Scientific Director & Chief Editor
Komla M. Avono (Ph.D.)
ISSN 2710-4699 Online
3 issues per year
What Anthropology in a COVID-19 Context? Reflections on Operational Research in a Prolonged Health Emergency in Burkina Faso
Abstract: In Burkina Faso, two anthropological studies on covid-19 (CORAF-Media and CORAFMOB) reveal methodological difficulties and the positioning of anthropology in an epidemic crisis. This methodological reflection starts from the conditions of execution of this research involving critical analysis and production of results to guide the response. The presentation of results in an emergency makes temporality the first challenge. The second outcome presents pressing situations unfavorable to the expression of criticism of governmental measures, institutional functioning, or global health options. The capacity of anthropology to follow the institution of public health, in a health emergency, to account for the complexity of its approach, which is the very basis of its legitimacy, is questioned here.
Keywords: Covid-19, Anthropology, Public Health, Methodology, Burkina Faso
Argumentative Strategies and National Reconciliation in Times of Crisis: The Case of Côte d’Ivoire
Abstract: This article analyzes the precarious situation of reconciliation in Côte d’Ivoire. It highlights the possibilities and limits of the stagnant Ivorian reconciliation, where relative peace remains very fragile. The analysis examines the possibilities and limits of reconciliation and sustainable peace. The argumentative and discursive strategies of the political actors constitute an undeniable issue for true reconciliation, for genuine peacemaking. The immediate consequence of such a situation of mistrust and suspicion is the widespread fear in the country. An in-depth reconciliation deserves to be observed and applied for social cohesion.
Keywords: Discursive Strategies, Argumentation, Reconciliation, Sustainable Peace, Social Cohesion
The Transgressive Writing of the Female Body
Abstract:This paper intends to show that the the content of the novels of Calixthe Beyala and Ken Bugul deal with a transgressive aesthetic, characterised by an inflation of sexuality that makes the reader think about erotic writing. The exposure of the female body and unbridled sexuality is a major element in the writing of Calixthe Beyala and Ken Bugul. In this way, their writing is part of the dialectic of what can be termed a textual and sexual practice. The writing of Beyala and Bugul is part of what might be termed pornographic text, insofar as the simplest definitional approach to it is based on the production of sexual arousal in the reader. These two novelists break taboo barriers in this immodest writing, where sexual heat and orgasm penetrate every page with carnal ejaculations. Calixthe Beyala and Ken Bugul, whose stories serve as material for our analysis, paint these transgressive sexualities without artifice.
Keywords: Sexuality, Lesbianism, Pornography, Homosexuality, Transgression, Writing
Deconstructing the Poto-Mitan Woman Myth and Reconstructing the Female Figure in Désirada by Maryse Condé
Abstract: This paper questions the myth of the poto-mitan woman whictructures conjugal and parental relations within West Indian society in Désirada by Maryse Condé. This myth, whose origins date back to the slavery and colonial past of the Caribbean, is taken up and questioned in the novel by the Guadeloupean writer. The study analyzes the socio-anthropological foundations of the myth of the poto-mitan woman to better appreciate the process of its deconstruction, the erosion of sexual identities (male and female) and the promotion of an alternative female identity.
Keywords: Myth, Poto-Mitan, Matrifocality, Migrance, Deconstruction, Deterritorialization
Is the Chronicler a Translator or an Adapter in the Opening of The Red and the Black by Stendhal?
Abstract: If in Le Rouge et le Noir in general, in the incipit in particular, Stendhal stages a text, which gives more voice to the chronicler than to the narrator, it is because the space of the chronicle makes possible the evocation of facts and the comments they inspire. Far from reflecting on the limits of narration and the powers of the chronicle, it will be a question of following an author who carries a realistic and aesthetic project which will have revealed his genius, as it is true that the novelist undertakes a perilous enterprise which requires the qualities and rigor of the scientist as much as the distance of the chronicler. We will then realize the very advanced taste Stendhal has as much truth as the historical references, which invade the text.
Keywords: Chronicle, Translator, Narrator, Reality, Fiction
Novel Writing and Interculturality in Fragments by Ayi Kwei Armah and L’aventure ambiguë by Cheikh Hamidou Kane
Abstract: The specificity of the literary production of any African writer is that he is constantly confronted with the management of two languages and two cultures at least. Therefore, it can be stated that the intertextuality is the ideologeme that governs most of the works of African authors. Thus, I will try to show that the works under review (The Ambiguous Adventure by Cheikh Hamidou Kane and Fragments by Ayi Kwei Armah) accurately illustrate this intercultural dimension of African literature at different levels: the diegesis, the chronotype, and the characters.
