Indien qui ne fait pas consensus au sein de la population. Il met à jour d’importants écarts entre les efforts de revalorisation du site en 2016 – grâce à une exposition en meilleure adéquation avec la réalité historique qu’auparavant – et les représentations locales de l’esclavage, transmises aux visiteurs par les guides touristiques. À partir d’entretiens avec les guides et de l’observation participante des visites, l’article montre que le marché aux esclaves reste une zone de friction où se rejouent les constructions identitaires racialisées issues du passé
Social Memory, Silenced Voices, and Political Struggle: Remembering the Revolution in Zanzibar, 2018
This collection of essays takes the official commemoration of the 50th
anniversary of the Revolut... more This collection of essays takes the official commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Revolution in Zanzibar as its point of departure, focusing on the remembrance of the revolution and its reverberations in everyday life. As ethnographers, historians, and cultural geographers engaged with the complexities of postcolonial Zanzibar, we have been often struck by the ongoing impact of the revolution in ways great and small. Beyond any doubt, the uprising and its immediate aftermath built new conceptions of community and identity, new notions of race and cultural belonging, and new ideals of nationhood, citizenship, and sovereignty. Rather than seeking to define the revolution and strictly establish its meanings, we intend instead to trace its continuing echoes down to today, exploring complicated legacies, diverse representations, and mediated memories
Monumental Uneasiness, Commemorative Discomfort. Zanzibar and its Revolution Tower — Zanzibar’s R... more Monumental Uneasiness, Commemorative Discomfort. Zanzibar and its Revolution Tower — Zanzibar’s Revolution Tower, built in Michenzani, was a central feature of the
fiftieth anniversary commemorations of the 1964 Revolution. This massive and highly visible monument created uneasiness both for government employees and opponents to the regime. This article aims to explain this new state monumentalism by situating it between a neglected revolutionary monumentality and an invasive, yet contested, revolutionary rhetoric of modernization. It analyses negotiations among several state actors over the Tower’s formal attributes and location. It also accounts for public protests in order to highlight how much this architecture of power—initially intended to celebrate the nation and praise state power—ironically signals a crisis of state hegemony.
"Electoral Posters: Art, Strategy and Materials for Politics. The Revolution, the Opposition, and... more "Electoral Posters: Art, Strategy and Materials for Politics. The Revolution, the Opposition, and Zanzibar’s 2015 Election". The political efficacy of electoral posters does not merely result from the power of the image. This article shows that political support and action also arise from an engagement with electoral materials that mobilizes the body. Drawing upon a fine-grained ethnography of the 2015 elections in the Tanzanian archipelago of Zanzibar, it combines a biography of electoral posters – more particularly by focusing on the social life of an opposition poster – and a praxeological approach of the uses of posters in the public space. Putting up and removing posters as well as appropriating, recomposing, and singularising them shed light on the ordinary production of political subjectivities. This approach offers news ways of studying political cultures and party mobilisation.
Ambivalences patrimoniales au Sud. Mises en scène et jeux d'acteurs, 2016
À Zanzibar, les différends qui existent sur la traite esclavagiste et l'esclavage interne expliqu... more À Zanzibar, les différends qui existent sur la traite esclavagiste et l'esclavage interne expliquent leur difficile patrimonialisation. Les représentations locales de cette expérience historique renvoient à différentes strates de discours mémoriels politisés aujourd'hui entremêlées. Ces discours s'expriment à partir de répertoires raciaux, culturels et religieux polarisés qui ont été fortement modelés par l'histoire postcoloniale de Zanzibar à partir de la Révolution de 1964. L'article traite du cas du site du marché aux esclaves, situé au coeur du centre historique de Stone Town, et s'appuie plus particulièrement sur une ethnographie des visites du site pour saisir en contexte les discours mémoriels et patrimoniaux tenus par les guides touristiques.
The Italian shock documentary Africa Addio contains a sequence about massacres that occurred duri... more The Italian shock documentary Africa Addio contains a sequence about massacres that occurred during the Zanzibar revolution of 1964. Perceived by some of its Zanzibari viewers as a container of factual evidence of the brutality of this epochal event, this sequence is contested by others who assert that it was staged or re-enacted. One critical aspect of these oppositional views concerns the very status of this documentary and the trust that can be placed in it as an archival record. Whether Africa Addio is seen as authentic or fabricated, it provides Zanzibaris with a medium through which to revisit the past and rethink Zanzibari society in the present.
