Territorial Practices Research Articles

Decoding urban power: Architecture, symbolism and territorial control in Caracas

This study examines the conflictual dynamics surrounding the utilisation of state-architecture and symbolic imagery as instruments for power consolidation, profoundly shaping national identity and perceptions within the built environment. Drawing on Bourdieu's concepts of symbolic power and cultural capital, this research illuminates the complex interplay between architecture, territory and power. It offers insights into the endurance of societal values and the ongoing renegotiation and reconfiguration of urban space. The research also analyses how urban planning and territorial practices can ignite resistance and challenge existing power structures. The city of Caracas serves as a case study, where two key strategies employed by the current government are analysed: the “Great Housing Mission Venezuela” and the proliferation of Chávez symbolism across the urban realm. By exploring these territorialisation practices in Las Adjuntas, Macarao, the study further unveils the dynamics of power and socio-spatial hierarchies encoded in the urban landscape. These architectural and symbolic interventions are interpreted as attempts to shape perceived realities, consolidate hegemonic control, and regulate the city's socio-spatial order. The findings assert that these practices not only reflect power distribution, but also grant the potential for dominating, producing and controlling territories in nuanced ways. This multidisciplinary study provides a novel framework for decoding power structures embedded in the built environment.

Freshwater exploitation at Ajvide - Pitted ware culture fishing practises investigated through laser ablation facilitated strontium isotope analyses

The importance of marine resources for the Neolithic hunter-fisher-gathers of the Pitted Ware Culture of Gotland, Sweden, is well documented through zooarchaeological analyses and diet studies of human remains. Terrestrial areas were important for living and supplementing the diet but the extent of the terrestrial territories and regions of land use for different groups is largely unknown. The presence of euryhaline species in recovered zooarchaeological assemblages indicates that freshwater fishing or fishing in the brackish estuaries of the Baltic Sea was part of the subsistence practises. To explore if the inland freshwaters of Gotland were used and, if exploited, where they were located, 18 teeth from euryhaline fish from the Pitted Ware Culture site Ajvide on Gotland were selected. The 87Sr/86Sr isotope ratios in the fish teeth were analysed using laser ablation-multi collector-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry and correlated with an updated bioavailable baseline of Gotlandic water sources. Through this approach, the habitational origin of the fish was shown to primarily stem from at least six freshwater sources located in the west-central area of Gotland, in close relation to the site, with a few individuals originating from within the Baltic Sea. The study highlights the significance of ichthyoarchaeological analysis in understanding the territorial practice of past foraging societies and recommends further studies on euryhaline species to expand our knowledge of fish habitat, human resource utilization and land use.

Shepherding the past: High-resolution data on Neolithic Southern Iberian livestock management at Cueva de El Toro (Antequera, Málaga).

The feeding strategies of the first domesticated herds had to manage the risks arising from the novelty of livestock practices in territories often distant from the animals' primary habitats. The Iberian Peninsula is characterised by a great diversity of environments, which undoubtedly influenced these dynamics. At the beginning of the Neolithic period these led the possibility to combine diverse livestock farming practices based on different animal feeding habits. This variability is also consistent with the rythms of adoption of domesticated animals, being later on the northern area. In order to address this issue, this work focuses on the dietary regimes of early sheep herds from southern Iberia, an area for which information is currently scarce. This study utilises high-resolution radiocarbon dating and stable isotope data on teeth to investigate sheep husbandry management strategies in Cueva de El Toro (Antequera, Málaga). The radiocarbon dates on the analysed remains evidenced they were deposited at the site over a short period, supporting the recurrent use of the cave. The sequential analysis of oxygen and carbon isotopes in tooth enamel reveals distinct livestock management strategies, reproduction patterns, feeding habits, and mobility during this short period. This variability demonstrates that livestock management practices in the western Mediterranean are more diverse than previously considered. Furthermore, these findings support the hypothesis that early Neolithic communities in the southern Iberian Peninsula were able to adopt different feeding strategies within the same herd, depending on their ecological and productive needs.

“The Councilors are the Ones to Blame”: The Symbolic Reproduction of Territorial Boundaries Created by Policy and Planning Decisions

This study draws upon cognitive maps and interviews with 57 residents living in two diverse areas of Porto, Portugal, to examine how individuals’ symbolic neighborhood boundaries reflect policy and planning decisions, and the implications of recognizing the role of government in the creation of territorial divisions and inequality. The study shows that residents’ subjective neighborhood constructions reproduce political territorial practices and representations. Awareness of the political origins of territory discourages residents from constructing their neighborhoods in alternative ways. Drawing on the concepts of symbolic and social boundaries, the study sheds light on the persistence and contestation of unjust territories.

