The Franco-Congolese agreement to enshrine the corpse of Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza in a grand memorial tomb in Brazzaville (2006) has been decried by many observers as neo-colonial farce. This article interprets France?s agenda to propose a ?suave reconquest? of its former colonies, and Sassou Nguesso?s forceful mobilization of national and regional support. Beyon...

Peut-on faire en Afrique centrale une histoire des hommes qui rende compte à la fois des « épaves » de la tradition ancienne et des bouleversements humains, économiques et politiques liés à la colonisation ? Entre 1940 et 1965, l'ouverture du pouvoir colonial et son investissement complexe par les Africains ont cristallisé une culture politique nouvelle, caractéris...

Violence is a murky issue to research and to theorize: this introduction suggests that it has also often been approached differently by anthropologists and historians. In the pages that follow, we reflect on the ways in which both disciplines have worked to interpret violent events in Africa, whether in the deep past, during the colonial era or in more recent perio...