ILCAA Joint Research Project

Présence Africaine: Towards New Political and Cultural Perspectives (jrp000216)

Keywords

• Negritude
• Decolonization
• Cold War era
• Cultural studies

Areas

• Africa
• Americas
• Europe
• Atlantic

Website

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About the Project

Project term: April, 2015–March, 2018

Our research project deals with the black literary and cultural journal Présence Africaine, which was founded by Senegalese Alioune Diop in 1947 and continues to be published to this day. As a major black intellectual press, the journal played a particularly important political and cultural role in the decolonization period of the 1950s. By re-examining the selected issues from the 1950s, the project attempts to shed new light on the black thought and movement of the mid-twentieth century as represented by the négritude movement, and thereby, attempts to explore the changing relations between politics and culture in an increasingly globalized world of the post-Cold War era. This joint research enables us to combine different areas of studies such as anthropology and literature, Africa and the Caribbean, francophone and anglophone worlds.

Members

Coordinator

• Takayuki NAKAMURA (Daito Bunka University)

ILCAA Staff

• Yutaka SAKUMA

Joint Researchers

• Ayako AIHARA
• Moriyuki HOSHINO
• Ichiro MAJIMA
• Takayuki NAKAMURA
• Ryo OGAWA
• Tasuku SASAKI
• Yukitoshi SUNANO
• Yutaka YOSHIDA

Outputs

Meetings

The 8th meeting ：Report (Japanese)(153KB)

• Date/Time: Sun 18 Mar 2018 13:00–17:30, Mon 19 Mar 2018 10:00–17:00
• Venue: Faculty of Letters & Graduate School of Humanities - A and C, Rokkoudai 2nd Campus, Kobe University
• Language:Japanese
• 18 Mar

• Yutaka SAKUMA (ILCAA)

  “Introduction”

  Takayuki NAKAMURA (ILCAA Joint Researcher,Daito Bunka University)

  “Report about Organization of the International Symposium on Présence Africaine and the next research project”

  All members

  Discussion on the next research meeting

• 19 Mar

• Satoshi HIROTA(University of Paris 8)

  “For another literary approach to the Négritude ? : About the discourses on the Négritude”

  Yuchol RIM (Hitotsubashi University)

  “The 5th Pan-African Congress and Liberation of /Africa/: Pan-Africanist Perspectives on the Post-War World”

  All members

  Discussion

The 7th meeting ：Report (Japanese)(198KB)

• Date/Time: Mon 21 Aug 2017 13:00–17:00 (closed), Tue 22 Aug 2017 10:30–17:00 (open) Reception (registered members only 18:00–20:00), Wed 23 Aug 2017 10:00–17:30 (open)　18:00-20:00 (closed), Thu 24 Aug 2017 10:00–17:00 (open)
• Venue: Agora Global, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
• Language: Japanese, English and French
• Jointly sponsored by ILCAA Joint Research Project “Présence Africaine: Towards New Political and Cultural Perspectives” and Grant-In-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (Principal Investigator: Moriyuki HOSHINO (The University of Tokyo) #17H02328), Grant-In-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research (Principal Investigator: Yutaka SAKUMA (ILCAA) #17K18480), Core resarch program “The potential value of indigenous knowledge in managing hazards in Asia and Africa: Anthropological explorations linking micro-macro perspectives 2”
• Supported by Simul International, Inc.
• 21 Aug 13:00–17:00 (closed)

• closed meeting

• Internationl Symposium, Présence Africaine: Towards New Political and Cultural Perspectives Identities, memories and resistances between Africa, Europe and the Americas from colonization to post-colony: leaflet (in French) (1.4MB)
• 22 Aug 10:30–17:00 * Registration of the participants from 9:30

• Opening and Inaugural Speech

  Romuald FONKOUA (University of Paris IV., Editor-in-Chief of the Présence Africaine)

  Présence Africaine: the story of an idea, the action of a thought

  Session 1: Great personalities: biographies

  Hidehiro TACHIBANA (Waseda University)

  Alioune Diop and Aimé Césaire

  Fatima DOUMBIA (Félix Houphouët-Boigny University)

  Kwame Nkrumah: Survival of an African Presence

  Sheikh THIAM (The Ohio State University)

  Negritude Africentered: Revisiting Senghor and Glissant’s countercultures of modernity in the 21st century

  Georges A. BERTRAND (Academy of Limoges)

  Marcel Griaule, an ambiguous African... The evolution of the thought of a man in the heart of the twentieth century

