Francophone West Africa Research Articles

African filmmaking: north and south of the Sahara

African cinema is a vibrant, diverse, and relatively new art form, which continues to draw the attention of an ever-expanding worldwide audience. African Filmmaking is the first comprehensive study in English linking filmmaking in the Maghreb with that in the 12 independent states of francophone West Africa. Roy Armes examines a wide range of issues common to filmmakers throughout the region: the socio-political context, filmmaking in Africa before the mid-1960s, the involvement of African and French governments, questions of national and cultural identity, the issue of globalization, and, especially, the work of the filmmakers themselves over the past 40 years, with particular emphasis on younger filmmakers. Armes offers a wealth of information and a unique perspective on the history and future of African filmmaking.

Editorial: A view from beneath: Community Health Insurance in Africa

This paper presents an overview of the development of Community Health Insurance (CHI) in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2003, nearly 600 CHI initiatives were registered in a dozen countries of francophone West Africa alone. At regional level, coordination networks have been created in Africa with the aim to support and monitor the developments of this innovative model of health care financing. At national level, governments are preparing the necessary legal frameworks for CHI implementation. CHI is increasingly seen as a strategy to meet other development goals than only health. It constitutes an interesting model to finance health care, to pool financial resources in a fair way and to empower health care users. The CHI movement however still faces many challenges. The relevance of more professional inputs in the management of CHI and the need for careful subsidy of CHI schemes are increasingly recognized. There is also need to optimize the relationship of CHI with the other actors in the health system and to scale-up CHI so as to gain in effectiveness and efficiency. The boom in the number of schemes in Africa during the last years is an indicator of the increasing attractiveness of the model. In practice however, enrolment rates per scheme remain low or are only slowly increasing. Context-specific research is needed on the reasons that prevent people from enrolling in larger numbers. On that basis, relevant action to be taken locally can be identified.

The politics of bureau reform in sub‐Saharan Africa

AbstractThis article focuses on sub‐Saharan Africa and its recent history of state sector decentralisation reforms. Over the last ten to fifteen years, new forms of state organisation have emerged reflecting a policy preference for bureau downsizing and devolution. These include semi‐autonomous executive agencies, public–private partnerships in infrastructure development, partial privatisations of utilities and performance contracting arrangements between purchasers and providers. Reform policies are, however, heavily conditioned by bilateral and multilateral donors. The limited success of bureau reforms in the region has been explained by others as either a problem of institutional capacity or the absence of grassroots democracy. This article takes a different stance, arguing that reforms are highly political and resisted not only by politicians but also by an aware and sceptical public. A selection of case studies illustrates these reform trends and problems of implementation. The article also draws attention to intra‐regional differences between a francophone West Africa and English speaking East Africa. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Locating Colonisation and Globalisation in Francophone African Film and Literature

This article considers the figuring of space in three works from the post-Independence era of cultural production in Francophone West Africa: the films Borom Sarret (1963) and La Noire de… (1965) by Ousmane Sembène, and the novel Cinéma (1997) by Tierno Monenembo. The article examines the characteristic spatial tropes and practices of colonialism and globalisation. It then explores the use of horizontal and vertical figures in the three works above, concluding that the use of the horizontal and the vertical by Sembène and Monenembo can be read as forming a complex engagement with cultures of colonialism, neocolonialism and globalisation.

Francophone West Africa

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

Migration and Urbanisation in Francophone West Africa: An Overview of the Recent Empirical Evidence

How does migration contribute to the urbanisation process in Africa? Migrants have traditionally been viewed as responsible for excessive urban growth, for the uncontrolled expansion of urban areas and for urban surplus labour. In light of recent research, this article proposes to re-examine these views in Francophone west Africa. The first part of the article presents the context of urbanisation in this region, the theoretical framework and the recent surveys on which most of the analyses are based. Next, adopting a demographic perspective, the paper shows that migration in fact contributes moderately to urban growth and that new trends in urban to rural migration flows are emerging. The focus then shifts to examine how migrants influence the shape of cities. The final section of this article re-examines the role of migrants in the urban economy.

Service delivery in francophone West Africa: the challenge of balancing deconcentration and decentralisation

AbstractThe article reviews the experiences with decentralisation of one West African country, Guinea, with the intent of drawing lessons and exploring approaches to assist countries in the sub‐region in rendering decentralisation—an effective means for service delivery improvements. Section II describes the West Africa context in terms of the dynamics of deconcentration–decentralisation and lays out a conceptual framework to guide the analytical assessment of countries in the sub‐region, attempting to decentralise. This framework is used in the Guinea case, described in Section III. Section IV concludes by synthesising the profile of Guinea, and positions its dominant style in relation to the proposed ideal types of decentralisation approaches. This part of the article discusses the implications of its findings for decentralisation policy and implementation, and offers some remarks on the road ahead for decentralisation in West Africa. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Assessing the francophone West Africa market

Very little is known about the business environment in the countries of l'Afrique Occidentale Française (or francophone), the French‐speaking countries of West Africa, here referred to as francophone West Africa (FWA). Yet chief executive officers and corporate managers are under increasing pressures to assess the business environment before entering any such overseas markets. Therefore, the aim of paper is to scan the macro‐environmental forces operating in the FWA market. An audit of these external factors produces an “ETOP” framework, describing the current external threats and opportunities for would‐be entrants, and identifying practical implications for international marketing planners. The FWA countries are classic case of an emerging market, about which more deserves to be known, especially by non‐francophone decision makers in multinational corporations.

