Amadou Hampâté Bâ (1901-1991) and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948): Two Apostles of Tolerance

In a review of my first published book one of the founding figures of african historical studies suggested that instead of giving so much attention to European colonial administrators and African traditional chiefs I should have focused upon “the clerks, the schoolmasters and the evangelists, who were to take the lead when indirect rule had failed.” The terms in which this admonition was expressed implies a confidence in the nationalist project of “educated elites” that is less tenable today than it was during the 1960s. Nonetheless, in the late stages of my own career I have come to the conclusion that of the various occupational categories cited by Roland Oliver, African clerks do deserve greater examination than they have received so far in the historiography of colonial Africa. However, if they do prefigure the political leadership of postcolonial Africa, it is less in the heroic and innovative mode of “nation-building” than in the more problematic and continuous role as “gate-keepers,” or “brokers” (honest or not) between subject populations and external sources of power/patronage.I am not alone in this concern and an entire recent volume of essays has been dedicated to the study of such colonial “African intermediaries.” I contributed a chapter to this book and have continued to pursue a study of colonialism from “the middle” (as opposed to the “above” of my previous work as well as the social history “from below” that emerged in more recent decades). The focus of my research on this topic is upon two figures who are of both historical and literary significance: Amadou Hampâté Bâ (1900-1991), the very renowned Malian writer and scholar who produced a memoir about his early career as a colonial clerk; and “Wangrin,” a clerk and interpreter of an earlier generation, who is the subject of Hampâté Bâ's most widely read book.

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Archives Amadou Hampâté Bâ

Continents manuscrits ◽

10.4000/coma.197 ◽

2014 ◽

Author(s):

Jean-Francis Ekoungoun

Keyword(s):

Amadou Hampate Ba

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Regard sur Amadou Hampâté Bâ : le passeur de savoir á la croisée de deux mondes

Littératures, savoirs et enseignement ◽

10.4000/books.pub.43062 ◽

2008 ◽

pp. 187-197

Author(s):

Richard Koukougnon Djiropo

Keyword(s):

Amadou Hampate Ba

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«Défense absolue d’aller voir le spectacle infernal du sorcier blanc»: a função da narrativa e da metáfora na reconstituição histórica do espetáculo cinematográfico numa aldeia africana

El Futuro del Pasado ◽

10.14516/fdp.2014.005.001.007 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 5 ◽

pp. 151-162

Author(s):

Mahomed Bamba

Keyword(s):

Amadou Hampate Ba

As questões que examino neste artigo tem a ver com a reconstrucão histórica de um caso de recepção cultural do cinematógrafo numa aldeia islâmica Africana. Minha análise interpretative deste processo é baseada numa releitura de uma narrativa curta do escritor Amadou Hampâté Bâ. A partir do texto de Bâ levanto uma série de perguntas: como a narrative de Bâ mistura as estruturas enunciativas de um relato na primeira pessoa, os discursos de outros espectadores-personagens e uma descrição histórica? Qual figura do espectador do primeiro cinema ela nos restitui? O discurso, as opiniões e as reações do público naquela aldeia Africana acerca do cinema são diferentes ou semelhantes aos de outros públicos naquele mesmo período? Quais são as determinações e as mediações de ordem sócio-cultural que a narrativa de Bâ nos deixa entrever entre o espetáculo cinematográfico e a «instituição» religiosa? Qual é o papel da metáfora na recepção cultural do cinematógrafo? Parto da hipótese que a narrativa de Bâ pode ser lida e interpretada como uma metáfora e um documento histórico.

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