Law and the Public Sphere in Africa , livre ebook

WORLD PHILOSOPHIES
Bret W. Davis, D. A. Masolo, and Alejandro Vallega, editors
LAW AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE IN AFRICA
La Palabre and Other Writings
Jean Godefroy Bidima
Translated and edited by Laura Hengehold Foreword by Souleymane Bachir Diagne
Indiana University Press
Bloomington and Indianapolis
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Titre original: La Palabre, Une juridiction de la parole 1ère édition en France en 1997 aux Éditions Michalon. Copyright © Jean Godefroy Bidima, 1997. Tous droits réservés.
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No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
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Manufactured in the United States of America
Bidima, Jean Godefroy, [date]
[Palabre. English]
Law and the public sphere in Africa : La palabre and other writings / Jean Godefroy Bidima ; translated by Laura Hengehold ; foreword by Souleymane Bachir Diagne.
    pages cm. — (World philosophies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-253-01124-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-253-01128-2 (ebook)
1. Political anthropology—Africa. 2. Public meetings—Africa. 3. Dispute resolution (Law)—Africa. 4. Africa—Politics and government. 5. Africa—Social conditions. I. Title.
GN645.B5213 2013
306.2—dc23
2013034754
1  2  3  4  5  19  18  17  16  15  14
When I was very young, my mother hung a world map next to the couch so that I would always learn the location and name of places in the news. This translation is dedicated to her, for without my mother's encouragement to learn French and explore other cultures, it would never have come about. She is the one who gave me the courage to learn.
Contents
Acknowledgments \ Jean Godefroy Bidima
Foreword \ Souleymane Bachir Diagne
Preface to the English Edition: Justice, Deliberation, and the Democratic Public Sphere: Palabre and its Variations \ Jean Godefroy Bidima
Translator's Acknowledgments
Introduction: Speech, Belief, Power \ Laura Hengehold
La Palabre : The Legal Authority of Speech
Introduction
1   The Public Space of Palabre
2   A Political Paradigm
3   Convergent Suspicions
4   A Difficult Place in Political Thought
Conclusion
Other Essays
Rationalities and Legal Processes in Africa
Strategies for “Constructing Belief” in the African Public Sphere: “The Colonization of the Lifeworld”
African Cultural Diversity in the Media
Books between African Memory and Anticipation
The Internet and the African Academic World
Notes
Works Cited
Index
About the Author and the Translator
Acknowledgments
Jean Godefroy Bidima
T HE READER WILL have ample opportunity to decide whether this book is a symphony or a cacophony. However they may choose, readers are no fools and know that the signed personal adventure of any book or article responds like an echo to many individuals who have discreetly and patiently set this symphony or cacophony to music. The responsibility for errors and rough statements in this text should be laid at my own feet as the author; I turn over all the gratitude to those before me, who made this book possible at so many levels.
I have to start with the most heartfelt thanks to Antoine Garapon, magistrat and secrétaire général of the Institut des Hautes Études of Justice in Paris, who not only strongly encouraged this publication by welcoming it into the le Bien Commun series with Éditions Michalon, but also drew my attention to the relationship between Paul Ricoeur's work and problems associated with justice. I also give the friendliest recognition to Professor Laura Hengehold, who committed herself to translating and making this book available to the American public, and whose questions pushed me to reconsider the relations between mystification and politics in the African public space. Many thanks as well to Publications de la Sorbonne, Éditions Michalon, Les Éditions de l'UNESCO, the journal Diogenes , and other publishers who gave permission for the reproduction of these texts.
A particular note of acknowledgement goes to Francis Abiola Irele, who tirelessly convinced me of the importance of orality despite the bad favor into which it has fallen due to the chorus of those opposing ethnophilosophy. A warm thanks to philosophical friends and critics who enabled me to enrich this meditation and whose integrity and works, at once diverse and rich, have been a source of inspiration to me: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Nick Nesbitt, Seloua Luste Boulbina, Mylène Botbol-Baum, and Emmanuel Hirsch.