The Politics of Misalignment: NGO Livelihood Interventions and Exclusionary Land Claims in an Indonesian Oil Palm Enclave

ABSTRACT Across Southeast Asia’s extractive frontier, Indigenous people increasingly negotiate an influx of nonstate actors pushing partnerships and projects to steer livelihoods away from extractivism and toward forest conservation. Yet, NGOs and their donors often struggle to grasp Indigenous peoples’ changing needs and expectations that may prioritize sustaining an income, often via the promises extractive industries propose, over preserving fragmented forests for posterity. This paper examines three interventions by conservation NGOs in East Kalimantan, Indonesia, which leveraged custom (adat) and “alternative” livelihoods through territorial practices to dissuade a Dayak Modang community from releasing ancestral lands for palm oil plantations and coal mines. Drawing on the state’s definition of adat to demarcate Modang territory, NGOs and some Modang engaged in counter-mapping and livelihood initiatives as hopeful expressions of indigeneity and making a living through acts of territorialization. We explore how NGO territorial practices unfolded as simplified spatial expressions that leveraged adat identity, enclosures, and livelihoods, neglecting the contemporary realities of living in a fragmented forest frontier. Although NGO-Modang strategies temporarily slowed dispossession and deforestation, their misaligned livelihood and conservation programs may have reinforced social differentiation between and across Dayak and migrant groups to ultimately facilitate extraction’s expansion.

IDENTITARIAN MOVEMENTS IN THE TOURISTIC CITY: The Marketing of Hate in Verona

AbstractVerona is known as the touristic city of Romeo and Juliet, but its position as a strategic node in the rising identitarian movement goes unnoticed to the thousands of tourists visiting the city every day. This article articulates the historical centre of Verona as a public space in which far‐right and populist right groups seek to construct an exclusionary territorial identity that draws on white supremacy, northern pride and Catholic fundamentalism, which manifest themselves in practices of bordering and territorialization. I argue that the city's perfectly preserved heritage and its assumed authenticity are not only utilized to construct the ideal protagonists of city life, but also that such territorial themes of defending the ‘native homeland’ and its traditions are marketed to the outside world by constructing a ‘model’ city for a growing transnational movement. In this study, which is based on ethnographic fieldwork, archival research and in‐depth interviews, I investigate the mechanisms through which certain historical centres are showcased to build an identitarian network through everyday practices of boundary‐drawing and the marketing of a territorial anti‐modernist nostalgia.

Popular cartography: collaboratively mapping the territorial practices of/with the urban margin in Mumbai

This paper foregrounds the methodological question of how the heuristic research practices of mapping and ethnography operate together to co-produce situated knowledge of/with the urban margin. By critically reflecting on collaborative map-making with young adults in Dharavi (Mumbai), it argues for mapping as an open-ended collaboration in which mappers’ various ‘finding’ and ‘founding’ acts to support the production of situated knowledge of an ever-shifting urban margin. The continuous efforts to make such knowledge visible is through re-reading, re-writing and re-drawing acts. The method prompted by this experience is proposed as ‘popular cartography’. It aims to transcend mappers’ backgrounds, technical skills, and disciplinary biases, and offers a collaborative medium for expressing often overlooked, opaque or difficult-to-describe lived experiences.

Ontological Conflicts in the Plurinational State: The Case of Indigenous Resistance against the Mirador Mega-Mining Project in Ecuador

This article focuses on ontological conflicts over territoriality in Ecuador’s plurinational state. Departing from an ontological perspective, we examine how the Ecuadorian government and Indigenous communities battle over different ways of relating to and existing through territories, and thus over ways of practicing or undermining plurinationality. We offer a historical analysis of plurinationality, a proposal that is constituted by concrete territorial practices of Indigenous self-determination and that challenges the homogenized idea of the nation. We show how this proposal, though adopted in Ecuador’s 2008 Constitution, was undermined by the government’s subsequent expansion of extractive projects. To illustrate how this ontological conflict played out in concrete terms, we focus on Indigenous resistance to the mega-mining project Mirador in Ecuador’s southern Amazon. While the state’s capacity to territorially assert itself has led to the displacement of Indigenous peoples, Indigenous communities continue to claim and invoke this territory as their own.