Keywords: Language, Culture, Intertextuality, Ideology, Intercultural, African Literature, Diegesis, Chronotype
Novel Writing and Filmic Intentionality in Le chien qui parle by Charles Olince
Abstract: The relationship between literature and cinema is not new. They influence each other. The plots, the characters, the dialogues proposed by the novel contribute to the cinematographic works. Among the subgenres of the novel, the detective story is the one which, undoubtedly because of its proximity to cinematographic scenarios, lends itself best to movie adaptation. Starting from the observation that the two forms of expression are minor in the togolese artistic landscape, we suggest that they could inspire each other. The study is based on the novel Le chien qui parle by the Togolese writer Charles Olince. Using the tools of narrative semiotics, the work is first questioned from the point of view of its congruence with the canons of the detective story. This made it possible to identify constants but also heaviness participating in the realistic tendency of the dominant social novel, and which must be resolved within the framework of a movie adaptation. Then, the use of cinematographic techniques and methods led to the examination of the ways of transposing this story to the seventh art.
Keywords: Novel, Cinema, Images, Cinematographic Techniques, Filmic Intentionality
Management of Stormwater Drainage Networks in Urban Areas: Contrasting Stakeholder Logics in the Municipality of Cotonou, Benin
Abstract: The problem of sanitation in an urban environment is classically based on the evacuation of waste and rainwater through a collection and transport network. The sanitation networks, particularly the wastewater and rainwater evacuation pipes in Cotonou, are today faced with a dysfunction due to the daily practices of city dwellers. This work aims to analyze the logics of actors in the management of rainwater drainage networks in urban areas in the study area. The investigation technique was essentially based on documentary research and the collection of data in the field. Data was collected from 208 people through interviews with resource persons, notably local authorities and service managers, by administering questionnaires to households and direct observation in the field. The results obtained reveal that the daily practices of certain city dwellers in the study districts in terms of waste disposal contrast with the attributes of the open gutters of the said districts. Thus, 87% of the households surveyed admit that wastewater (laundry water, dishwashing water), waste oil and household orders are thrown into the gutters and 71% say that the gutters serve as a place of defecation for certain populations. These practices of incivism among populations have harmful consequences on populations and the urban environment.
Keywords: Sanitation, Urban, Garbage, Wastewater, Cotonou, Benin
Impact of Social Change on Gender Imago-Related Identifications Among Schoolgirls in Niamey
Abstract: The results of this study stem from the content analysis of the corpus of protocols of the “Test the Three Characters” (Backes-Thomas, 1969) provided by 329 participants that we randomly selected at the level of schools of Niamey. The general objective of the research was to explore the identifications with gender imagos of young school girls in Niamey in relation to traditional and modern values; by placing particular emphasis on the psychic impact implied by the passage from one to the other. Thus, knowing that, in general, Nigerien society is essentially phallocentric, the field survey confirmed the main allegation of the present study which underlines the link between the identifications with gender imagos of young girls schooled in Niamey with the process of transformation of socio-cultural values underway in Niger.
Keywords: Incidence, Social Change, Identifications, Gender Imagos
Discursive Influence Strategies in Ivorian General Information Newspapers
Abstract: This article aims to study the maneuvers of discursive influence that frame the partisan treatment of political information in the Ivorian print media. To achieve this objective, the article is based on the empirical results of the analysis of political discourse over two weeks deriving from four (4) national daily newspapers. They are: Fraternité Matin, L’Essor Ivoirien, Le Bélier and Le Temps. The analytical corpus is made up of twenty-four (24) issues published between February 1 and 14, 2021. The hypothesis of this study is as follows: the partisan treatment of political information is dependent on the influence maneuvers of the Ivorian print media. The textual data was processed with thematic content analysis, discourse analysis, the comprehensive method of Max Weber and the strategic analysis of Crozier and Friedberg. The main results from this analysis have made it possible to understand that semio-discursive constraints articulate the political positioning of newspapers. Then, the partisan treatment of information unfolds under several communicative aims and maneuvers of persuasion. Finally, the maneuvers of persuasion contribute to the promotion of the political party.
