Sociology, anthropology, University of Omar Bongo in Libreville (Gabon)
Septembre à Décembre 2010 (séjours précédents en mai 2005 et de octobre 2009 à juin 2010)
Joseph Tonda is professor of sociology and anthropology. He teaches sociology and anthropology of religions, sociology of health and medicine and sociology of the imagination and power. These major themes and research projects are the power of healing in the Prophetic and Pentecostal churches, the power of body-sex and money, he also examines the political imaginary and the ethno-political violence, sociability emerging in prostitution and bereavement or transnationalization of prophetic firms.
Husbands and wives at night "in the Congo and Gabon. Historical consciousness and imagination of power in contemporary Central Africa
The current or contemporary experience of power in African societies is not the monopoly of the scientific imagination and conscience. The " profane" imagination and conscience, non-scientific have also this experience but contrary to scientific imagination and conscience, they put it into shape and express it with symbols. We consider "the women and their husbands at night " as symbols that allow the imagination to express the collective experience that have men and women of power in the social and historical context in which they live. It is therefore important to include a constellation of other phenomena that reflect the changing relationships with others, to oneself, and to the material world.