Decentralisation and local governance: experiences from Francophone West africa

AbstractSince the 1980s, decentralisation has become a key development theme in Francophone West Africa for various reasons. Perhaps most significant is the great dissatisfaction with centralised approaches of the past. Despite the heavy interest in decentralisation, however, progress of implementation has been rather slow and problematic. Except in Senegal, decentralisation is a relatively new phenomenon in Francophone West Africa and even there the decentralisation process is far from complete. Other more recently decentralising countries have taken very different paths. Burkina Faso, for example, is gradually phasing in decentralisation in the rural areas, while Mali created local governments across the entire country simultaneously. Such differences in approach can be a justifiable response to variations in the political and social climate across countries. One factor that has been uniformly given inadequate attention in decentralisation efforts is the role of traditional local institutions and how they respond to the introduction of new local institutions. This and other aspects of decentralisation in Francophone West Africa require further careful study if policymakers are to better understand how to design and implement more effective and sustainable decentralised systems. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Black Linguistics: Language, Society, and Politics in Africa and the Americas

Enslavement, forced migration, war and colonization have led to the global dispersal of communities and to the fragmentation of common experiences. The majority of language researchers explore the social and linguistic phenomena of individual communities, without looking at experiences outside a given community. This groundbreaking collection re-orders the elitist and colonial elements of language studies by drawing together the multiple perspectives of language researchers. In doing so, the book recognises and formalises the existence of a Black Linguistic Perspective highlights the contributions of language researchers in the field. Written exclusively by scholars on behalf of, and in collaboration with local communities, the book looks at the commonalities and differences among speech communities in Africa and the Diaspora. Topics include: * the OJ Simpson trial * language issues in Southern Africa and Francophone West Africa * the language of Hip Hop * the language of the Rastafaria in Jamaica With a foreword by Ngugi wa Thiong'o, this is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the linguistic implications of colonization.

Teaching American Literature in Francophone West Africa

During the late 1990s American literature and civilization was a hot field for students in many West African universities (and it very likely continues to be so today). For example, when I taught at the University of Dakar, Senegal, in 1997 – 98, undergraduates in the English department could focus on one of three areas: British, African, and American literatures in English. In the fourth year roughly sixty students followed the British track, twenty-five the African track, and over four hundred the American track. Why did American literature attract so many students? Some observers note the prevalence of American popular culture at the movies, on radio and television, and in the products (and their counterfeits) sold in local markets. Others note the persistent desire of many Senegalese to work in the United States: students were seeking linguistic and cultural competencies that would help them succeed in America. Still others point to the prevalence of U.S. exchange programs, which, combined with other research and cultural programs funded by the U.S. government, make for a strong American presence in the Senegalese academy. One aspect of this phenomenon that I observed while teaching in three Francophone West African countries is the overwhelming emphasis on African American literature and culture in the curricula of their programs. Following on the theoretical elaboration of African diaspora studies and the earnest efforts of scholars on both sides of the Atlantic to forge ties, many West African university instructors have sought to excite their students of American literature by introducing them to works by African Americans. This gambit has paid off in some respects: many of my master’s advisees, for example, were indeed excited about African American writers and wrote theses about them. Presumably, these students had found some point of identification in a common ancestry with African Americans, however distant. But many students, I discovered, did not feel the identification expected of them; on the contrary, many of them felt a great distance. Even those who did feel a sense of identification yearned to learn about other aspects of American life. Prior to my arrival in Senegal in the fall of 1997, I had read Fulbright reports about the position at the University of Dakar and knew what it might

Africa Confidential. Volume 43 Number 13. Published 28 June 2002

Contents 1 South Africa: End of Alliance3 Nigeria: Banker Versus banker4 Francophone West Africa: The voters’ friend6 Eritrea: Disarmed but not demobbed7 Mozambique: Seconds Out8 Pointers: Ghana, Zimbabwe, World Bank/DRC & Senegal

The monetary value of human milk in Francophone west Africa: a PROFILES analysis for nutrition policy communication.

Using a simple and conservative methodology, we estimated the volume and monetary value of the human milk produced by lactating women in Francophone West Africa. In that region, children zero to 35.9 months old consume over 1.1 billion liters of human milk per year. However, suboptimal breastfeeding practices account for the loss of 175 million liters of human milk annually. If the human milk consumed by children zero to 35.9 months old were to be adequately replaced using commercial breastmilk substitutes, an annual expenditure of about 2 billion US dollars would be needed. At the household level, the annual replacement cost of human milk would amount to US$412 per infant. This is beyond the reach of most families in West Africa, where as many as 61% of families in some countries live on less than one US dollar per day. Appropriate policies to foster breastfeeding need to be developed and adequately implemented. Such policy action is more likely to occur if decision makers fully appreciate the monetary value of human milk.

