Contenu du sommaire

G. Sautter—Migrations, Society, and Development in Mosiland. A synthetic approach of Mosi migratory movements based upon a multidisciplinary enquiry conducted by the Office for Scientific and Technical Research Overseas (ORSTOM) between 1971 and 1975. The phenomenon is especially complex as it involves internai displacements (towards cities or rural areas where land is still available) and external ones (to foreign countries, chiefly the Ivory Coast). Demographie factors are ail-important yet cannot be isolated from traits pertaining to the social structure such as the kinship System and the relationships between generations. A number of previous stereotypes, concerning, for instance, bridewealth and financial support of the migrants' families, have been proven false. In fact, internai migrations toward 'free' land may well prove more significant, in a develop-mental perspective, than external ones. This confronts the Upper Volta govern-ment with a choice of policy-—between spontaneous and organized settlements— which remains to be decided upon.

R. Nguyen Van Chi-Bonnardel—The Expansion of a non-Industrial Fishing Economy and its Consequences on Senegal's Seashore. Fishing ofi the Senegalese coast is a seasonal activity with peaks at different dates and locations, as determined by halieutic and climatic factors. Coastal fishermen work part of the time off their own villages and, at other moments, seek out different fishing grounds elsewhere. The former practice is family-based, the monetary benefits being allocated within the kin group; the latter is more individually oriented, allowing the younger migrant fishermen to invest their gains to fulfil their own ends. As fishing has become a rewarding trade, most men no longer work their own fields and gardens, which are tilled by migrants from the interior. Modernisation is slow, limited up to now to the use of outboard engines mounted on traditional craft, and the competition of Dakar-based trawlers and foreign factory-ships is striking hard at non-industrial fishing which, nevertheless, remains an important economie activity.

A. Kihm—Linguistic Situation in Casamance and Guine-Bissau. A sketch of the different social positions of Portuguese Creole in Senegal—where it is not a lingua franca but rather the language of one specifie group—and Guine-Bissau where its situation is far closer to that of 'classical' creoles and pidgins. The second part deals with the theoretical and practical problems encountered in the author's attempt to write a modem linguistic description of Kriyol.

F. Bontinck—Mausoleum for the Jaga. A final argument in the Miller-Thornton controversy on the identity—in fact the very existence—of the 'fierce Jaga' who supposedly invaded Kongo in 1568. F. Bontinck agrees with Miller in assuming that these Jaga were not foreign invaders but rather rebels from Mbata province supporting a Mukongo royal pretender.

A. Morice—Considerations on the Situation of African Studies Research in France. A bitter criticism of the influence and action of the academie and scientific establishment, especially after the recent reforms of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).