Japanese Medical Presence in the Territory of Construction and Operation of the Chinese Eastern Railway (1897-1922)

The article examines Japanese medical practice in the territory of the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER or KVZhD) during its construction and operation. The archival material made it possible to find that the Japanese community was eager to take responsibility for providing medical care to its subjects independently. They achieved this by attracting national physicians whose activities were built on the principles of private medical practice.
 The provision of medical care followed the principles of Western medicine, although traditional medicine methods were not excluded. The Russian authorities allowed Japanese doctors to maintain their practice in the Russian-controlled territories, but medical care was provided only to their compatriots, as well as to the Chinese and Korean population. However, the activities of Japanese doctors were treated with distrust and wariness in Russian society, both due to the migrants’ low level of education and due to the existing narrative about the so-called “Yellow Peril.”
 Another aspect of the activities of Japanese physicians in Manchuria was the familiarization of the local population with European medicine methods. To achieve this, private, public, and charitable Japanese medical institutions were established. The difficult epidemiological situation in Manchuria, sanitary problems, socio-economic problems, requirements of Russian legislation, inter-faith divisions, and language barriers raised issues for the territorial communities’ leaders on increasing the availability and quality of health care for their compatriots. The initiatives and proposals of the Japanese community to open public hospitals in Manchuria, centralized medical examinations, strict sanitary procedures, and quarantine measures were supported by the Japanese central authorities. They were considered not only as elements of civilization and colonial ambitions but also as a means of social control not only over Japanese subjects.

Transmission and territory: Urban bordering during COVID-19

The governance of COVID-19 has involved the proliferation of territorial practices, through border controls designed to regulate movements not only across national and state borders, but also within cities and city regions. We argue that these urban territorial practices have been significant to the biopolitics of COVID-19 and warrant close scrutiny. Focusing on the Australian cities of Sydney and Melbourne, this paper offers critical analysis of the urban territorial practices of COVID-19 suppression, which we categorise as practices of closure, confinement and capacity control. We observe these practices in measures including ‘stay at home’ orders, residential building and housing estate lockdowns, closure of and capacity limits on non-residential premises, postcode- and municipality-level restrictions on movement, and hotel quarantine. These measures, we argue, have reinforced and at times exacerbated pre-existing social and spatial inequalities. However, we also recognise COVID-19's real and highly uneven threats to life and health, and therefore ask what a more egalitarian form of pandemic governance might look like. We draw on scholarly writing on ‘positive’ or ‘democratic’ biopolitics and ‘territory from below’, in order to outline some more egalitarian and democratic interventions that have been pursued to suppress viral transmission and to reduce vulnerability to COVID-19 and other viruses. This, we argue, is an imperative of critical scholarship as much as the critique of state interventions. Such alternatives do not necessarily reject state territorial interventions per se, but instead point towards a way of addressing the pandemic by recognising the capacity and legitimacy of biopolitics and territory from below. They point towards ways in which we might see a pandemic ‘like a city’ in a way that prioritises egalitarian care through a politics premised on democratic negotiations among diverse urban authorities and sovereignties.

Good methods for good farmers? Mapping the language of good farming with “diligent farmers” in Hong Kong

This paper explores two questions facing the use of the concept of the ‘good farmer’ in rural studies: what are the most appropriate methods to understand good farming; and what is the relevance of the concept in non-western countries? The paper explores these issues in the context of pig farmers' biosecurity decisions and daily disease management practices in the New Territories of Hong Kong. Specifically, we argue that to broaden the relevance of the good farming concept, we need to devise specific methodologies to capture the relational practices among farmers, non-human life forms and substances that construct the ‘good farmer’ meaning in different cultural contexts. Firstly, we consider the language of ‘good farming’, its possible translations, potential meanings and alternative phrases used amongst Chinese-speaking farmers. Secondly, we develop a farmer-oriented methodology to analyse how these locally specific translations of good farming are constructed and used in relation to the management of animal disease. Drawing on 12 farmers' mapping and their interview discussion, we develop a narrated mapping methodology in which the creation of farm maps acts as a device to illustrate and talk about biosecurity and good farming. This visual method triangulates the graphical data with subsequent interview data of farmers' maps. From this we show how the idea of the ‘diligent farmer’ has much stronger resonance in Hong Kong than good farming. Farm maps identify specific symbols of diligence, highlighting values of productivism, environmentalism and social relationships. The mapping methodology also reveals the performative work involved in becoming a diligent farmer. In conclusion, the paper considers the broader methodological implications for the concept of good farming, suggesting that cultural linguistic differences need to be recognised in the concept, and arguing for further methodological advancement.