Celui pour qui le swahili (ou kiswahili) est un instrument d’enquête et non un objet d’étude parl... more Celui pour qui le swahili (ou kiswahili) est un instrument d’enquête et non un objet d’étude parle de cette langue à partir d’une position inconfortable. Ceci est d’autant plus vrai lorsque les propos qu’il tient s’adressent aux spécialistes en études swahili. Cet inconfort qui est le mien — en tant qu’anthropologue travaillant depuis une quinzaine d’années en Tanzanie continentale et à Zanzibar et...
Une nouvelle Afrique de l’Est se dessine. Des régimes politiques hybrides, un capitalisme dévelop... more Une nouvelle Afrique de l’Est se dessine. Des régimes politiques hybrides, un capitalisme développemental, de grands chantiers d’infrastructures et des enjeux sécuritaires partagés forment les principales entrées de ce numéro d’Afrique contemporaine coordonné par Marie-Aude Fouéré et Hervé Maupeu. Élise Dufief, Marie-Aude Fouéré, Elsje Fourie, Alain Gascon, Hervé Maupeu et Jérémy Révillon montrent en quoi cet espace régional est une construction politique et rhétorique jamais totalement stabilisée.
"Maintaining competitive hegemony against all odds : the 2015 general elections in Tanzania and Z... more "Maintaining competitive hegemony against all odds : the 2015 general elections in Tanzania and Zanzibar": In Tanzania, for the fifth time since the reintroduction of multipartism, the former single party CCM (Party of the Revolution) won the October 2015 general elections with a large majority. Tanzania’s ruling party successfully remained in power by using different strategies : it managed to overcome its internal divisions ; it built its presidential candidate’s popularity by drawing upon political morality ; it used its networks of patronage, cooptation and surveillance of the population ; and finally it manipulated to its advantage the institutional and electoral system. In Zanzibar, however, the faltering regime revealed its weakness when it resorted to authoritarian measures to prevent the opposition from winning. Since the annulment of its elections, the archipelago has plunged into a crisis with an uncertain outcome.
Indian Africa: Minorities of Indian-Pakistani Origin in Eastern Africa, ed. Michel Adam, 2015.
Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have minorities from the Indian sub-continent amongst their population... more Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have minorities from the Indian sub-continent amongst their population. The East African Indians mostly reside in the main cities, particularly Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, Mombasa, Kampala; they can also be found in smaller urban centres and in the remotest of rural townships. They play a leading social and economic role as they work in business, manufacturing and the service industry, and make up a large proportion of the liberal professions. They are divided into multiple socio-religious communities, but united in a mutual feeling of meta-cultural identity.
This book aims at painting a broad picture of the communities of Indian origin in East Africa, striving to include changes that have occurred since the end of the 1980s. The contributions explore questions of race and citizenship, national loyalties and cosmopolitan identities, local attachment and transnational networks. Drawing upon anthropology, history, sociology and demography, Indian Africa depicts a multifaceted population and analyses how the past and the present shape their sense of belonging, their relations with others, their professional and political engagement.
This paper argues that the broadening over time of definitions of heritage has had
strong implica... more This paper argues that the broadening over time of definitions of heritage has had strong implications for researchers working in East Africa today. Moving away from material preservationist issues of concern to governments and international heritage bodies, most scholars have recently focused their research on the entanglement of heritage with memory, politics, identity and social healing processes. They also increasingly investigate the growing agency and centrality of civil society stakeholders, as well as the negotiation of power and authority between the different levels — local, national, international — involved in heritage making and heritage promotion. Focusing on the case of slavery and the slave trade, the rise of civil society engagement and the contestations that continue to swirl around the commemoration of liberation heroes, the paper depicts how heritage and memory have become a site of struggle — symbolically, ethically and emotionally charged — in today’s East Africa.
