68 research outputs found
The Kongo cosmogram: A theory in African-American literature, 1997
No full textThis study examines the use of Kongo cosmology as a theory of reading African-American literature. By analyzing the philosophical modes and belief systems of the Bakongo people, a general view of their cosmos is constructed and establishes the Kongo cosmogram used as the basis of this study. The community, crossroads, elders, and circularity of life all prove to be crucial elements in the Kongo cosmogram. These elements all have respective roles in the operation of the Kongo cosmogram as a literary theory. As the focus shifts from Africa to America, a study of how the Kongo cosmogram is disrupted by the Maafa and reconstructed in America via plantation existence is necessary to establish the history and function of the cosmogram in America. Finally, the Kongo cosmogram is applied as a literary theory, using Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun" and James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain. These texts manifest the elements of the Kongo cosmogram and demonstrate its applicability as a literary theory
Crucifix kongo (Les)
No full textLes crucifix nkangi kiditu étaient encore possédés aux xixe et xxe siècles par certains chefs de RDC et d’Angola. La notice évoque quelques‑uns des différents groupes kongo ayant connu cet attribut de pouvoir, traite des fonctions de celui‑ci, expose son origine européenne et son lien avec la première évangélisation (xve‑xviiie siècle). Quelques modèles spécifiques de nkangi kiditu sont également présentés.This text briefly presents the “nkangi kiditu” crucifixes, a type of object that some chiefs of the DRC and Northern Angola still owned during the 19th and 20th centuries. The author mentions some of the Kongo groups who knew this emblem as one that represented rank and status. He deals with its functions, divulges its European origin and its link to the first evangelization period from the 15th to the 18th centuries. He also shows a few specific models of nkangi kiditu
Water and sociality in Khayelitsha: an ethnographic study
No full textThis study examines forms of social relationships created around unequal municipal water distribution in South Africa. Using the case of Khayelitsha, the study investigates residents' use of water to sustain their livelihood and build personhood. Water mobilises the formation of relationships in myriad ways. How residents, collectively and individually, imagine, negotiate and construct their future pathways around resources available to them in a social group is explored. Ethnographic tools are used to address how social formations are created around municipal water in Khayelitsha. The study looks into how inequalities related to access to water in Cape Town are produced with inequitable development patterns. Using incompleteness and conviviality as framework, the study seeks to understand how ideas of social formation, belonging, marginality, and physical and social mobility are produced, reproduced and contested around water. By focusing on the strategies deployed by residents, this study also seeks to describe the challenges of inadequate water access experienced by residents in less- provisioned areas. The multiple relations with, and complexities of, municipal water are chronicled, as well as how Khayelitsha residents think about, relate and respond to water. The empirical data reveal several structural issues characterising the formation of social relations: incompleteness, impoverishment, marginalisation, water access and minimal opportunities. Despite many challenges, frustration, and heavy reliance on communal taps, tanks, water trucks, and hydrants, shack dwellers particularly cherish an ideal of self-sufficiency with the limited amount of water they access. In this quest, they maintain social relations and resistance to the political economy of water. They achieve this by mobility from one settlement to another, maintaining a strong sense of community, belonging, social relationships, and household interdependence, connected to a sense of incompleteness and, to a more considerable extent, Ubuntu. This social practice is manifested in various forms: neighbourliness, water usage at communal points, land occupations, and strikes, amongst others. By combining the structural issues and aspects of social practices provided above, water is seen as a substance that constructs social formations through the phenomena of incompleteness and conviviality. The data were collected during several field visits between February 2020 and March 2021 through observation of interactions and participation in residents' social activities and formal and informal interviews and group discussions with a representative sample of residents in Khayelitsha
The Florentine relation: a newly discovered sixteenth-century description of the Kingdom of Kongo
No full textA newly discovered Spanish description of Kongo increases our knowledge of the country, joining Filippo Pigafetta’s famous account to expand our knowledge of Kongo in this early period. This research shows that the MS was written in 1587 or 1588 and was written by Carmelite Diego de la Encarnación. It adds details on the history of the country, daily life culture, and links to other Carmelite works, including an unpublished chapter of an account by Diego de Santissimo Santo and shows the author could have written a longer but well-known account in the Vatican Library. It includes extensive quotations from the new text.Published versio
Kongo à Cuba. Transformations d’une religion africaine