Local Territorial Practices Inform Co-Production of a Rewilding Project in the Chilean Andes

Co-production of conservation projects is favored by incorporating local ecological knowledge into project design and implementation. Using a mixed method approach, we asked how the territorial practices and knowledge of cowboys and livestock farmers inform their attitudes to this proposed project. We predicted that cowboy territorial practices would be reduced in diversity compared to the past, and that this may be associated with a reduction in coping or adaptation capacity in the face of environmental challenges. We further predicted that due to growing environmental and social pressures reducing traditional livelihood opportunities for this group, they are likely to see the guanaco reintroduction project in a conflictual and negative light. We additionally predicted that they would perceive local carnivorous species in a conflictual and negative way. We found that territorial practices among the sample had indeed decreased in diversity. The sample coped with changing socio-ecological conditions by taking up other jobs. However, we also found that they had majority favorable views on the guanaco reintroduction project. Yet their knowledge of current guanaco behavior led them to believe that the project would fail. However, they also observed that pumas and condors changed their behaviors. We suggest that there are opportunities to co-produce knowledge about the possibility of flexible and adaptive guanaco behavior, which may lead to restoration and create more sustainable future scenarios, by engaging with the territorial practices and local ecological knowledge of cowboys and livestock farmers.

Emerging rurality: rethinking the city based on valuation of the urban-rural

The development of urban and rural environment concepts pervades landscape characteristics and the dichotomous relationship between these areas. The urban and rural understandings are related to their economic, industrial, and agrarian activities to the city and countryside, respectively. Thus, the urban-rural duality departs the notion of a city that includes multiple environments and induces both an erasure of the ecosystem logic of humans and nature relations and consideration of humans as part of its decrease. In that regard, aspects connected with the dynamic of products and services store, such as water and food provisions, have unstuck from their origins which trivializes the process of production, supply, and consumption. Furthermore, a discussion between urban and rural must consider several points, including food sovereignty, agribusiness, land access inequality, local and regional territorial articulation, and climate. Based on a bibliographic review of academic articles published in journals, periodicals and events, this article intends to ponder these aspects in defence of an idea of urban-rural interdependence from the conception of the urban revolution and the urban phenomenon concept. Besides, this study seeks to strengthen the debate on consolidated and conflicted territorial practices aimed to rethink new public policies toward a more integrated and less unequal territory.

UN Convention to Combat Desertification as an International Environmental Regulatory Framework for Protecting and Restoring the World’s Land towards a Safer, More Just and Sustainable Future

There are ongoing international initiatives on how to protect the environment towards sustainable development (SD). These initiatives range from those of the United Nations (UN) to those of other international organizations and institutions. At the level of the UN, these initiatives are mainly its conferences and summits, which may be considered as the UN SRJRS Process. The UN SRJRS Process refers to the cities in which various UN conferences and summits on the environment and development towards SD have so far been convened, namely Stockholm, Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro and Stockholm. So, these UN conferences and summits are the (i) UN Conference on the Human Environment, held at Stockholm, in 1972; (ii) UN Conference on Environment and Development, held at Rio de Janeiro, in 1992; (iii) World Summit on SD, held at Johannesburg, in 2002; (iv) UN Conference on SD (Rio+20), held again at Rio de Janeiro, in 2012; and (v) the Stockholm+50, which was held again in Stockholm, Sweden, in June 2022. The UN SRJRS Process and their outcome documents and progressively ongoing strategies are aimed at protecting the environment in the course of development, so as to achieve SD in UN’s member states and territories around the globe, in the interest of humans and society at large. Desertification, which may arise from deforestation, is an environmental problem associated with forests. Internationally, forests are regulated by the UN Statement of Forest Principles, 1992, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, 1992, the Convention on Biological Diversity, 1992, the Convention to Combat Desertification (CCD), 1994, and other relevant multilateral conventions, as well as international agreements and efforts associated with forests. This study thus examines the UNCCD, 1994, as a worldwide shared vision and a comprehensive multilateral environmental regulatory mechanism, designed to combat desertification, through relevant implementation measures, such as policies, laws, institutional regulatory frameworks and practices in sovereign states and territories around the globe, so as to protect and restore the world’s land, towards a safer, more just and better sustainable future, especially towards achieving relevant goals of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Edible insect biodiversity and anthropo-entomophagy practices in Kalehe and Idjwi territories, D.R. Congo

