Paris (AFP)
Long neglected or even denied, the ancient history of Africa will resonate loudly at the Collège de France on Thursday, during the inaugural lecture of the historian and archaeologist François-Xavier Fauvelle, determined to dispel prejudices and redraw "the puzzle "of a singular story.
At 51, this research director at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) who co-directed the "Historical Atlas of Africa" (Autrement) to appear Wednesday, has just taken the lead of the first permanent chair devoted to the history of this continent at the Collège de France, a prestigious institution founded in 1530, where the philosopher Michel Foucault and the historian Fernand Braudel notably worked.
"It was missing, there is a demand from Africa," he admits from the outset in an interview with AFP, seeing in this late recognition "a reflection of the society that has a problem with the history of Africa "precolonial.
"It's true in France, in Europe, in the United States, but also in Africa", which has long lost interest in it, which explains in his opinion the choice, which has made some ticks, of a French and not an African at this post. "On the old history of Africa, there are many fewer African colleagues than there are in Europe.There is a disinvestment of public authorities, very few doctoral programs, few countries are able to recruit two or three archaeologists per year ".
A "denial of history" thus creeps everywhere, worldly dinners - where Africa is best summed up by its wild nature or its artists - political speeches. Until Dakar, in 2007, when then French President Nicolas Sarkozy will scandal by asserting that "the African man is not enough history".
"The slave trade in particular, followed by colonization, have accustomed us to perceive that + African man + - to use this expression of Sarkozy - was only useful by its market value or its value of work but certainly not the product of 'a historical trajectory', analyzes Mr Fauvelle.
Prejudiced by this passionate who emphasizes the richness and singularity of his subject: "The kingdoms, this very special social form that is pastoral nomadism, exceptional linguistic variety.
Especially in Africa, "the historical phases have not piled up on each other" as in Eurasia where hunter-gatherers invent the first tools before developing agriculture, until finally disappearing. In Mali as in Sudan, the kingdoms cohabit with other societies, for example nomadic societies.
- "A sunken continent" -
Another cliché that it fights, the division between Africa "black" (sub-Saharan) and "white" (Maghreb and Egypt). "It is clear that the phenomena do not adapt to this border Look at Islam, which has crossed the Sahara since the early Middle Ages, societies have adapted Islam without becoming neither white nor Arab".
Educated by years of studies and archaeological excavations - notably on the Islamic Sultanates of medieval times in Ethiopia or the site of the Moroccan city of Sijilmäsa, one of the gates of the Sahara - the historian does not minimize the challenges .
First and foremost, there are scattered and heterogeneous clues: written documents - with various writing systems all along the Nile Valley, from Egypt to Sudan -, Greek or Arab travelers' stories, but also inscriptions , archaeological pieces, oral sources ...
"It's a bit like puzzle pieces that do not stick," says Fauvelle. "It draws something but we do not really know what."
"We must accept to have hollow and full (...) We can still tell things but not in the same way as the history of France in the Middle Ages," says the author of "Rhinoceros d 'Or, Stories of the African Middle Ages' (Alma).
Another challenge is the huge deficit of archaeological research in Africa.
"It's a sunken continent, I could name dozens of cities that are mentioned by Greek or Arab authors and have not been discovered", like the former capital of Mali, says he.
"We need institutions that work together, who put money in," insists Mr. Fauvelle who aims to help create a new research center in West Africa "to facilitate the flow of ideas and researchers" .
"Investing in the past is not only interesting but profitable." Telling the past, uncovering archaeological sites, maintaining them is a prerequisite for heritage and tourism, "he said. he regrets the disinvestment of the public authorities.
© 2019 AFP