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Counter-Hegemonic Discourses in the Indian Ocean and in Africa: Thinking and Writing a Shared World?
12-14 Nov 2025 Saint-Denis de La Réunion (France)
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Call for PapersInternational conference AfrikOI:ContrHeg Counter-Hegemonic Discourses in the Indian Ocean and in Africa: Thinking and Writing a Shared World? November 12-14, 2025 Venue: University of Reunion Island Important dates
Submission Guidelines Please send a 500-word abstract and a 150-word biographical note to the organizers:
Organizing comittee
Sponsored by Observatoire des Sociétés de l’océan Indien – OSOI-FED4127 Call for Papers In a world beset by various forms of imperialism, the great powers and multinational companies, often benefiting from the complicity or resignation of the local elites, seek to impose their conception of the world and to maintain their domination over countries of the so-called “Third World” or “Global South”. The islands in the south-western Indian Ocean, whether independent nations or French overseas territories, have been facing different but persistent forms of coloniality of the mind and the power system, from which they unsteadily or strategically attempt to escape. To challenge these forms of subjugation, wide range of intellectual discourses, often expressed as counter-discourses, have emerged (S. B. Diagne, M. Diouf, N. Etoke, P. Hountondji, L. Miano, A. Mbembe, B. Mouralis, V. Mudimbe, F. Sarr, F. Vergès, N. wa Thiong'o, K. Wiredu, etc.). They advocate a reversal of the imperialist logic and a deconstruction of the hegemonic mechanisms that have been at work for centuries in Africa (particularly in sub-Saharan Africa) as well as in other formerly colonized societies, including the Indian Ocean ones. Interestingly, forms of convergence between the islands of the Indian Ocean and French-speaking Africa have been emerging through the use of concepts and notions that have been re-appropriated and reinvested, sometimes with different or subtle meanings. For instance, in the essays of some French-speaking African intellectuals or at the Ateliers de la pensée in Dakar, there are allusions to the notion of creolization (see M. Arnold, 2021) or to rhizomatic social structures, which is generally applied to Creole contexts – though this usage often overlooks issues specific to the Indian Ocean. Similarly, after a period of profound avoidance of Africa, which had only been present sporadically (Rabemananjara’s role in negritude and Présence africaine, the “Mauritian negritude” forging connections to Senghor, etc.), there is now a re-appropriation of symbolic relationships as well as a certain desire to “becoming African” (A. Mbembe). This can be seen in the literary and artistic expressions, with recurring references to Cesaire’s notion of “Nègre” and to Africa (particularly in the poetry of Raharimanana and Djailani…). In the sphere of associations and their activism on social networks (Rasine Kaf, Fondation Héva, for example), there is a desire for a greater recognition of the “black” portion of Creole identities. Certain forms of pan-Africanism are also endorsed and may lean toward ideological radicalism – an approach openly advocated by some political movements, such as the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in South Africa. Whether intellectual movements or militant and political organizations, they all seek to create connections that are more resonances and symbolic allusions than actual references. Yet they share a common objective: the fight against hegemonic representations and discourses. In the intellectual discourse, these resonances often stem from a globalized theoretical and referential fabric. They are absent from political discourses, especially in Africa, which primarily pursue a decolonial fight focused on issues specific to Africa. This conference aims to reflect on the intersections of these references (or their absence) to a “becoming African” of Africa as well as of the islands of the Indian Ocean, in order to better understand not only their counter-hegemonic intentions but also the limits of the attempts to refocus on oneself, or even the emergence of new notional and discursive hegemonies. Stemming from the political vocabulary, the concept of hegemony took on particular importance following Antonio Gramsci’s writings, and has been extended to a number of disciplines. In this Gramscian perspective, the transposition of this concept to various issues enables the analysis of the different modes of hegemonic adherence and domination, which are based on a system of ideas, values, beliefs and attitudes aimed at reinforcing the power and ideology of the elite (Savoie and Rizzuto, Lexique Socius). In the Indian Ocean and on the African continent, the counter-hegemonic discourse in its broadest sense (i.e. all discursive forms and practices which challenge hegemonic ideologies, practices and structures) emerges as a means of resistance and as a new field of anti-imperialist, decolonial, anti-racist and egalitarian re-appropriation. As M. Angenot (1989) argues, a dominant (hegemonic) cognitive or discursive entity at a given time can also be combined with multiple (counter-hegemonic) strategies which oppose it, antagonize it and alter its elements. Adopting an alternative to the various political, cultural and linguistic strata and manifestations of hegemony, in what ways do counter-hegemonic discourses in the Indian Oceanic and African societies seek to think, write and forge possibilities for social change, emancipation and self-determination? The counter-hegemonic, pan-Africanist and decolonial discourses (whether literary, artistic, political, media, etc.) raise the question of how they somehow lead to a “provincialization of Europe” (D. Chakrabarty) and to a self-refocusing which would not establish new hegemonies or engage in “hegemonic search” (J.