BackgroundLocated in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (South-Kivu), Kalehe and Idjwi are two relatively unexplored territories with little to no research on edible insects even though anthropo-entomophagy practice is widespread. This study therefore aimed at exploring the biodiversity, perception, consumption, availability, host plants, harvesting techniques, and processing techniques of edible insects.MethodsData were collected through a field survey using three techniques, namely structured interviews, direct observations, and insect collection and taxonomy. A total of 260 respondents, 130 in each territory, were interviewed. The field survey focused on inventorying commonly edible insects as well as recording consumer preferences, preference factors, seasonal availability, host plants, harvesting techniques, and processing and preservation methods. Samples for taxonomic characterization were preserved in 70% alcohol.ResultsNine edible insects, namely Ruspolia differens Serville 1838, Gryllotalpa Africana Palisot de Beauvois 1805, Locusta migratoria Linnaeus 1758, Macrotermes subhyalinus Rambur 1842, Gnathocera trivittata Swederus 1787, Rhynchophorus phoenicis Fabricius 1801, Vespula spp. Linnaeus 1758, Apis mellifera Linnaeus 1758, and Imbrasia oyemensis Rougeot 1955, were recorded as being consumed either as larvae, pupae, and adults. Ruspolia differens and M. subhyalinus were reported as the most preferred by consumers in the studied territories. A scatter plot of matrices and Pearson's correlations showed a negative correlation between preference based on taste, size, and shape, as well as perceived nutritional value. Their seasonal availability differs from one species to another and correlated with host plants availability. Harvesting techniques and processing and preservation methods depend on species, local knowledge, and practices.ConclusionThe huge edible insect diversity observed in Kalehe and Idjwi is evidence of anthropo-entomophagy practices in the area. In addition to being an important delicacy and traditional foods, edible insects can contribute to food, environmental, and financial security through local business opportunities. Households can rely on edible insects to meet their nutritional needs instead of conventional livestock. Indigenous practices and technologies used for harvesting, processing, and preserving edible insects must be improved to meet international standards to increase the market and capitalize on the economic potential of edible insects.

The challenges of Process Engineering for the reuse of treated wastewater within INRAE’s REUSE network - the need for a multidisciplinary and multi-scale approach

The reuse of wastewater aims to mobilize and treat, for certain uses and under certain conditions, water that has already been used. Rather than discharging wastewater into the natural environment, this practice aims to recover it by replacing the mobilization of water withdrawn from the environment [van Loosdrecht and Brdjanovic, 2014]. By moving from a linear logic of the mobilization and use of water to a circular approach, the objective pursued is to reduce the pressure, qualitative then quantitative, on the resources while limiting, as far as possible, the usage conflicts. It is in fact a question of passing from a simple competitive mode which strongly mobilizes resources, to a complex mode, known as “circular”, of putting in complementarity of uses. This approach initially mainly concerned agricultural uses insofar as agricultural needs represent the majority of the water mobilized, including developed countries [UN Water 2018]. Cities integrate specific issues that are characterized by significantly different options from those that can be found in rural areas. In the city, the recovery of wastewater has both material aspects (water, nutrients, critical metals, biopolymers, etc.) and energy aspects (recovery of heat from the networks, production of energy by biological means and /or thermal,…) which should be integrated on an appropriate scale according to the problems addressed (housing, building, district, city, territory or hydrological basin). To study the conditions under which REUSE can develop and be implemented in a safe and sustainable manner, research is needed [Ait-Mouheb et al., 2018]. If it represents an opportunity in certain territories where wastewater can be mobilized, it is also necessary to underline the limits of this practice in territories where the wastewater discharged into the environment is necessary to maintain the low water levels of rivers and rivers, or where soils may be affected, for example, by the salinity of these waters. In addition, studies of the social, economic and environmental dimensions differ significantly depending on the uses envisaged and the situations considered. To meet these challenges, the REUSE network of INRAE (cf. www6.inrae.fr) proposes to adopt a multidisciplinary and multi-scale approach by mobilizing not only the disciplines that can be considered as falling within the field of technologies and environmental engineering but also all of those relating to the human and social sciences, economics, legal, and participatory sciences.

