Contenu du sommaire : Politiques du corps

Body, technologies of power and the appropriation of modernity in Cameroon
The king of Mankon (Cameroon) dispenses bodily substances (breath, saliva, sperm) to his people and his wives. In the eyes of both the monarch and his subjects, these substances are intimately linked to ancestral powers at the origin of all life. This state of affairs is not a matter of archaism – a remainder of past practices still extant today. The king is a politician of national renown and a businessman as well. His platform, in both realms, calls for a conservative modernization in the context of a « return of royal authority » onto the forefront of the political scene in Africa. Perceived as a receptacle, he plays a central role in this setting : he stands at the heart of a body politic (a politics of the self and of the body) that draws on the resources of modernity.

Seducing voters in the slums : the political uses of youth, disability and wealth in Casablanca
This paper analyses the forms of self-presentation developed by three candidates campaigning for the 2002 Moroccan legislative elections. This study enables to point out that political legitimacy in the slums can use numerous registers, and to show how the body can be an important argument of electoral seduction. The opulent body of the political patron, the young and dynamic body of the candidate-militant, the handicaped body of a candidate able to represent (in every sense of the word) the weakness of the slum's social body, can be interpretated as many resources of propaganda. However, physical legitimisations only operate if this political mise-en-scene rests on concrete proofs overtaking or confirming appearances.

Beauty as a form of capital. On certain rich Moorish women
For Moorish people, « being beautiful » promotes the prestige of one's group. But gifted with an engaging smile, a lacework-shaped body language, a subjective stoutness and an enticing reply, a few women can be provided with the opportunity to stand out and to give themselves the means to achieve. Indeed beauty can lead to an exquisite wedding – with a wealthy man, whether from a good family or not – as well as shorter relationships, also very profitable. Thus turning their beauty asset(s) into a relational and financial capital, some Moorish women have become successful businesswomen, Ladies moving in the political and trading realms.

The weight of success : bodily fitness, dance and career in Dakar
In Dakar, dance is an essential element of ceremonial and festive life. But beyond the festive dimension, the professionalisation of dance generates new opportunities for social mobility. Half-way between the construction of the individual subject and that of the social body, this contribution explores the transformation of bodily practices in Dakar's dance circles. Muscular bodies, bodies at times reduced to tiny figures and « natural-looking » skin are all carefully cultivated as part of individual extraversion strategies. Whereas these practices may lead to social success, at times they also generate painful rifts, which are exacerbated by extreme contrasts between the demands of the global musical circuit and the social gaze on the bodies of the artists.

Clandestine prostitution and fantasies of abroad : an ethnography of extraversion in Dakar
With, as its point of departure, an ethnography focusing on different forms of clandestine prostitution in Dakar, this paper argues that, inherent in these forms of selling the self, and therefore essential to their study, are trajectories of extraversion to which they are linked and which they bring into being. At the heart of the argument presented is a hypothesis of ongoing extraversion – of a continuum thereof – which stands in contradistinction to notions of migratory rupture. Via this approach, the paper considers close links between practices of the self in a given African setting and desire(s) to migrate away from this same setting. A key focus, here, is thus extraversion considered as a mode of subjectivation.

January 2007 – Sékou Touré is dead
This essay describes the growth of popular protest against the government in Guinea, organized by two trade union umbrella groups. In analyzing the « structure of the conjuncture » of these general strikes and demonstrations, it shows why longstanding Guinean complaints transformed into mass protest when they did and in the way they did. This mobilization has been most significant not as an instrumental attempt to force the government into making concessions, but as a rhetorical and symbolic shift that breaks with a political style that dates from Guinea's 1958-1984 socialist period.

The International Criminal Court's intervention in Northern Uganda has faced opposition from supporters of traditional justice. However, there is less local consensus about reconciliation rituals than has been asserted, and the hybrid forgiveness ceremonies, being performed with external assistance under the auspices of a newly created council of chiefs, are not as significant as enthusiasts imagine. Moreover, lobbying has focussed on selected rituals of the Acholi people and their immediate neighbours, not the country as a whole. Whatever the problems with the ICC's activities, myth making about a « tribally » specific alternative feeds prejudice and does nothing to promote national conciliation.

« Et booooum ! » Media provocations and political tensions in Burundi
In August 2007, the newspaper Intumwa, known for its affiliation to the Burundese regime, published the pictures and identities of 40 opposition representatives, who had just been blamed by President Nkurunziza. This publication came out while the two-year old regime was undergoing a major crisis, and its dark undertones has caused worry. This event must be analysed within the tense history and context of post-conflict Burundi, and reveals a lot about the current shifts in the media sphere and the ruling party.