  Monika BRODNICKA (The Ohio State University)

  Amadou Hampaté Bâ and the Call to Indigenous Metaphysics

  Reception（18:00–20:00）

• 23 Aug　10:00–17:30

• Session 2: Languages and Literatures

  Takayuki NAKAMURA (Daito Bunka University)

  Literature, language and politics: the issues surrounding the debate on “national poetry”

  Satoshi HIROTA (University of Paris VIII)

  Unfinished dialogue between two Caribbean poets on the eve of decolonization: Aimé Césaire and Edouard Glissant

  Sally Kalani STAINIER (University of French West Indies)

  Lang a pèp-la kont lang a mèt-la? - Echoes of the Guadeloupean linguistic question within teachers’ representations

  Jyothsana NARASIMHAN (University of Mumbai)

  Women’s writing in Présence Africaine - A thought revolution by Fatou Diome

  Hiroshi MATSUI (Kinjo Gakuin University)

  I is one of us: Black Shack Alley (La rue Cases-Nègres) by Joseph Zobel

  Session 3: Arts, Media and Reception of Présence Africaine

  Roger SOME (University of Strasbourg)

  Negro Art versus African Art in Présence Africaine

  Buata MALELA (University Center of Mayotte)

  Présence Africaine in the space of Academic Journals

  Obed NKUNZIMANA (New Brunswick University)

  Rethinking and redressing old wounds. Postcolonial slavery and colonization revisited in the movies of ‘Adanggaman’ et ‘L’Afrance’

  Eugene TAVARES (Assane Seck University)

  Présence Africaine and the process of awakening consciences in Lusophone Africa. The example of Cape Verde

  Francoise NAUDILLON (Concordia University)

  African Presence or African Absence. Le Monde Diplomatique’s Reception of the Journal from 1958 to 1980

  closed meeting (18:00-20:00)

• 24 Aug 10:00–17:00

• Session 4: Political Ideas

  Ryo OGAWA (Professor Emeritus, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)

  The Road to Black Hosts (Hosties noires): from Blaise Diagne, W.E.B. Dubois to L.S. Senghor

  Sakiko NAKAO (EHESS)

  Pan-Africanism or nationalism? Présence Africaine: a forum for cultural policies in the era of decolonization

  Jonas Daniel RANO (University of Lorraine)

  Creolitude and ideological marronage in the work of Léon-Gontran Damas

  Anne PIRIOU (RIAM)

  The making of Francophone Nationalist Intellectuals in the 1950s revisited: places, periods and personalities

  Ibrahim YAHAYA (University Abdou Moumouni)

  Présence Africaine: the struggle continues

  All members

  General Discussion and Closing Ceremony

The 6th meeting

• Date/Time: Sat 17 Jun 2017 10:30–19:00
• Venue: Room 304, ILCAA
• Language: Japanese
• Jointly sponsored by ILCAA Joint Research Project “Presence Africaine: Towards New Political and Cultural Perspectives” and Grant-In-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (Principal Investigator: Moriyuki HOSHINO (The University of Tokyo) #17H02328)

• Yutaka SAKUMA (ILCAA)

  “Progress Report about Organization of the International Symposium on Presence Africaine”

  All members

  Meeting on the International Symposium

  Masaki SAKIYAMA (Ritsumeikan University)

  “A Study of Contemporary Evaluations of Presence Africaine from the Outside: From the Afro-Asian Conference in Bandung (1955) to Ernesto "Che" Guevara's Speech at the UN General Assembly (1964)”

  Commentator: Ryoichi KUNO (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)

  All members

  Discussion

The 5th meeting ：Report (Japanese)(131KB)

• Date/Time: Sat 25 Mar 2017 10:00–19:30, Sun 26 Mar 2017 10:00–16:00
• Venue: Room 304, ILCAA
• Language: Japanese and French (with consecutive interpretation)
• 25 Mar

• Yutaka SAKUMA (ILCAA)

  “Progress Report about Organization of the International Symposium on Presence Africaine”

  LOMO MYAZHIOM, Aggée (ILCAA Visiting Professor, Strasbourg University)

  “Presence Africaine in the Context of The Decolonization of Africa”

  Commentator: Ryo FUKUSHIMA (The University of Tokyo)

  Yukitoshi SUNANO (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Prefectural University Of Kumamoto)

  “Presence Africaine and Politics of language in the 1950s”

  Commentator: Junko MOTOKI (Hosei University)

