Ibrahima THIOUB

"Chromatic identities in Africa: histories, legacies and events"

The project is an attempt to write the history of the recapturing of chromatic identity - and the way it is mobilized in contemporary power games -by the African intelligentsia, who have reversed its perspective and conclusions, when it has served to legitimize the worst examples of violence and domination in their societies. To do this, he studies the intellectual genealogy of the main currents which make up this broad movement to identify their impact on the knowledge produced in Africa, especially on the writing of the history of the continent. The aim is to examine how the categories related to somatic differences, or those ofphenotype, the latter often being perceived and described as "racial", have affected memory constructions in Africa and the writing of African societies in the social sciences.

He carries out a critical reading of the most significant texts by Pan-Africanists - Garvey, Firmin, Dubois - and on the theme of Negritude to establish their intellectual influences on the works of theorists of the anti-colonial movement in Africa. This approach identifies similarities and differences in operating procedures and the various versions of the color factor in the construction of African identity among individuals. It also focuses on different trajectories, taking into account political, academic and «physical» (movements, places of learning and «intellectual» sociability, places of personal experience, etc.) aspects. Furthermore, the work addresses political contexts and the academic development of ideologies of independence and the heritage which constitutes these contexts, paying attention to the differentiation that occurs between French, Portuguese and English-speaking as well as Belgian imperial spaces. Finally, follows the trajectories of these theories: their impact, reception and any new developments (which agents, in what context and for what purpose?). The implementation of these theories and their implications for Africa’s self-knowledge – particularly in the field of social sciences - will be fully explored.