In Zanzibar, the figure of Julius Nyerere is being recast in debates over sovereignty, belonging ... more In Zanzibar, the figure of Julius Nyerere is being recast in debates over sovereignty, belonging and nationhood. Unlike mainland Tanzania, where he is upheld as the Father of the Nation, the first president of Tanganyika and Tanzania is increasingly portrayed in Zanzibar as the Enemy of the Nation responsible for the Isles' predicament. This article gives insight into the terms, actors and circulation of this pejorative narrative in relation to two central historical events: the 1964 Revolution and the Union. It also shows how such anti-Nyererism mediates anxious concerns over cultural distinctiveness and Islam.
Since the 2000s, Tanzania has witnessed the return in the public sphere of a reconfigured version... more Since the 2000s, Tanzania has witnessed the return in the public sphere of a reconfigured version of Ujamaa as a set of moral principles embodied in the figure of the first president of Tanzania, Julius Kambarage Nyerere. The persisting traces of Nyerere and Ujamaa are not so evident in actual political practices or economic policies, but rather in collective debates about politics and morality—in short, in contemporary imaginaries of the nation. Contributing to a long-standing discussion of the moral stature of Tanzania’s “father of the nation,” the article explores how and why a shared historical memory of Nyerere is being built or contested to define, mediate, and construct Tanzanian conceptions of morality, belonging, and citizenship in the polis today.
For years, the official narrative of the Zanzibari nation imposed a specific conception of identi... more For years, the official narrative of the Zanzibari nation imposed a specific conception of identity and citizenship built on a racial understanding of the Isles' history and the silencing of collective memories of violence perpetrated by the 1964–1972 regime. The democratization process of the mid-1990s allowed for the emergence of a critical public sphere which contributed to the public circulation of alternative national imaginaries and the resurfacing of clandestine collective memories. This paper explores the role of the press in the production and circulation of alternative narratives of the 1964 Revolution and its aftermath by focusing on a newspaper called Dira. It shows how issues raised by the newspaper's memory entrepreneurs engage with collective representations of belonging and the nation in Zanzibar.
The Revolution of 1964 and its aftermath (1964–1975) constitute a central episode in the history ... more The Revolution of 1964 and its aftermath (1964–1975) constitute a central episode in the history of Zanzibar, one that shapes contemporary representations of belonging and the nation. Several initiatives attest to the beginning of a new era since the mid-1990s, characterized by the dissemination in the public space of collective memories formerly transmitted privately, and associated with the rewriting of the history of the revolutionary period, which contests the official version long imposed by the state. In the context of past repression, occlusion, and the silencing of a murky past, today's remembering of the 1964 violence and the subsequent years of repression triggers memory disputes, which are expressed along political and community lines. Instead of leading to a pacified memory and social reconciliation, the resurfacing and politicization of collective memories in contemporary Zanzibar reactivate shifting perceptions of autochthony and allochthony, of belonging and citizenship. 05_Dark Years (113).indd 113 9/17/12 11:06 PM
All the islands of the western Indian Ocean are immigrant societies: Austronesian seafarers, Afri... more All the islands of the western Indian Ocean are immigrant societies: Austronesian seafarers, African slaves, Arab traders, South Asian indentured labourers and European plantation owners have all settled, some voluntarily, others less so, on Madagascar and Zanzibar, in the Mascarenes and the Comoros. Successive arrivals often struggle to establish their places in these societies, negotiating their way in the face of antipathy, resistance, even violence, as different claims to belonging conflict. The contributions to this volume take a selection of case studies from across the region, and from different perspectives, contributing to a theorisation of the concept of belonging itself.
Free access online: https://books.openedition.org/africae/2390. This volume provides both an over... more Free access online: https://books.openedition.org/africae/2390. This volume provides both an overview and specific visions of Kenya in the first quarter of the 21st century.
Free online access: https://books.openedition.org/africae/2009. Cet ouvrage collectif offre une s... more Free online access: https://books.openedition.org/africae/2009. Cet ouvrage collectif offre une saisie synthétique et des visions particulières du Kenya en ce premier quart du XXIème siècle
This volume focuses on the cultural memory and mediation of the 1964 Zanzibar revolution, analyzi... more This volume focuses on the cultural memory and mediation of the 1964 Zanzibar revolution, analyzing its continuing reverberations in everyday life. The revolution constructed new conceptions of community and identity, race and cultural belonging, as well as instituting different ideals of nationhood, citizenship, and sovereignty. As the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the revolution revealed, the official versions of events have shifted significantly over time and the legacy of the uprising is still deeply contested. In these debates, the question of Zanzibari identity remains very much at stake: Who exactly belongs in the islands and what historical processes brought them there? What are the boundaries of the nation, and who can claim to be an essential part of this imagined and embodied community?
