Femmes et images : la production culturelle chez les Africaines

Cet article porte sur la question du génie créateur de la femme africaine et sa capacité à intégrer l’abstraction ; il s’intéresse notamment aux conditions d’émergence de sa production culturelle, découlant de la révolution “féministe”. Il souligne que, même si la prise de la parole dans l’espace public par la femme est un phénomène récent, son expression par l’image remonte à la nuit des temps. L’art relevant du domaine de la fonctionnalité dans les sociétés agraires où la femme, généralement, joue un rôle religieux, l’esthétique relève ainsi de son univers.This article deals with the creative genius of the African woman and her capacity to integrate abstraction ; more specifically, it focuses on the conditions in which her cultural production emerges, conditions that result from the “feminist” revolution. It underlines that, although the legitimation of women’s speech in the public arena is a fairly recent phenomenon, her expression through images is timeless. Because art is being linked to functionality in agrarian societies where women generally play a religious role, aesthetics also comes from her universe

Senegal: Presidential elections 2019 - The shining example of democratic transition immersed in muddy power-politics

Whereas Senegal has long been sold as a showcase of democracy in Africa, including peaceful political alternance, things apparently changed fundamentally with the Senegalese presidentials of 2019 that brought new configurations. One of the major issues was political transhumance that has been elevated to the rank of religion in defiance of morality. It threatened political stability and peace. In response, social networks of predominantly young activists, created in 2011 in the aftermath of the Arab Spring focused on grass-roots advocacy with the electorate on good governance and democracy. They proposed a break with a political system that they consider as neo-colonialist. Moreover, Senegal’s justice is frequently accused to be biased, and the servility of the Constitutional Council which is in the first place an electoral court has often been denounced

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

Contexte de la réforme du Code de la famille au Sénégal

Durant les années 1990, un groupe d’intellectuels sénégalais a proposé la promotion d’un Code de statut personnel et l’abrogation du Code de la famille voté en 1973. L’objectif des membres de ce groupe était de subvertir l’orientation politique du Sénégal en utilisant le débat sur le Code de la famille et sur le statut des femmes. On ne peut comprendre ce phénomène sans explorer la relation entre islam et politique sur le long terme, et en particulier la question de la démocratie dans les sociétés musulmanes et dans la pensée politique islamique. Il est aussi important de comprendre les droits et le statut des femmes du point de vue du discours islamique.During the 1990’s, a group of Senegalese intellectuals proposed a new Code of the Status of the Person and the abrogation of the Family Code that had been in effect since 1973. The group’s objective was to change the political direction of Senegal by means of a debate over the Family Code and the status of women. Understanding this situation calls for examination of the relationship between Islam and politics over the longer term – and especially the relationship between the democracy question in Muslim countries and in Muslim political thought. It is also important to understand women’s rights and the status of women as constituted in Islamic discourse

Démocratie, droits humains et castes au Sénégal

Mbow Penda. Démocratie, droits humains et castes au Sénégal. In: Journal des africanistes, 2000, tome 70, fascicule 1-2. L'ombre portée de l'esclavage. Avatars contemporains de l'oppression sociale., sous la direction de Roger Botte . pp. 71-91

Hommes et femmes entre sphères publique et privée

The wave of democratization on the African continent and the political changes afoot since the 1980s have led to greater participation of women in the public domain, and women have developed strategies to attain certain financial autonomy in the private sphere. However in both the public and privates spheres, gender relations are still characterized by discrimination. These essays in both French and English present strategies to encourage the participation of women in the public domain; and demonstrate the increasing importance of gender questions amongst young African researchers

Contexte de la réforme du Code de la famille au Sénégal

During the 1990’s, a group of Senegalese intellectuals proposed a new Code of the Status of the Person and the abrogation of the Family Code that had been in effect since 1973. The group’s objective was to change the political direction of Senegal by means of a debate over the Family Code and the status of women. Understanding this situation calls for examination of the relationship between Islam and politics over the longer term – and especially the relationship between the democracy question in Muslim countries and in Muslim political thought. It is also important to understand women’s rights and the status of women as constituted in Islamic discourse