I will be forever indebted to the philosophical styles and the erudition of my professors at the Sorbonne: Olivier Bloch, Olivier Revault d'Allonnes, and Hélène Védrine. I am more than cognizant of the devotion and the enthusiasm shown by my teachers at the primary school St. Pie X in the village of Mfoumassi in Cameroon: Madame Kavolo, Messieurs Grégoire Sala Mendzana, Jean (Le Grand) Bidoung, Maurice Ateba Akono, Florent Bekolo, Aloys Mendogo, and Jean Bidoung (alias Petit Jean).
My residency at University of Bayreuth in Germany as Gastdozent (visiting associate professor) enhanced my exposure to debates about the dialogical public sphere animating the German philosophical scene at that time. My gratitude goes to Professor Dr. János Riesz, who gave me an enormously enriching welcome and above all to the meticulous mind and intellectual vivacity of Dr. Katharina Städtler.
My time as program director at the Collège International de Philosophie in Paris enabled me to appreciate and to be inspired by the work of certain colleagues: on the question of genealogy, François Noudelmann, former president of the collegial assembly; Robert Harvey on the theme of testimony; and Eric Hamraoui on the imaginaries associated with that corporeal organ, the heart. My short stay as associate with the Centre d'études africaines (CEAF) at EHESS in Paris gave me the chance to appreciate the competence and the unfailing friendship of research librarian Patricia Bleton. I remain in permanent debt to the intellectual perspicacity of Luca Scarantino, who introduced me to the extremely subtle thought of Giulio Preti, one of the most important philosophers emerging from Italy in the twentieth century.
Nor should I miss the chance to express my special appreciation to the administrative personnel and colleagues I met at the Institut d'études avancées at Nantes during the course of our stay as 2011–12 EURIAS (European Institutes for Advanced Studies) lauréats. I was hugely impressed by their competence, whether their subjects were near or far from my own interests. In particular, let me thank Alain Supiot—an erudite mind, respectful of nonwestern cultures, former director of the IEA of Nantes and currently professor at the Collège de France—for his welcome and for his research findings on the importance of the dogmatic basis for cultures. I owe a great deal to the analyses of the philosopher Dany-Robert Dufour when it comes to the criticism of various kinds of economies that structure our contemporary lived experience, and would like to express that gratitude here. Nor could I fail to mention and thank Kwame Anthony Appiah, a philosopher sensitive to the universal, who, during the drama of Hurricane Katrina's assault on New Orleans, welcomed me and initiated a mutually beneficial residency at Princeton University. I also keep in mind Dismas Masolo, a Kenyan philosopher with remarkable pedagogical talents whose writings have fed my knowledge of African philosophical traditions in the English language.
I would like to make a special reference to my African friends, who over many long years have honored me with their friendship, their experiences, and their knowledge: Abel Kouvouama, José Kagabo, Boniface Mongo-Mboussa, Wilfrid Miampika, Victorien Lavou Zoungbo, Eloi Messi Metogo, and Auguste Owono-Kouma. Daniel Maximin, a restless thinker with admirable oral eloquence who provided my education in Caribbean problematics, deserves my gratitude here. My current interest in material culture also comes from assiduously reading the archeological works of Lucie-Blanche Miamouini-Nkouka, for which my sincere thanks. Finally, my long stay in France has given me the opportunity to appreciate the friendship of Frédérique Jardin-Donovan and Kevin Donovan, as well as that of Michel and Claudine Trougnou, Pierre and Marie Thérèse Lefort, and Maryline Gesret.
Thanks to my past and current colleagues at Tulane University, around whom I have learned so much about the vocabulary, the rhetoric, and the syntax of the United States—I am particularly thinking of Richard Watts, Erec Koch, Beth Poe, Linda Carroll, and Michael Syrimis.
To conclude, I thank my parents—Godefroy Bidima Bela and Crescence Akoumou Evina—who taught me the art of palabre , and in connection with them, I hope I may also mention those who carry on their memory in bearing the name of Bidima: Afana Evina Bidima, Monique Evelyne Mbolle Afana Bidima, Hermine Akoumou Nsizoa Bidima, Godefroy Bidima Evina, Bilounga Andomzoa Bidima, Fomo Nsizoa Bidima, Joyce and her sister, Henri-Godefroy Mbolle Engbwang Bidima, Paul Mebe Ndjengue Bidima, Mosobalaje Bidima, Nsizoa Evina Bidima, and Olounou Nsizoa Bidima.
My thoughts at this last moment go especia