Online access: https://books.openedition.org/africae/643. This edited volume is about the rekindl... more Online access: https://books.openedition.org/africae/643. This edited volume is about the rekindled investment in the figure of the first president Julius K. Nyerere in contemporary Tanzania. It explores how Nyerere is remembered by Tanzanians from different levels of society, in what ways and for what purposes. Looking into what Nyerere means and stands for today, it provides insight into the media, the political arena, poetry, the education sector, or street-corner talks. The main argument of this book is that Nyerere has become a widely shared political metaphor used to debate and contest conceptions of the Tanzanian nation and Tanzanian-ness. The state-citizens relationship, the moral standards for the exercise of power, and the contours of national sentiment are under scrutiny when the figure of Nyerere is mobilized today.
How different were the 2011 elections? Did the political environment in the run-up to the electio... more How different were the 2011 elections? Did the political environment in the run-up to the elections restrict the capacity of political organisations to 'organise and express themselves'? Could the relative restriction of civil and political freedoms affect the pattern of voting and electoral outcomes? Do the election outcomes represent the people's view? To answer these questions, Elections in a Hybrid Regime: Revisiting the 2011 Ugandan Polls applies a multidisciplinary approach to conducting a multifaceted analysis of the 2011 elections in Uganda. Geographers, demographers, political scientists, and anthropologists contribute different in-depth political analyses, rather than partisan opinions or emotional reactions. The contributions assess Uganda's evolving electoral democracy and provides field-based insights into critical, often underappreciated, aspects of the electoral process. It is relevant for contemporary researchers, students, opinion leaders, international organisations, donors and policy practitioners in the fields of democracy and governance; comparative politics; political institutional building and African politics.
Accessible online: https://books.openedition.org/africae/1377. This edited volume on Kenya's 2013... more Accessible online: https://books.openedition.org/africae/1377. This edited volume on Kenya's 2013 general elections explores whether the past prepared the scene for a new political order in Kenya.
The 9th European Swahili Workshop will be organised in Paris on 18-19th April 2016 on the followi... more The 9th European Swahili Workshop will be organised in Paris on 18-19th April 2016 on the following theme: " Working on/with archives and the written word in anthropology and literary studies ". As historians and philologists working on Arabic and Swahili manuscripts have demonstrated, due to early Islamization and the preservation of documents, the Swahili world is characterized by the pervasiveness of the written word. This was true in the past and remains true today. As a result, archives and the written word constitute a particularly relevant site in which to engage in theoretical and epistemological reflections about how to work on and with documents that are created, selected and stored, but also used, circulated and mediated by different social actors and for various reasons. " Archives " are not merely considered in a conventional way as a collection of documents appraised, selected and stored by professional archivists, as a building of a public institution, and as an organ of the state. Following recent path-breaking scholarly works, this notion is increasingly being used to encompass varied types of document, thus bringing into focus non-state archives, family or community archives, oral tradition, collective memory, etc. These works also called for research that looks into the identity and status of the actors who create texts and archives (whether professionals, or ordinary citizens), the processes of text-making and archive-making, and the specific historical contexts within which social actors work. Last, they prompted research on the aims and effects of texts and archives, e.g. to assert memory claims, produce identity, foster collective mobilisation, or create artwork. This theme is intended to reflect and foster the rapprochement of the research objects and theoretical perspectives of anthropology and literary studies. This rapprochement offers opportunities to discuss commonalities and differences in how archives and texts are explored and analysed. Participants may like to consider questions such as: How does the anthropology of texts and of the archive intersect – or not – with a literary studies increasingly interested in contextualizing the text? How can the study of the production of texts be tied to their reception and uses, exploring not only audience and readership but also processes of oralisation of texts, and the mediation of texts through sounds, images, and performances? Are disciplinary boundaries still relevant and desirable? We invite participants to think about the theme in association with contemporary issues connected with the Swahili and their worlds, whether this be in East and Central Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Europe or beyond. We encourage papers that reflect the diversity of research interests among scholars as long as they revisit the general topic of this workshop in new and unexpected ways.
