Contenu du sommaire : Premières dames en Afrique

From Queen Mother to President's wife
Is the role of the president's wife a modern innovation, a mere copy of those found in Western capital cities ? Or does « the president's wife » in Africa result from the graft of a novel form onto the legacy of African chiefdoms ? Historically speaking, women have held an eminent place in the chiefdoms, but they have done so in the role of Queen Mother and not as chiefs' wives. The Queen Mother was implicated in a system of matrimonial alliances in which clans and lineages took precedence over individual personalities. In order to understand the situation today, does the eminent role of the Queen Mother subsists ? Do in fact presidents' wives appropriate this role of the Queen Mother ? The figure of the First Lady seems to be a fact of contemporary politics, having been largely abetted by the women's liberation movement. In Africa, as elsewhere, we find First Ladies in « democratic » regimes, as well as situations in which the powers of the First Lady are exploited and misused.

The Ivory Coast : Simone takes power
If there is one country where the First Lady exercises considerable influence over public affairs, it's surely the Ivory Coast, regime of the « Refondation ». Since the time of her husband's election to the Supreme Court and especially since the onset of the war in 2002, Simone Ehivet-Gbagbo holds a central place in the decision-making process, as well as in the mysteries of politics. For observers, her intransigence is largely the cause of the regime's extremism. Among those women considered for this special issue, « Simone » was at the top of the list. Alas, not having been able to procure an academic text on this subject, we have chosen to reproduce extracts of an article published in The Patriot, an independent newspaper known for its proximity to Alassane Ouattara's party. This document should be read in light of these considerations.

Two women, from the guerilla movement to the institutionalization of power in Uganda
Comparing the portraits of two women, Janet Museveni, First Lady, and Winnie Byanyima, former combatant with Museveni's National Resistance Movement/Army and charismatic figure of the recent opposition to the regime sheds light on transformations in Ugandan politics, from the guerilla movement to its institutionalization in the political realm. This comparison allows us to examine the details of the changes, contradictions, and limits of the movement, underscoring the personalization of power today and the increasingly informal nature of the decision-making process.

From Wassila to Leïla: First Ladies and power in Tunisia
Wassila Ben Ammar and Leïla Trabelsi, the respective wives of Habib Bourguiba and Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, have occupied, and still occupy in the latter case, a critical place in the heart of the Tunisian state apparatus and within processes of its legitimation/de-legitimation. While Wassila played a key role in the construction and the maintenance of a certain socio-political equilibrium in the Bourguiba regime, Leïla is more implicated in struggles between clans, which serve what might be termed « primitive familial accumulation » at the summit of power.

Rosine Soglo : family and political enterprise
In order to help her husband, Nicéphore Soglo, elected President of the Republic of Benin in 1991, overcome his political isolation, Rosine Vieyra-Soglo, a woman without any previous activist commitments, created a political party in 1992 : the Renaissance of Benin. With this engagement in political life under the double hat of First Lady and Party Leader, Rosine Soglo proved to be an exceptional political entrepreneur. In the end, she has given patrimonialism and nepotism a pride of place in her husband's democratic regime.

Chantal Biya: « daughter of the people » and international muse
Chantal Biya illustrates the ambivalence linked to the new status of women in Cameroonian society, which is now in the process of profound transformations in a context of general confusion. From her relative discretion during the 1990s to her omnipresence of the early 2000s, « la petite fille du peuple » has become the emblematic figure of the struggle against the AIDS pandemic. Qualified as a « shadow president » Chantal's work in associations devoted to education and health have made her the symbol of the « non-governmental » face of a regime that has left her to act in the public sphere. She symbolises the non-governmental face of power as exercised by the ruler who has therefore been able to keep running the State. By this way, thanks to his ability to transform the way he enforces power, the latter has been able to keep ruling the State.

Lucy Kibaki : domestic debates and political authority
During President Moi's regime, which lasted for almost a quarter of a century, Kenya had no First Lady. This article reviews the various social perceptions of this lack. After the change in regime of 2002, the debate on the role of the First Lady was a strong reaction to the chaotic activism of the new president's first wife. This reflection on Lucy Kibaki's interventionism demonstrates that the president must negotiate relations between his domestic space and the public sphere. In Africa, these interactions have an immediate impact upon political life because domestic values are central to politicians' judgements.

The Darfur conflict : the blind spot in the North-South negotiations in Sudan
The crisis in the Darfur began before February 2003. It resulted from increasing contradictions in the region, which were exacerbated by the regime's heavy-handed security policies, the economic marginalization of the region, and the effects of authoritarianism in neighboring Chad. The fact that the crisis has emerged at this moment is illustrative of the blind spots of negotiations between the insurgents of Southern Sudan and the central government in Khartoum. The international community, prolix in strong declarations, is still not clear on the way it intends to tackle the crisis today.

« Bush » infantry in peril
After more than forty years of silence and inaction, the French government has consented to revise the average military pension given to former African combatants. This decision was a response to both legal activism and citizen indignation, which had an impact on certain political figures. This financial effort is nonetheless both belated and inadequate for the « petits soldats de l'Union française », who are often isolated, forgotten and most often at the end of their life.