부산대학교 도서관

In Niger, there is an increasing rejection of politik (a term with highly pejorative connotations): that is, party politics and the politics of democracy, characterized by personal rivalries and power struggles between clans and factions. But there is a direct link (albeit not a causal one) between the social perceptions of intra-familial rivalries and the social perceptions of political rivalries. The archetypical relationship among the baab-izey (children of one father but different mothers) is characterized by competition and jealousy. This is a product of the latent rivalry that pits co-wives against each other. Polygamy is clearly at odds with a number of received ideas and cliches about 'the African family' as primarily a locus of support and solidarity. Such formal social norms may reign in public situations, but in private de facto practical norms give rise to subtle discriminations and the omnipresence of more or less hidden conflicts within the family. The same is true for the political microcosm of Niger. While the public norm of the concern for the public good is supposed to regulate political behaviours, rivalry and jealousy are structural components of the political world. The baab-izey pattern is frequently used in reference to politicians. Political conflicts are above all personal/factional conflicts in which friends and supporters are implicated, and are rivalries of proximity. In the familial space as in the political space, 'magico-religious entrepreneurs' (i.e. experts in the occult) are merely an 'accelerator' of these conflicts: they reinforce suspicions about the familial or political entourage, which, in turn, intensify rivalries. Au Niger, 'politik' est devenu dans les langues locales un terme tres pejoratif, associe a la democratie, qui connote les conflits de personnes et de factions associes aux partis politiques. Mais il y a un lien (qui n'est pas causal) entre la perception des conflits au sein de la famille et la perception des conflits au sein de la classe politique. La relation archetypale entre ' baab-izey ', enfants d'un meme pere et de mere differentes, est caracterisee par la jalousie et la competition. C'est une consequence de la rivalite entre co-epouses. La polygamie contredit les cliches sur la famille africaine comrne etant essentiellement un espace de solidarite. Ces cliches peuvent correspondre aux normes officielles en situation publique, mais, dans les comportements prives, les normes pratiques introduisent des discriminations subtiles et une omnipresence de conflits plus ou moins caches au sein de la famille. II en est de meme au sein du microcosme politique nigerien. Alors que les normes officielles du souci du bien public sont censees regner, l'ambition personnels, la rivalite et la jalousie sont des composantes structurelles de la vie politique. Le modele du baab-izey est tres souvent utilise pour decrire les comportements des politiciens. Les conflits politiques sont surtout des conflits de personnes et de factions, impliquant amis et clients. Ce sont des rivalites de proximite. Dans l'espace familial comme dans 1'espace politique, des << entrepreneurs magico-religieux >> (specialistes de l'occulte) jouent un role d'accelerateur de ces conflits. lis renforcent les soupcons a l'egard de l'entourage, ce qui, en retour, intensifie les rivalites de proximite.
Introduction: disappointment with democracy (1) Niger, a former French colony and one of the poorest countries in the world, became independent in 1960. Following over thirty years of rule by [...]