This edited volume is about the rekindled investment in the figure of the first president Julius ... more This edited volume is about the rekindled investment in the figure of the first president Julius K. Nyerere in contemporary Tanzania. It explores how Nyerere is remembered by Tanzanians from different levels of society, in what ways and for what purposes. Looking into what Nyerere means and stands for today, it provides insight into the media, the political arena, poetry, the education sector, or street-corner talks. The main argument of this book is that Nyerere has become a widely shared political metaphor used to debate and contest conceptions of the Tanzanian nation and Tanzanian-ness. The state-citizens relationship, the moral standards for the exercise of power, and the contours of national sentiment are under scrutiny when the figure of Nyerere is mobilized today. The contributions gathered here come from a generation of budding or renowned scholars in varied disciplines - history, anthropology and political science. Drawing upon materials collected through extensive fieldwor...
Cet ouvrage offre une saisie synthetique et des visions particulieres du Kenya en ce premier quar... more Cet ouvrage offre une saisie synthetique et des visions particulieres du Kenya en ce premier quart du XXIe siecle. Il rassemble des contributions rigoureuses et accessibles pour montrer comment, depuis l’alternance de 2002, le Kenya s’efforce de changer par la modernisation economique et la liberalisation politique. Les transformations annoncees voient le jour, meme si les legs du passe et les habitus politiques en ralentissent la marche. Les differents chapitres nous menent du capitalisme developpemental kenyan a la grande pauvrete et aux inegalites vivaces, des reformes sur le papier aux mises en œuvre en demi-teinte dans de multiples secteurs : gouvernance decentralisee, ressources naturelles, foncier, education. L’histoire ancienne et coloniale, la diversite du peuplement au Kenya permettent de mieux comprendre les clivages politiques, religieux et communautaires, les asymetries entre villes et campagnes, entre Nairobi et la cote, dans un Kenya ouvert sur le monde, autant par le commerce et la finance que par les reseaux de l’art.
RésumésCet article interroge la rencontre entre le monde des archives de l’État sud-africain et l... more RésumésCet article interroge la rencontre entre le monde des archives de l’État sud-africain et la philosophie de Jacques Derrida par l’intermédiaire de l’archiviste Verne Harris. Il apporte plus largement un éclairage original sur la fortune de l’ouvrage Mal d’archive et de la notion derridienne d’« archive », au singulier, au sein du tournant archivistique et dans l’espace intellectuel internationalisé contemporain. Son objectif est d’élucider les conditions de possibilité du transfert et de la réinterprétation de la notion d’« archive », telle qu’exposée dans Mal d’archive, afin d’élaborer un outil épistémologique de refondation des archives sud-africaines. Au-delà, il s’est agi, pour les passeurs d’« archive », de tenter de réinventer la nation sud-africaine au moment historique de la sortie de l’apartheid dans les années 1990. Dans un pays aux prises avec des archives qui documentent avant tout les politiques d’un État raciste, « sinistre boursouflure sur le corps du monde » se...
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Articles by Marie-Aude Fouere
FR: Cet article interroge la rencontre entre le monde des archives de l’État sud-africain et la philosophie de Jacques Derrida par l’intermédiaire de l’archiviste Verne Harris. Il apporte plus largement un éclairage original sur la fortune de l’ouvrage Mal d’archive et de la notion derridienne d’« archive », au singulier, au sein du tournant archivistique et dans l’espace intellectuel internationalisé contemporain. Son objectif est d’élucider les conditions de possibilité du transfert et de la réinterprétation de la notion d’« archive », telle qu’exposée dans Mal d’archive, pour élaborer un outil épistémologique de refondation des archives sud-africaines. Au-delà, il s’est agi, pour les passeurs d’« archive », de tenter de réinventer la nation sud-africaine au moment historique de la sortie de l’apartheid dans les années 1990. Dans un pays aux prises avec des archives documentant avant tout les politiques d’un État raciste, « sinistre boursouflure sur le corps du monde » selon Derrida, l’« archive » paraissait à même de raccorder des champs habituellement dissociés – l’archivistique, la politique et l’éthique. Les liens que Derrida tisse entre archive(s), savoir, pouvoir et mémoire et l’engagement politique précoce du philosophe contre l’apartheid expliquent l’attention portée à Mal d’archive à l’horizon des enjeux de mémoire, de réconciliation et de pardon mais aussi d’oubli auxquels l’Afrique du Sud était alors confrontée.