O poder dos espaços coletivos como estratégia contra a violação de direitos

Abstract This paper articulates the theoretical-methodological contributions of social occupational therapy and the experience of “Timbó em Movimento'' and “ResisTO” projects, which are part of the Rede Metuia nucleus belonging to the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB), Brazil. It recognizes the importance of territorial practices and the social occupational therapy field for the strengthening and support of populations with diverse conditions of vulnerability. Articulation of what was observed in the Timbó em Movimento and ResisTO projects with concepts such as the intersectionality of social markers of difference, their implications for the right to the city and their effects in the daily life of youths. The article elaborates the implications of social markers in the daily life of the participants, as well as the potential of collective reference spaces and intersectoral articulation to confront violence. It is concluded that the spaces of belonging have great relevance for addressing conflicts in the social field, promoting the participation of people and the exercise of citizenship, rejecting the tendency to seek individual solutions to collective problems. Remains the challenge of taking these dialogues to the daily contexts in which violence takes place, incorporating actors that may also be involved in its reproduction.

Rethinking structural competency: Continuing education in mental health and practices of territorialisation in Brazil

ABSTRACT Brazilian mental health focuses on the social determination model within mental health policies and interventions to address mental and social suffering as resulting from social exclusion and structural violence. Structural concerns focused on class stratification and socioeconomic inequalities overweight cultural ones in Brazilian mental health. In this article we examine, first the role of culture and interculturality in mental health practices and mental health guidelines for health professionals continuing training in Brazil. Second, we explore interviews with health professionals around Continuing Education in Health provided by mental health collaborative care initiatives within primary health care as illustration of a local practice of structural competency in mental health. Finally, we examine the central role played by the practices of territorialisation in shaping health care training and care interventions. The focus on the territory can promote critical apprehensions of the intercultural and structural factors that shape health practices, enrich health professional education oriented towards the basic tenets of social medicine and provide global discussions around structural competency with innovative ways of thinking about health education, health care and spatiality. We believe that our results may be useful for comparing structural competency training initiatives in global health.

Curricularizar la extensión universitaria en la Universidad Nacional de Córdoba durante el grado: ¿mandato político o conciencia cívica estudiantil?

One of the issues linked to Extension that has caused the greatest tension and evolutionary leaps in the University over the decades, had to do with its different currents of thought, from the traditionalist model to the critical model. Extension seemed at times to be shrouded in an "epistemological haze" that prevented a clear conceptual understanding of its changing paradigms and its role as an essential pillar of the public university. However, thanks to these processes of change and the countless positions produced in relation to the dialogue of knowledge, the participation of teachers and their responsibility to society in the framework of the public university was strengthened. From this and from political management decisions, the concept of curricularising extensionist praxis from the Chairs arose, also taking students centre stage, with the aim of continuing to prioritise this process during their undergraduate training. This new phenomenon at the Faculty of Dentistry of the National University of Cordoba presents us with a challenge in which, in addition to continuing to develop the usual territorial practices, the theoretical conceptualizations that will provide academic support for the dialogical exchange of knowledge with society should be positioned.

European colonization and the transmission of the Ewondo language in Cameroon and Abroad: Historical and transnational perspectives

European colonization has deeply marked the linguistic practices in different African territories until today. Cameroon, which was colonized by Germany from 1884 to 1916 and by France and Great Britain from 1916 to 1960, is formally a bilingual country with French and English being its two official languages. However, the linguistic reality of the country goes way beyond these two languages. Today, more than 250 African languages are spoken in Cameroon. This article focuses on the experiences of Alexis-Bienvenu Belibi, who was born in Yaoundé in 1950 and who is today Professor Emeritus of African languages at the École normale supérieure of Yaoundé. The article evokes Belibi’s family history, his schooling, university studies and his career as a high school teacher and as a university professor. It thereby examines the different school policies implemented in Cameroon toward African languages over time as well as the impact of university actors on ongoing political changes in the educational field. It also addresses demands from the Cameroonian diaspora in Europe and the world concerning the learning of Ewondo. The article is written in the form of a conversation between Alexis-Bienvenu Belibi and Elise Pape, a Franco-German sociologist specialized in the fields of migration studies and of postcolonial memories.