  All members

  Discussion

• 26 Mar

• Tasuku SASAKI (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Kobe University)

  ““A Forgotten Sociologist” and Presence Africaine”

  Commentator: Masaki SAKIYAMA (Ritsumeikan University)

  All members

  Discussion on the next research meeting

  All members

  Meeting on the International Symposium

The 4th meeting ：Report (Japanese)(116KB)

• Date/Time: Sat 30 Jul 2016 14:00–18:30
• Venue: Room 304, ILCAA
• Language: Japanese

• Yutaka YOSHIDA (ILCAA Joint Researcher,Tokyo University of Science)

  “The Cold War on Race and Culture: The First Congress of Negro Writers and Artists and Richard Wright, George Lamming, and James Baldwin”

  Commentator: Ryo OGAWA (ILCAA Joint Researcher,Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)

  Moriyuki HOSHINO (ILCAA Joint Researcher, The University of Tokyo)

  “Niam n’goura: Reading Early Issues of Presence Africaine”

  Commentator: Hideya ARITA (Seijo University)

  All members

  Discussion on the next research meeting

The 3rd meeting ：Report (Japanese)(108KB)

• Date/Time: Sat 5 Mar 2016 14:00–18:30
• Venue: Room 301, ILCAA
• Language: Japanese

• Hiroshi MATSUI (Kinjo Gakuin University)

  “Dreaming of Earth in Upheaval: Césaire’s Poetics and Politics”

  Commentator: Syu HIRATA (The University of Tokyo/ JSPS Research Fellow)

  Takayuki NAKAMURA (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Daito Bunka University)

  “Édouard Glissant and the journal Acoma”

  Commentator: Masahiko NISHI (Ritsumeikan University)

  All members

  Discussion on the next research meeting

The 2nd meeting ：Report (Japanese)(147KB)

• Date/Time: Sat 3 Oct 2015 14:00–18:30
• Venue: Room 306 (Multimedia Seminar Room), ILCAA
• Language: Japanese

• Yutaka SAKUMA (ILCAA)

  “A bibliography of Presence Africaine: An Overview from 1955 to 1960”

  Ryo OGAWA (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)

  “The Way Which Leads to “Hosties Noires”From B. Diagne, W.E.B. Du Bois to L. S. Senghor”

  Commentator: Tasuku SASAKI (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Kobe University)

  All members

  Discussion on the next research meeting

The 1st meeting ：Report (Japanese)(88KB)

• Date/Time: Sat 20 June 2015 14:00–18:00
• Venue: Room 306 (Multimedia Seminar Room), ILCAA
• Language: Japanese

• All members

  Introduction

  Takayuki NAKAMURA（ILCAA Joint Researcher, Daito Bunka University）

  “What is the nationality of poetry?: on the question of literature among French-speaking African and Caribbean intellectuals in the decolonization era”

  Commentator: Yukitoshi SUNANO（ILCAA Joint Researcher, Prefectural University Of Kumamoto）

  All members

  Discussion on the next research meeting

Related events

Exhibition Présence Africaine: “A Forum, a Movement, a Network”

• Date/Time: Thu 17 Aug 2017 – Thu 31 Aug 2017 11:00–17:00 (Closed on weekends)
• Venue: 1F, ILCAA
• Language: Japanese and French
• Jointly sponsored by ILCAA Joint Research Project “Présence Africaine: Towards New Political and Cultural Perspectives”, Grant-In-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (Principal Investigator:Moriyuki HOSHINO (The University of Tokyo) #17H02328), Grant-In-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research (Principal Investigator: Yutaka SAKUMA (ILCAA) #17K18480) and Core resarch program “The potential value of indigenous knowledge in managing hazards in Asia and Africa: Anthropological explorations linking micro-macro perspectives 2”

• Details:
  The exhibition concentrates on photographs and pictures related to the periodical on black culture, Présence Africaine, which was published in 1947 in Paris and had a significant influence on the anti-colonial movements in Africa and the Caribbean. It was originally exhibited at Musee du quai Branly in Paris from November 10, 2009 to January 31, 2010 as “Présence Africaine, une tribune, un mouvement, un reseau” and has been exhibited in some countries in Africa. This will be the first exhibition in Asian countries. We will trace the path of trans-regional black culture movements through the collection, which constitutes 25 panels, including a sketch (reproduction) by Picasso.

  Leaflet (8.7MB)

  Admission: Free

  No pre-registration is needed.

  Go to “Public Exhibitions” page

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