FR: Cet article s’intéresse au marché aux esclaves à Zanzibar, un site du patrimoine de la traite et de l’esclavage en Afrique et dans l’océan Indien qui ne fait pas consensus au sein de la population. Il met à jour d’importants écarts entre les efforts de revalorisation du site en 2016 – grâce à une exposition en meilleure adéquation avec la réalité historique qu’auparavant – et les représentations locales de l’esclavage, transmises aux visiteurs par les guides touristiques. À partir d’entretiens avec les guides et de l’observation participante des visites, l’article montre que le marché aux esclaves reste une zone de friction où se rejouent les constructions identitaires racialisées issues du passé
anniversary of the Revolution in Zanzibar as its point of departure, focusing on the remembrance of the revolution and its reverberations in everyday life. As ethnographers, historians, and cultural geographers engaged with the complexities of postcolonial Zanzibar, we have been often struck by the ongoing impact of the revolution in ways great and small. Beyond any doubt, the uprising and its immediate aftermath built new conceptions of
community and identity, new notions of race and cultural belonging, and new ideals of nationhood, citizenship, and sovereignty. Rather than seeking to define the revolution and strictly establish its meanings, we intend instead to trace its continuing echoes down to today, exploring complicated legacies, diverse representations, and mediated memories
fiftieth anniversary commemorations of the 1964 Revolution. This massive and highly visible monument created uneasiness both for government employees and opponents to the regime. This article aims to explain this new state monumentalism by situating it between a neglected revolutionary monumentality and an invasive, yet contested, revolutionary rhetoric of modernization. It analyses negotiations among several state actors over the Tower’s formal attributes and location. It also accounts for public protests in order to highlight how much this architecture of power—initially intended to celebrate the nation and praise state power—ironically signals a crisis of state hegemony.
In Tanzania, for the fifth time since the reintroduction of multipartism, the former single party CCM (Party of the Revolution) won the October 2015 general elections with a large majority. Tanzania’s ruling party successfully remained in power by using different strategies : it managed to overcome its internal divisions ; it built its presidential candidate’s popularity by drawing upon political morality ; it used its networks of patronage, cooptation and surveillance of the population ; and finally it manipulated to its advantage the institutional and electoral system. In Zanzibar, however, the faltering regime revealed its weakness when it resorted to authoritarian measures to prevent the opposition from winning. Since the annulment of its elections, the archipelago has plunged into a crisis with an uncertain outcome.
This book aims at painting a broad picture of the communities of Indian origin in East Africa, striving to include changes that have occurred since the end of the 1980s. The contributions explore questions of race and citizenship, national loyalties and cosmopolitan identities, local attachment and transnational networks. Drawing upon anthropology, history, sociology and demography, Indian Africa depicts a multifaceted population and analyses how the past and the present shape their sense of belonging, their relations with others, their professional and political engagement.
strong implications for researchers working in East Africa today. Moving away
from material preservationist issues of concern to governments and
international heritage bodies, most scholars have recently focused their research
on the entanglement of heritage with memory, politics, identity and social
healing processes. They also increasingly investigate the growing agency and
centrality of civil society stakeholders, as well as the negotiation of power and
authority between the different levels — local, national, international —
involved in heritage making and heritage promotion. Focusing on the case of
slavery and the slave trade, the rise of civil society engagement and the
contestations that continue to swirl around the commemoration of liberation
heroes, the paper depicts how heritage and memory have become a site of
struggle — symbolically, ethically and emotionally charged — in today’s East
Africa.