-F. Bayart). Additionally, what does the recourse to hitherto unseen points of convergence tell us about a counter-hegemonic intent from the South towards the South? It is indeed relevant to rethink these issues by integrating the Indian-oceanic question, which has often been marginalized or even forgotten, and by giving equal consideration to African political discourses and essays that have sometimes become a kind of “new media catechism” (Elgas; Mangeon). Moreover, the aim is also to propose a refocusing of discourses and epistemes and to question the concepts of hegemony and counter-hegemony: are we witnessing the emergence of new postcolonial hegemonies? Can this refocusing be seen as an underlying attempt to create “a world in common” between the islands and archipelagos of the south-west Indian Ocean and the continent. This multidisciplinary international conference aims to analyze not only the writings, literatures and arts of the islands of the south-west Indian Ocean which invoke Africa in order to create new solidarities “of the Souths” or even for an “Afrasian sea” (Karugia and Erll), but also, in reverse, the way in which African discourses construct their own strategies of emancipation, and particularly in their poetic, anthropological, political, and media dimensions. To put it differently, one of the major questions brought up by this conference is to understand how these discourses (literary, political and media) – which pursue the emancipation and decolonization of both the Indianoceanic and African thought and a re-evaluation of the notion of creolization, whether explicitly mentioned or underlying – can help to shape new “relationalities” or even a “common ground”. Could they establish new fields of force between the islands of the Indian Ocean and the African continent? Focusing particularly on discourses against political and cultural hegemony (A. Gramsci), discursive and linguistic hegemony (M. Angenot, 1989), and media hegemony, this conference invites interdisciplinary perspectives to examine how these various forms of discourse attempt to deconstruct dominant ideologies, and social-cultural structures and norms. Do these discursive constructions and strategies reflect a desire to bring the islands of the Indian Ocean closer to Africa, and to seek a reappraisal of their shared history? Researchers are invited to address the questions outlined above, as well as the following topics – this list is not exhaustive: - What is the degree of spreading of the idea of the “future of Africa” (Mangeon, 2022) in the Indian Ocean, and in what types of discourses? - How and through what media is expressed the historically downplayed black and African part of the identities in the Indian Ocean islands? - Does the encounter between an “Africanization” of thought and the immediately contemporary mutations of the Indian Ocean allow the implementation of new discourses and new aesthetics? - What are the new forms of cosmopolitanism of the Souths that emerge in the various African discourses and essays, and what are the resonances for the islands of the southwest Indian Ocean? - How can we clarify the thought and future of the islands of the Indian Ocean in the light of new African thoughts? - How do these thoughts, which are in the process of becoming new hegemonic discourses of the "Global South", articulate with the old utopias of Indianoceanism? - To what extent are ideological and political representations in the questioning and repositioning of political, intellectual, and civil society actors expressed differently, similarly, inclusively or exclusively in the Indian Ocean and in Africa? - What is the degree of articulation between counter-hegemonic thinking and African decolonial political discourse? - How is it possible, poetically and politically, to “make a country” (Chamoiseau et al., 2023) without, in practice, renewing a hegemonic gesture, wherever it stems from? Panels and perspectives of analysis Panel 1: Literature (oral, written, multilingual) and the arts: - Reassessment of dreams of unification of Indianoceanism in the light of contemporary African thoughts. - Conception and inscriptions of a “becoming Black” or a “becoming African of the world” (A. Mbembe). - Inscriptions of the “Black” in contemporary literature of the Indian Ocean. - A look back at forms of “negritude” in the Indian Ocean (J. Rabemananjara, R. Noyau, E. Maunick, etc.). - Inscriptions of Africa or blackness in the contemporary visual arts of the Indian Ocean (“art-creology” by W. Zitte, etc.), and connexions with East and South Africa in the visual arts, music and contemporary dance. - Migration and border writings. - Perspectives on the notion of “Afrasian Sea”: is there a desire to write “the Souths”, and how does it connect Africa, India and the Indian Ocean? - A shared ecocriticism for putting on trial the transnational devastation of resources. - African thought and the re-evaluation of the notion of creolization. - Translation and untranslatable: nations, borders, migrations, the creation of an “In-common”? Panel 2: Discourse analysis and critical linguistics - French discourse analysis (A. O. Barry, D. Maingueneau, S. Moirand, A.-M. Paveau...), media discourse analysis (P. Charaudeau, S. Moirand...) Critical Discourse Studies (N. Fairclough, T. A. van Dijk...). - Anti(neo)colonial, anti-imperialist, decolonial and pan-Africanist discourses and ideologies in south-western Indian Ocean and African societies. - (Counter-)hegemonic worldviews and representations of societies, cultures, languages and nations. - The counter-hegemonic role of the media: traditional, digital and social networks. - Online activism and the spreading of counter-hegemonic discourses. - Environmental activism and sustainable development as forms of resistance. Panel 3: Thoughts and theories - Reassessment of the relevance and interest for the Indian Ocean of contemporary essays on translation. - Philosophical rehabilitation of pan-Africanism - Universalism, “pluriversalism”, agentivity or antiphons. - Cosmopolitical utopias, “Afrofuturism”, “Afrotopia”. - Connexions between creolization and Ateliers de la pensée (M. Arnold). - Representation of the self and the other in counter-hegemonic discourse. - Black feminism in the Indian Ocean and Africa, new counter-hegemonic masculinities, queer and identity issues, gender and hegemony (R. Connell and J. Messerschmidt, R. Connell).
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