Politisation et hiérarchies coloniales : Amérindiens et Noirs-marrons à St-Paul (Guyane française, 1946-2000)

Abstract

How did the Amerindian and Maroon populations of a French Guyanese administrative district appropriate democratic institutions – in particular, electoral institutions – from the 1960s through the late 1990s ? Voter participation and the development of partisan loyalties first took place thanks to mediators in contact with these populations via Catholic patronage (ecclesiastic personnel, charitable organization volunteers) and, subsequently, the patronage-based distribution of public goods (village “captains”, electoral agents, locally elected representatives). Over the course of the 1980s, associational participation – whether in the Amerindian movement or in local maroon associations – allowed alternative spaces of politicization founded on the defense of group identity and group interest to be constructed. This new activist generation challenged the established Creole elites but remains marginalized in institutional political space, in particular due to social hierarchies inherited from the colonial period and reproduced after the territory was granted the status of an administrative departement. ■