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Africa Knows! It is time to decolonise minds

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Accepted Paper: D23-02. To panel D23.

Title of paper:

Author:

Laure Carbonnel (IHA CREPOS Dakar).

Long abstract paper:
Cultural policy was at the core of the decolonisation process, but it was at the same time based on western bureaucratic conceptions of culture. This situation may question any efforts of scientific deconstruction of these hegemonic categories. The domain of culture, in which anthropological research is engaged (among other subjects), adds another layer of complexity, because it blurs boundaries between science, politics, entrepreneurship and sovereignty. In this presentation, I propose to move the debate outside of colonial or domination relationships, to consider more broadly the process of categorisation and of the production of science. On the one hand, the bases of anthropology as a scientific discipline fit perfectly with some decolonisation of science programs from the point of view of the categorisation process: to avoid ethnocentrism, seize sensitivities towards the world , be aware of the language, the situations, the relationships. Ethnology is also a way of challenging conceptions: of relationships to the non-human, of kinship relationships, of economy, politics and so on. On the other hand, as a science that is socially and historically produced, anthropology conveys some of the conceptions and positions from the time of colonisation and the industrialisation period. Instead of opposing a 'western' and 'African' conceptions, I will rather question the relationships between academic and other systems of knowledge in any country.

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