No full textAvec la traite et l’esclavage, la religion des Bakongo s’est implantée à Cuba où elle a pris le nom de palo monte. Elle s’y est transformée tout en conservant la mémoire de ses origines. Ce souvenir apparaît dans les chants et les prières, mais aussi dans les documents écrits circulant dans la communauté des croyants. Des esprits kongo ont été identifiés aux orichas yoruba et aux saints catholiques, par un phénomène de double articulation. On montre ici que si l’influence catholique est manifestement antérieure à la déportation des Bakongo à Cuba, il existe aussi une influence du vaudou haïtien sur le palo monte qui n’a pu se produire qu’à Cuba. L’association d’éléments kongo, yoruba et catholique se combine donc avec une troisième influence, celle d’une autre religion afro-américaine, elle-même déjà composite en Haïti. On voit ici toute la complexité du processus d’élaboration d’une religion afro-américaine, issue à la fois de la restructuration de pratiques traditionnelles et d’incorporation d’éléments exogènes de toute provenance.Imported by slaves, the Bakongo religion developed in Cuba where it became known as palo monte, and evolved while conserving the memory of its origins. This memory appears in songs and prayers, and also in the written documents which circulate among the community of believers. Through a process of double articulation, Kongo spirits have been identified with Yoruba orishas and with Catholic saints. The author shows that although the Catholic influence is obviously anterior to the deportation of the Bakongos to Cuba, one can also identify an influence of Haitian Voodoo which developed on the island itself. To the combination of Kongo, Yoruba, and Catholic elements are therefore added elements from another African-American religion, itself an heterogeneous creation from Haiti. The article highlights the complexity of the process of construction of a religion which blends traditional and external elements from various origins.Debido a la trata de esclavos y la esclavitud, la religión de los Bakongo se implantó en Cuba donde tomó el nombre de palo monte. Se transformó, conservando sin embargo el recuerdo de sus orígenes. Este recuerdo aparece en cantos y rezos, pero también en documentos escritos que circulan en la comunidad de los creyentes. Espiritus Kongo fueron identificados con orichas yorubas y santos católicos. Se muestra en este artículo que la influencia católica es anterior a la trata de esclavos, pero que existe también una influencia del vodou haitiano sobre el palo monte que se produjó en Cuba. Pues, la associación de elementos kongo, yoruba y católicos se combina con una tercera influencia, lá de una religion afro-americana que era ya heterogénea en Haití. Se observa aqui toda la complexidad de la elaboración de una religión afro-americana, que proviene de la restructuración de prácticas tradicionales y de la incorporación de elementos externos
Diamantenhandel und der Krieg in Kongo/ Zaire
No full text'Viele Analysten sehen den Diamantenhandel als Ursache des so genannten '1. Afrikanischen Weltkrieges' in der DR Kongo. Der Autor vertritt demgegenüber die These, dass 'Giermotive' die Entstehung, den Verlauf und die Dynamik des Krieges nicht erklären können. Der Diamantenhandel ist Teil einer politischen Kultur von 'Grenzphänomenen' im Kongo und entfaltet normative Wirkung im durch 'Leidfaktoren' strukturierten politischen und wirtschaftlichen Kontext Kongos/ Zaires. Nicht der Diamantenhandel selbst, sondern die sozialen Strukturen, die sich aus ihm ergeben, und die spezifische Herrschaftsweise in einem politischen System, das auf diesem Handel basiert, können als Erklärungsfaktoren für den Krieg gelten. Zwar wurde er mit Mitteln aus dem Diamantenhandel geführt und dieser Handel trug zur Entstehung von Kriegsökonomien bei, Kriegsziele waren jedoch andere: nationale Sicherheit, physisches Überleben, politischer Einfluss, gesellschaftliche Ordnung, soziale Integration und Selbstverwirklichung.' (Autorenreferat)'In this essay, the author analyses the relationship between the diamond trade and the war in Congo/ Zaire. Most analyses on this topic come to the conclusion that the diamond trade is the cause of the so-called 'first African World War'. The authors thesis is that motives of greed as such cannot explain the formation, course and dynamics of the war in Congo/ Zaire. The diamond trade is part of a political culture of liminal phenomena in Congo and conveys a normative force in the grievance-ridden political and economic context of Congo/ Zaire. Not the diamond trade as such but the social structures resulting from the diamond trade and the particular form of governance that characterizes a political system based on the diamond trade explain the war in Congo/ Zaire. Although the war was indeed waged by means of the diamond trade and this contributed to the formation of war economies in Congo, it had other purposes: national security, physical survival, political influence, societal order, social integration and self-realization.' (author's abstract)
Etude des troubles d'étiologie sorcière punitive chez les Kongo (rôle thérapeuthique du procès traditionnel)
No full textFrom 2000 to 2004, the socioeducational institutions or French judicial send about fifteen of kongo families, whose one of the members is accused by a close to be sorcerer and the author of family disorders, to the Centre Georges Devereux at the university Paris8 for consultations. This Centre, who uses the procedures of ethnopsychiatry, is mandated to elucidate the accusation problem in witchcraft and to bring a psychological help to these families. In this thesis, I attempt to analyze certain of these clinical cases as well as other met on the African ground in the course of the traditional trial in punitive witchcraft so as to identify the therapeutic techniques of the ethnopsychiatry and of the approach of kongo traditional lawsuit in the resolution of the conflicts qualified of sorceress origin by the patients and their family. My hypothesis is that in witchcraft the lawsuit traditional is akin to device of care, that it has similarities and differences in relation to ethnopsychiatric device.De 2000 à 2004, les institutions socio-éducatives ou judiciaires françaises envoient une quinzaine des familles kongo, dont l un des membres est accusé par un proche d être sorcier et l auteur des désordres familiaux, au Centre Georges Devereux à l université Paris8-Vincennes pour des consultations. Ce Centre, qui utilise les procédures d ethnopsychiatrie, est mandaté pour élucider le problème d accusation en sorcellerie et pour apporter une aide psychologique à ces familles. Par cette thèse, je tente d analyser certains de ces cas cliniques, ainsi que d autres rencontrés sur le terrain africain au cours des procès traditionnels en sorcellerie punitive, pour identifier les techniques thérapeutiques de l ethnopsychiatrie et de l approche du procès traditionnel kongo dans la résolution des conflits qualifiés d origine sorcière par les patients et leur famille. Mon hypothèse est que le procès traditionnel en sorcellerie s apparente à un dispositif de soins, qu il a des similitudes et des différences par rapport au dispositif ethnopsychiatrique.ST DENIS-BU PARIS8 (930662101) / SudocSudocFranceF
Weight Monotonic Allocation Rules for Communication Situations with Asymmetry
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