Keywords: Media, Newspapers, Discourse Analysis, Dialogism, Influence, Politics
Identity Assignment in That Pig of a Morin by Guy de Maupassant
Abstract: This study focuses on the attribution by his entourage of a problematic nickname to one of the characters of Guy de Maupassant’s short story, This pig of Morin. The wearing of this unfavorable nickname raises a considerable problem, because it leads to an existential instability that affects Morin’s daily life, to the point of shaking him morally and then leading to his ruin. The use of the theoretical tools developed by Marc Edmond is conducive to an interpretative reading that allows to understand the psychology of Morin in a perspective of fearful and anxious self-psychology as opposed to that of the group composed by all the inhabitants of La Rochelle which she’s rather devouring and oppressive. The results we obtain allow us to describe a character prone to fear and victim of a personality crisis that ends with a premature death.
Keywords: Self-Esteem, Identity, Image, Reputation, Ruin
Poetry and Society: Love and Young Girls in L’Amie de court (1542) by Bertrand de La Borderie
Abstract: This contribution aims to clarify the conception of love in the social and intellectual spheres of the Renaissance through the general principles of life. L’Amie de court (1542) by Bertrand de La Borderie is a poetic discourse which reveals the history of representations, theories of the reading of Love among young people and ladies of the Renaissance. By distinguishing levels of experience (psychological, historical, social), and configurations of experience, La Borderie tried to cross the different facets of Love as the feminine imagination conceives them as a model of life following an ideology which establishes society, politics, religion and the poeticity of genres.
Keywords: Renaissance, Love, Woman, Feminism, Society, Poetic
Is Gengbè a Language or an Éwégbè Dialect? A Historical and Dialectological Study
Abstract: This study focuses on Gengbè, a language of the Gbè continuum spoken in southern Togo and Benin. It falls within the framework of dialectology/dialectometry and raises the issue of the status of Gengbè within the continuum. While some consider Gengbè to be a dialectal variant of Ewégbè, others consider it to be a distinct language with its own system. In view of this divergence, the problem of the sociolinguistic status of Gengbè vis-à-vis Ewegbè arises sharply. Based on the hypothesis that a dialectological /dialectometric study makes it possible to determine the sociolinguistic status of languages, this article sets out to define the status of Gengbè within Gbè on the basis of dialectometric, dialectological and historical data. The theoretical framework of reference for this study is (Guiter’s) dialectometry and (Capo’s) comparative approach. The dialectometric theory was used to determine the linguistic distance between the two languages studied. The comparative approach was used to identify similarities and differences between Ewégbè and Gengbè. Data collection was based on a dual methodological approach, namely fieldwork and documentary research. On the basis of the analysis and interpretation of dialectometric, dialectological and historical data, we have come to the conclusion that Gengbè is a dialectal variant of Ewégbè that it is widely spoken in Southern Togo and has been koineised in Lomé.
Keywords: Gengbè, Lexical Distance, Linguistic Distance, Phonological Equivalence, Lexical Equivalence
Urban Renewal and Resilience of Floriculturists in Managing Green Spaces along Major Roads in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
Abstract: The article aims to examine the resilience strategies of flower growers in the management of green spaces along the “major” arteries in Abidjan. In the process of renovating this city, three main strategies have been identified as major challenges. The first is the promotion of floriculture as a competitive resource in the embellishment of the “major” arteries of the city. The second is an invitation to legitimize the floriculture activity as a “good” practice of participation in urban life. Finally, the third is the reconstruction of the monopoly of floriculture and its repositioning as an activity at the service of urban ecology. One or other of these strategies sheds light on the maintenance of flower growers in the occupation of spaces in the public domain in urban areas. As commendable as these strategies are, they reveal themselves through norms and values linked to the demands of sustainable urban renewal. This makes flower growers institutionally and socially accepted actors in the city. The survey is based on semi-structured interviews with a sample of thirteen (13) respondents.
