Francophonie et gouvernance mondiale : vues d'Afrique

4e de couverture : Ce livre est le recueil des principaux textes présentés au colloque international des universitaires et acteurs culturels, économiques et politiques francophones réunis à Kinshasa, en mai 2012, dans le cadre des manifestations d\u27environnement et d\u27accompagnement du XIVe Sommet de la Francophonie. Regroupés en 5 chapitres correspondant, mutatis mutandis, aux grands axes d\u27intervention de la Francophonie, les points de vue exprimés ici portent sur le rôle et la place de cette Organisation dans la mondialisation. Ainsi les intervenants ont choisi d\u27examiner le positionnement actuel de la Francophonie au regard des questions touchant à la thématique centrale du Sommet : l\u27environnement et l\u27économie, considérés comme des domaines d\u27intervention plutôt novateurs. Ils ont également inclus dans leur analyse les domaines traditionnels d\u27intérêt de la Francophonie : la culture, la langue, l\u27éducation, la diplomatie... Les réalisations des opérateurs francophones dans ces différents secteurs sont passées au crible d\u27un examen visant à s\u27assurer de leur pertinence et de leur impact dans le développement solidaire, du point de vue africain tout d\u27abord, dans le contexte d\u27un monde multipolaire ensuite. La finalité de ces analyses conduites par des spécialistes émanant de différents horizons, dans un contexte pluridisciplinaire, a été de définir les voies d\u27une mutation qui assure l\u27avènement d\u27une Francophonie influente, moderne, en prise sur les changements rapides que connaît notre planète. Une Francophonie qui soit "acteur majeur de l\u27émergence et de l\u27enracinement d\u27une gouvernance mondiale solidaire, responsable et démocratique". Le livre se termine sur un document - programme : "Appel de Kinshasa" qui se veut une invite à la mobilisation de tous les francophones en vue de constituer, ensemble, un espace géoculturel et géostratégique francophone mondial

"Should a country's leaders apologize for its past misdeeds?": An analysis of the effects of both public apologies from a Belgian official and perception of Congolese victims' continued suffering on Belgians' representations of colonial action, support for reparation, and attitudes towards the Congolese

This study sought to identify the conditions facilitating the recognition of a social group’s past misdeeds among its members. Such recognition entails a threat to group members’ social identity, potentially triggering defensive strategies, such as denying these misdeeds, not experiencing collective guilt and shame, opposing reparative actions, and derogating the victim group’s members. As collective rituals, public apologies performed by an official representative should allow group members to acknowledge the harm done while maintaining a positive social identity, therefore alleviating the need for such defensive strategies. We carried out an experimental study based on a 2 (Apologies vs. No apologies) x 2 (Continued suffering vs. No continued suffering) + 1 (Control) design, with Belgian participants (N = 164). In all conditions, participants were reminded of the atrocities committed during the first years of the Belgian colonization of Congo. This description was followed by a short statement about the suffering that Congolese people still endured (Continued suffering condition) or none (No continued suffering), then by a transcript of public apologies pronounced by Belgium’s Foreign Affairs Minister in the Apologies condition, or none (No apologies). Results revealed that Belgian participants’ attitudes and behavioural intentions towards the Congolese were the most positive when both apologies and the victims’ continued suffering were reunited. A mediation analysis further demonstrated that differences in levels of racism and in support for reparation were mediated by representations of the ingroup’s past.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Reporting on the Independence of the Belgian Congo: Mwissa Camus, the Dean of Congolese Journalists

Many individuals were involved in the Belgian Congo’s attainment of independence. Born in 1931, Mwissa Camus, the dean of Congolese journalists, is one of them. His career sheds light on the advancement of his country towards independence in June 1960. By following his professional career in the years preceding independence, we can see how his development illuminates the emergence of journalism in the Congo, the social position of Congolese journalists, and the ambivalence of their position towards the emancipation process. The road taken by Mwissa Camus – as an actor, witness, extra, and somehow instrument of the events that shook his country – helps understand the Congo’s move towards independence from a particular perspective. History – that of a hurried independence, blatantly unprepared, on which a small elite failed to agree – is revealed through his words and the unveiling of his ‘world.’ This paper is essentially based on interviews with Mwissa Camus and on Congolese newspaper articles from 1959, 1960 and 1961.http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/SmnqCiRRE9e2yeePUSwA/fullSCOPUS: re.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Towards a History of Mass Violence in the Etat Indépendant du Congo, 1885-1908

The present article provides an up-to-date scholarly introduction to mass violence in the Etat Indépendant du Congo (Congo Free State, EIC). Its aims are twofold: to offer a point of access to the extensive literature and historical debates on the subject, and to make the case for exchanging the currently prevalent top-down narrative, with its excessive focus on King Leopold's character and motives, for one which considers the EIC's culture of violence as a multicausal, broadly based and deeply engrained social phenomenon. The argument is divided into five sections. Following a general outline of the EIC's violent system of administration, I discuss its social and demographic impact (and the controversy which surrounds it) to bring out the need for more regionally focused and context sensitive studies. The dispute surrounding demographics demonstrates that what is fundamentally at stake is the place the EIC's extreme violence should occupy in the history of European ‘modernity’. Since approaches which hinge on Leopoldian exceptionalism are particularly unhelpful in clarifying this issue, I pause to reflect on how such approaches came to dominate the distinct historiographical traditions which emerged in Belgium and abroad before moving on to a more detailed exploration of a selection of causes underlying the EIC's violent nature. While state actors remain in the limelight, I shift the focus from the state as a singular, normative agent, towards the existence of an extremely violent society in which various individuals and social groups within and outside of the state apparatus committed violent acts for multiple reasons. As this argument is pitched at a high level of abstraction, I conclude with a discussion of available source material with which it can be further refined and updated