Alexander Keese – författare

France’s presence on the African continent has often been presented as ‘cooperation’ and part of French cultural policy by policy-makers in Paris – and quite as often been denounced as ‘the longest scandal of the republic’ by French academics and African intellectuals. Between the last years of French colonialism and France’s sustained interventions in former African colonies such as Chad or Côte d’Ivoire during the 2000s, the legacy of French colonialism has shaped the historical trajectory of more than a dozen countries and societies in Africa. The complexities of this story are now, for the first time, addressed in a comprehensive series of essays, based on new research by a group of specialists in French colonial history. The book addresses the needs of both academic specialists and those of students of history and neighbouring disciplines looking for structural analysis of key themes in France’s and Africa’s shared history.

France’s presence on the African continent has often been presented as ‘cooperation’ and part of French cultural policy by policy-makers in Paris – and quite as often been denounced as ‘the longest scandal of the republic’ by French academics and African intellectuals. Between the last years of French colonialism and France’s sustained interventions in former African colonies such as Chad or Côte d’Ivoire during the 2000s, the legacy of French colonialism has shaped the historical trajectory of more than a dozen countries and societies in Africa. The complexities of this story are now, for the first time, addressed in a comprehensive series of essays, based on new research by a group of specialists in French colonial history. The book addresses the needs of both academic specialists and those of students of history and neighbouring disciplines looking for structural analysis of key themes in France’s and Africa’s shared history.

Die überseeische Expansion brachte europäische Seefahrer, Händler, Missionare, Forscher und Kolonisten mit einer Vielzahl von Sprachen in Kontakt, die in Europa zuvor weitgehend unbekannt waren. Für die Kommunikation mit außereuropäischen Bevölkerungen jenseits einfacher Formen wie Gabentausch und Zeichensprache waren multilinguale Vermittler unabdingbar, die über die Fähigkeit verfügen mussten, im Medium der Sprache auch fremdartige Rituale, Weltbilder und Sinnsysteme verständlich zu machen. Aufbauend auf den philologischen Studien christlicher Missionare waren die Kolonialmächte seit dem 19. Jahrhundert zunehmend bestrebt, außereuropäische Sprachen wissenschaftlich zu klassifizieren. Während koloniale Herrschaft zum Verschwinden vieler außereuropäischer Sprachen führte, erlangten andere Sprachen wie Malaiisch oder Swahili als Verkehrssprachen neue Bedeutung.Die vielfältigen Facetten der Kommunikation zwischen Europäern und Außereuropäern untersuchen die Autoren dieses Bandes, der auf eine Tagung der Gesellschaft für Überseegeschichte an der Universität Bamberg zurückgeht, in einer Reihe empirischer Fallstudien.

Ethnicity and the Colonial State analyses, through a comparison of three West African communities (Wolof, Temne, and Ewe), the ways in which ethnic labels and arguments are used (or omitted) in dealings with colonial administrations. It follows these strategies and choices over more than a century, between the conquest periods and independence. Where state structures were weak as a factor of group cohesion, ethnic arguments were especially likely to come into play. The analysis discusses internal fissures and conflicting interests within the communities as other incentives for ethnic coalition-building. The observations made in this book are put into the context of a global historical perspective, for which “ethnicity” has so far remained a badly defined concept.