Forgotten histories, misremembered cultures: literature and the politics of cultural memory in francophone West Africa

Forgotten histories, misremembered cultures: literature and the politics of cultural memory in francophone West Africa

Forgotten histories, misremembered cultures: literature and the politics of cultural memory in francophone West Africa

Forgotten histories, misremembered cultures: literature and the politics of cultural memory in francophone West Africa

The role of actors and institutions: The difficulties of democratic survival in Mali and Niger

Mali and Niger, two neighbouring countries in Francophone West Africa, offer a good opportunity for identifying key factors favouring the survival of a young democracy. While democracy has so far survived, just about, in Mali, it ended in Niger with a coup d'état in January 1996. Given comparable levels of poor economic development and similar troubled modern political histories, economic and societal preconditions do not provide clues to the different experiences of the two countries. Instead, the answer must be sought in the institutional choices made and in the interaction between key players during the democratic transition. An electoral system with proportional representation resulted in political instability in Niger, while a majoritarian system ensured a stable political majority in Mali. Political crisis in Niamey provided an opportunity for the army to retake power. While the military had been alienated from the Nigerien national conference, it had participated actively in and supervised the Malian conference. Mali and Niger provide tentative lessons for other ‘late democratizers’.

Dust to Dust: a User's Guide to Local Archives in Mali

In recent years political changes in Mali have opened up new research opportunities for historians and other social scientists interested in the country's colonial and post-colonial past. With the new government has come a change in administrative attitudes regarding access to local archives, in other words those held at the level of the cercle. Although these archives can be in terrible condition, they contain precious information unique to each cercle. In the course of my own research I have been able to gain access to two such archives in southern Mali, in the summer of 1996 and again in 1998. Using these two archives as an example and drawing on the anecdotal evidence of colleagues, the following comments offer a rough appraisal of the nature of cercle archives in Mali. The paper covers the type of documentation available, the condition of the collections, and my own experiences in using them. Although my experience is limited to southern Mali, local administrations across francophone West Africa are likely to have similar holdings, given the essential uniformity of French administrative structures in colonial West Africa.In addition to providing otherwise scarce documentary evidence on local events, these archives contain a good deal of correspondence which passed from one commandant de cercle to another, bypassing the central administration in the colony's capital. The information contained in this correspondence is therefore difficult to find in national archives, and I suspect that most of it is absent altogether. The volume of such correspondence is surprising. For example, regarding a religious movement based in one of these towns in the late 1940s, I found fifty-odd letters and telegrams addressed to the local administrator by his colleagues, asking him for information and keeping him abreast of local manifestations of the movement in their own regions. None of these messages had been routed through the central administration, and the commandant had sent his superiors no more than a digest of events in which much detail was suppressed.

Local environmental management, land degradation and the ‘gestion des terroirs’ approach in West Africa: policies and pitfalls

This paper critically evaluates the gestion des terroirs villageois (GTV) approach to community management of natural resources. The approach is widely used in francophone West Africa by NGOs, bilateral programmes, and government agencies. Three aspects of GTV approaches are presented and reviewed, based on research conducted with a large bilateral programme in Bam Province on the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso. These are: (i) the ways in which GTV projects tackle problems of territorial control; (ii) their ability to respond to and work with local power relations; and (iii) differential social and economic benefits resulting from the programmes. These issues are examined in two communities that have worked with GTV planning since the early 1990s. The paper concludes by stressing the significance, and the drawbacks of gestion des terroirs and asks whether it represents any more than a ‘second best’ form of community planning for natural resource management in the Sahel. Copyright © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Local environmental management, land degradation and the ‘gestion des terroirs’ approach in West Africa: policies and pitfalls

This paper critically evaluates the gestion des terroirs villageois (GTV) approach to community management of natural resources. The approach is widely used in francophone West Africa by NGOs, bilateral programmes, and government agencies. Three aspects of GTV approaches are presented and reviewed, based on research conducted with a large bilateral programme in Bam Province on the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso. These are: (i) the ways in which GTV projects tackle problems of territorial control; (ii) their ability to respond to and work with local power relations; and (iii) differential social and economic benefits resulting from the programmes. These issues are examined in two communities that have worked with GTV planning since the early 1990s. The paper concludes by stressing the significance, and the drawbacks of gestion des terroirs and asks whether it represents any more than a ‘second best’ form of community planning for natural resource management in the Sahel. Copyright © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

"Go Slow" or Crash: Education, Society, and New Technologies in Francophone West Africa

The history of computers is embedded in military research and training. Its increased role in education to access and exchange information, and to connect teachers, parents, and community, has not diminished its potential for military or industrial intelligence. Therefore, computers have deep political, social, and cultural implications for countries with no control over software and hardware production. In francophone West Africa, computer adoption is very slow. This article establishes the extent to which computers are used in education and research and critically examines some of the challenges their adoption poses. Drawing arguments from cultural critics concerned with the quality of our lives, it argues that the present slow pace of their adoption may be more of a blessing than a disadvantage if they cannot promote diverse literacies, indigenous forms of knowledge, and local cultures, and if they cannot help break the scientific isolation of those countries.