Keywords: Abidjan, flower growers, urban renewal, resilience
The Multilateral Policy of President Thomas Sankara: Between Revolutionary Internationalism and Anti-Imperialist Struggle
Abstract: This article discusses president Thomas Sankara’s multilateral policy dating back to his appointment as Prime Minister on January 11, 1983. Already, he made no secret of his anti-imperialist orientation and then became president on August 4, 1984. The ideological bases of his multilateral policy contained in the Political Orientation Speech (DOP) depended on the ideological orientations of the Revolution. Inspired by Marxism, its multilateral policy should be analyzed in the light of the so-called “Marxist” approach to international relations, which favors revolutionary class struggles. This revolutionary orientation is reflected in its foreign policy and the country very quickly makes known its course of action to the international community, the main principles of which are: revolutionary internationalism and the anti-imperialist struggle of the West. The manifestations of the multilateral policy were visible through the multilateral meetings at the sub-regional level which were opportunities for president Sankara to express himself and show his revolutionary ideas to the world. At the international level, the non-aligned summits, the France-Africa summits, the United Nations General Assembly were also places where this policy was expressed. In these forums, Thomas Sankara does not cut corners to raise the problem of debt, evils that undermine the development of the Third World, to support the class struggle and tackle major international issues. Lessons are learned at the political, economic and socio-cultural levels of its policy which serves as a substrate on which the current anti-neocolonialist struggles on the African continent are anchored.
Keywords: Multilateral Policy, Thomas Sankara, Revolution, Anti-Imperialism
The Ntribou Country under French and British Administration from 1914 to 1956
Abstract: The Ntribou country straddles the current Republics of Togo and Ghana. Before the colonial conquest, the populations of this country lived on the same territorial space. During the conquest of the space that will become Togo, this country was placed under German domination. But at the end of the First World War (1914-1918) which resulted in the defeat of Germany, which consequently lost its colonies in Africa, including Togo, the Ntribou country was divided and placed under English and French colonial administration. This study aims to describe and analyze the circumstances in which the Ntribou country passed under French and English administration and to examine the evolutions that these populations experienced under their new masters. For the organization and development of this study, we relied on oral surveys and written sources. The crossing of these sources, their analysis as well as their criticism and interpretation have made it possible to structure this work in two main parts. The first part studies the circumstances that led to the placement of the Ntribou country under French and English administration. The second part examines the evolutions known by these populations of the Ntribou country under these different administrations.
Keywords: Country, Ntribou, French and English Administration, Togo and Ghana
Violence and Suffering Among Nurses in University Hospitals in Togo
Abstract: In university hospitals in Togo, patient care is provided by all healthcare staff. Among these nursing staff, nurses are in more contact with patients and their companions. This proximity exposes them to violence from healthcare users. This violence affects the majority of staff working in support services. However, to the current state of our knowledge, very few studies have focused on this subject and focused more on internal violence. Thus, this article aims to evaluate the prevalence of external or exogenous violence and its impacts among nurses in university hospitals in Togo. This is a descriptive study of which we used the questionnaire survey to collect information from 186 nurses working in the three university hospital centers in Togo. The prevalence of exogenous violence is estimated at (88%), including (98.1%) verbal; (41.3%) psychological and (21.3%) physical. The physical, psychological and professional impacts have been noted. The problem of exogenous violence raises questions that require in-depth research to address.
Keywords: Violence; Suffering; Nurses; Centers; University Hospital
Contribution of Results-Based Management (RBM) to the Evolution of Financial Performance at the Atakpamé Regional Hospital under Contractualization
Abstract: After independence, West African states as a whole developed various strategy to improve their health systems and policies. In recent times, health structures in Togo have gone through enormous difficulties which impact not only the quality of care for the population but also the well-being of the providers themselves. The contractual approach was timely as a results-based management strategy. But data on the evaluation of the economic and financial performance of these health structures during this period of the contractual approach are lacking in the literature. This article fills this void by seeking to evaluate the contribution of the Results-Based Management System to the evolution of the financial and economic performance of the CHR Atakpame at the time of the contracting of the Center. Referring to the instrumental theory of stakeholders, we took into account documentary data from 2017 to 2018 composed of financial and accounting reports, contracts and agreements between all stakeholders (government, staff, populations, contracting organization) during the contractual approach period. This made possible
an analysis of textual data inspired by the linguistic analysis model of discourse and especially analyzes of textual data. The analysis of performance is from the angle of relevance (the different axes of the project), effectiveness (comparative turnover, comparative payment) and efficiency (allocation of resources to different expenses). The results show that financial management is orthodox and the functioning of services is improved by the acquisition of materials and equipment, improved salary conditions, better care of the indigent and good management of the pharmacy. It appears important in terms of conclusion that the national health policy takes full ownership of this approach by duplicating this management strategy to other health facilities.
Keywords: Contractual Approach, Financial Performance, GAR, CHR Atakpame