FR: Cet article interroge la rencontre entre le monde des archives de l’État sud-africain et la philosophie de Jacques Derrida par l’intermédiaire de l’archiviste Verne Harris. Il apporte plus largement un éclairage original sur la fortune de l’ouvrage Mal d’archive et de la notion derridienne d’« archive », au singulier, au sein du tournant archivistique et dans l’espace intellectuel internationalisé contemporain. Son objectif est d’élucider les conditions de possibilité du transfert et de la réinterprétation de la notion d’« archive », telle qu’exposée dans Mal d’archive, pour élaborer un outil épistémologique de refondation des archives sud-africaines. Au-delà, il s’est agi, pour les passeurs d’« archive », de tenter de réinventer la nation sud-africaine au moment historique de la sortie de l’apartheid dans les années 1990. Dans un pays aux prises avec des archives documentant avant tout les politiques d’un État raciste, « sinistre boursouflure sur le corps du monde » selon Derrida, l’« archive » paraissait à même de raccorder des champs habituellement dissociés – l’archivistique, la politique et l’éthique. Les liens que Derrida tisse entre archive(s), savoir, pouvoir et mémoire et l’engagement politique précoce du philosophe contre l’apartheid expliquent l’attention portée à Mal d’archive à l’horizon des enjeux de mémoire, de réconciliation et de pardon mais aussi d’oubli auxquels l’Afrique du Sud était alors confrontée.
FR: Cet article s’intéresse au marché aux esclaves à Zanzibar, un site du patrimoine de la traite et de l’esclavage en Afrique et dans l’océan Indien qui ne fait pas consensus au sein de la population. Il met à jour d’importants écarts entre les efforts de revalorisation du site en 2016 – grâce à une exposition en meilleure adéquation avec la réalité historique qu’auparavant – et les représentations locales de l’esclavage, transmises aux visiteurs par les guides touristiques. À partir d’entretiens avec les guides et de l’observation participante des visites, l’article montre que le marché aux esclaves reste une zone de friction où se rejouent les constructions identitaires racialisées issues du passé
anniversary of the Revolution in Zanzibar as its point of departure, focusing on the remembrance of the revolution and its reverberations in everyday life. As ethnographers, historians, and cultural geographers engaged with the complexities of postcolonial Zanzibar, we have been often struck by the ongoing impact of the revolution in ways great and small. Beyond any doubt, the uprising and its immediate aftermath built new conceptions of
community and identity, new notions of race and cultural belonging, and new ideals of nationhood, citizenship, and sovereignty. Rather than seeking to define the revolution and strictly establish its meanings, we intend instead to trace its continuing echoes down to today, exploring complicated legacies, diverse representations, and mediated memories
fiftieth anniversary commemorations of the 1964 Revolution. This massive and highly visible monument created uneasiness both for government employees and opponents to the regime. This article aims to explain this new state monumentalism by situating it between a neglected revolutionary monumentality and an invasive, yet contested, revolutionary rhetoric of modernization. It analyses negotiations among several state actors over the Tower’s formal attributes and location. It also accounts for public protests in order to highlight how much this architecture of power—initially intended to celebrate the nation and praise state power—ironically signals a crisis of state hegemony.
In Tanzania, for the fifth time since the reintroduction of multipartism, the former single party CCM (Party of the Revolution) won the October 2015 general elections with a large majority. Tanzania’s ruling party successfully remained in power by using different strategies : it managed to overcome its internal divisions ; it built its presidential candidate’s popularity by drawing upon political morality ; it used its networks of patronage, cooptation and surveillance of the population ; and finally it manipulated to its advantage the institutional and electoral system. In Zanzibar, however, the faltering regime revealed its weakness when it resorted to authoritarian measures to prevent the opposition from winning. Since the annulment of its elections, the archipelago has plunged into a crisis with an uncertain outcome.
This book aims at painting a broad picture of the communities of Indian origin in East Africa, striving to include changes that have occurred since the end of the 1980s. The contributions explore questions of race and citizenship, national loyalties and cosmopolitan identities, local attachment and transnational networks. Drawing upon anthropology, history, sociology and demography, Indian Africa depicts a multifaceted population and analyses how the past and the present shape their sense of belonging, their relations with others, their professional and political engagement.
strong implications for researchers working in East Africa today. Moving away
from material preservationist issues of concern to governments and
international heritage bodies, most scholars have recently focused their research
on the entanglement of heritage with memory, politics, identity and social
healing processes. They also increasingly investigate the growing agency and
centrality of civil society stakeholders, as well as the negotiation of power and
authority between the different levels — local, national, international —
involved in heritage making and heritage promotion. Focusing on the case of
slavery and the slave trade, the rise of civil society engagement and the
contestations that continue to swirl around the commemoration of liberation
heroes, the paper depicts how heritage and memory have become a site of
struggle — symbolically, ethically and emotionally charged — in today’s East
Africa.