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SUMMARY:How to do Resistance with Words: Nationalism\, Afrocentrism and Or
 atory in Abidjan's Street Parliaments - Professor Armando Cutolo\, Univers
 ity of Siena
DTSTART:20140224T170000Z
DTEND:20140224T180000Z
UID:TALK49493@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Judith Weik
DESCRIPTION:During the years of the Ivorian crisis\, the movement of the 
 “jeunes patriotes” gave life to a network of street parliaments where 
 orators uttered a virulent nationalist and anticolonial discourse. In thes
 e “parlements” (also known as “agora” or “congrès”)\, a day-b
 y-day commentary of political events was proposed to audiences\, framing i
 t within new narratives of African history\, Here the nationalist stance w
 as mingled with afrocentric and panafricanist doctrines\, and with a disco
 urse on deliverance articulated by Pentecostal pastors and prophets. “We
 stern” narrations of history were denounced as rhetoric weapons\, aimed 
 at obviating the recognition of African presence and contribute to history
 . In order to counter them\, the orators explicitly constructed a regime o
 f truth wielding a performative power: the power of regenerating an imagin
 ed African self and its agency in history. Audiences and orators where thu
 s involved in an public\, shared process of political and moral subjectiva
 tion\, where speaking and hearing amounted to react against subjugation\, 
 to build an inner and a public resistance\, to struggle for the Ivorian na
 tion. In order to describe and to account for such a process\, my presenta
 tion will be based on a reflexive ethnographic approach\, where a cultural
  analysis of patriotic discourse will be complemented by an analysis of pe
 rformance within this specific setting of public space.\n\nArmando Cutolo\
 , (PhD Social Anthropology\, prof. agregé.\, University of Siena)\, carri
 es research in Cote d'Ivoire since the end of the Nineties. His has worked
  and published on relations of personal dependence\, on generations and th
 e politics of history in the Anno region\, and on social and critical theo
 ry. Since 2002 he has started an ethnographic investigation among the “j
 eunes patriotes” in Abidjan\, with a specific focus on political oratory
  and street parliaments.
LOCATION:Seminar Room S1 Alison Richard Building\, 7 West Road\, Cambridge
  CB3 9DT
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