África imaginada: história intelectual, panafricanismo, nação e unidade africana na Présence Africaine (1947-1966)

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the study of the journal Présence Africaine from its creation in 1947 until the second half of the 1960s. The ruptures and internal permanences of the journal, as well as its insertion in a political, social and cultural West African context of transformation, are thought through the analysis of articles, editorials and correspondence exchanged in the period. The years selected for this research, the post-World War II scenario, were marked by many changes. This is the context in which Présence Africaine was constructed, in consonance with the West African intelligentsia of French expression and the establishment of legitimized intellectual discourses, practices and activities denominated as "African". In this scenario, the imbricated relation between intellectual and political elites was increasingly evident. In those years, the magazine's initial program of insertion of Black cultures in modernity, criticized as excluding and eurocentric, is enriched and gained new dimensions, strengthened by the creation of Société Africaine de Culture in 1956, which insert the cultural production directly into the games of force and disputes over the future of Africa. At this situation, the appropriation of the language and practices of International Relations and the creation and naming of the said Third World, for which the Bandung Conference in 1955 emerged as an important mark, were central to the paths and negotiations that the magazine and institution traced. As a periodical thought as a vehicle and a point of mobilization for cultural and political action, Présence Africaine is a rich source to understanding, in its complexity, the currents of West African political thought that circulated during the critical moment of 1950s and 1960s. Accordingly, the proposals for the future of the continent, between autonomy, independence and African unity, the revues adherence to projects for national construction and, at the same time, its insertion in international solidarity movements such as Pan-Africanism, can be traced and mapped as central debates within the publication. These topics became decisive for the construction of a narrative on Présence Africaine and on a whole generation of French-speaking West African intellectuals and politicians.