Portraits de boxeurs noirs dans des magazines africains illustrés

FR. Cet article propose une analyse transversale de portraits de boxeurs noirs publiés dans des magazines africains de langue française entre 1953 et 1975. En suivant les représentations discursives et visuelles données de ce type de sportif dans deux périodiques illustrés diffusés en Afrique, Bingo (1953-1991) et La Vie africaine (1959-1965), comparées à celles qu’en a proposées au même moment Paris Match, il cherche à montrer, dans une perspective foucaldienne, comment ces dernières sont traversées par des dynamiques de pouvoir plus générales articulant des rapports sociaux de sexe, de race et de classe dans un contexte d’effritement de l’empire colonial français. Examinant les formes et la plasticité des textes et des images mettant en scène des boxeurs américains et africains d’un magazine à l’autre, l’article défend l’hypothèse d’une spécificité et d’une intensité du portrait de boxeur dans ce segment de la presse autour de 1960, avec ses topoï et ses référentiels. Après avoir décrit cet espace de publication périodique diversifié et concurrentiel, il propose une typologie des articles sur la boxe dans lesquels on retrouve, en dépit de leur variété et de leur mélange, des traits réguliers propres au portrait, forme de métagenre situé entre et au-delà des genres journalistiques usuels. La mise en scène médiatique des biographies de ces athlètes subalternisés, débordant la rubrique sportive, permet de donner un sens à des luttes tant pugilistiques que sociopolitiques, dans un contexte d’autonomisation du champ sportif français. Quoiqu’apparaissant comme des symboles de résistance, leurs corps y sont traversés par des dominations de race (sous la plume de bien des journalistes français, le Noir reste l’autre), de genre (quoique ne validant pas toutes les normes de masculinité hégémonique, ces portraits ne bousculent pas l’ordre genré), et de classe (les parcours de ces sportifs issus de milieux sociaux plutôt favorisés n’excluent pas des mécanismes (néo)coloniaux donnent la part belle à leurs entourages blancs). *** EN. This article offers a cross-sectional analysis of portraits of black boxers in African magazines written in French and published between 1953 and 1975. The analysis is based on the study of the discursive and visual representations of the figure of the athlete in two illustrated periodicals distributed in Africa, Bingo (1953-1991) and La Vie africaine (1959-1965). By comparing them with those offered by French magazine Paris Match on the same period of time, the article seeks to demonstrate, from a Foucauldian perspective, how the latter are imbued by more generic power dynamics articulating social relations of gender, race and class, in the context of a crumbling French colonial empire. Examining the forms and the plasticity of texts and images featuring American and African boxers in each magazine, this research argues that portraits of boxers in this segment of the press in the 1960’s formed a specific genre, with its own characteristics, levels of intensity, specific topoi and references. After describing the diverse and competitive market of periodical publishing, we suggest a typology of articles on boxing, which identifies, despite their variety, common strokes specific to the portrait genre. Thus, it constitutes a form of metagenre situated between and beyond the standard journalistic genres. The staging in the media of the lives of these objectified athletes goes beyond the sports section, and heightens both pugilistic and socio-political struggles in the context of the growing importance of the French sports scene internationally. Though appearing as symbols of resistance, their bodies bear the marks of subjection through race (under the pen of many French journalists, the Black man remains “the other”), gender (although not validating all the norms of hegemonic masculinity, these portraits do not challenge the gender order), and class (the fact that most athletes are from well-off families does not exclude the (neo)colonial mechanism which consists in giving more attention than required to their white entourage). *** PT. Este artigo oferece uma análise transversal de retratos de boxeadores negros publicados em revistas africanas de língua francesa entre 1953 e 1975. Seguindo as representações discursivas e visuais desse tipo de atleta em dois periódicos ilustrados distribuídos na África, Bingo (1953-1991) ) e La Vie africaine (1959-1965), em comparação com as propostas ao mesmo tempo por Paris Match, o trabalho procura mostrar, a partir de uma perspectiva foucaultiana, como estas últimas são atravessadas por dinâmicas de poder mais gerais que articulam as relações gênero, raça e classe em um contexto de desmoronamento do império colonial francês. Examinando as formas e a plasticidade de textos e imagens de boxeadores estadunidenses e africanos de uma revista para outra, o artigo defende a hipótese de uma especificidade e de uma intensidade do retrato de um boxeador neste segmento da imprensa por volta de 1960, com seus topoï e suas referências. Depois de ter descrito este espaço diversificado e competitivo de publicação de periódicos, propõe uma tipologia de artigos sobre boxe em que encontramos, apesar da sua variedade e da sua mistura, traços regulares próprios do retrato, uma forma de metagênero situada entre e para além de gêneros jornalísticos habituais. A encenação midiática das biografias desses atletas subalternos, extrapolando a seção de esportes, permite dar sentido às lutas pugilísticas e sociopolíticas, em um contexto de empoderamento do campo esportivo francês. Embora apareçam como símbolos de resistência, seus corpos são atravessados pela dominação racial (para muitos jornalistas franceses, o negro continua sendo o outro), gênero (embora não validem todas as normas da masculinidade hegemônica, esses retratos não perturbam a ordem de gênero), e de classe (os percursos desses atletas de origens sociais bastante privilegiadas não excluem os mecanismos (neo) coloniais que dão lugar de destaque às suas comitivas brancas). ***

Arms intervention: Weimar Germany, post-imperial influence and weapons trafficking in warlord China

The Treaty of Versailles aimed to strip Germany of both its colonial empire and the global reach of its arms industry. Yet the conflicts in warlord-era China led to the reestablishment of German influence on the other side of the world via the arms trade. Weimar Germany had declared a policy of neutrality and refused to take sides in the Chinese civil war in an effort to demonstrate that as a post-colonial power, it could now act as an honest broker. From below, however, traffickers based in Germany and German merchants in China worked to evade Versailles restrictions and an international arms embargo to supply warlords with weapons of war. Although the German state officially aimed to remain neutral, criminal elements, rogue diplomats, black marketeers and eventually military adventurers re-established German influence in the region by becoming key advisors and suppliers to the victorious Guomindang. Illicit actors in Germany and China proved to be crucial in linking the two countries and in eventually overturning the arms control regimes that were imposed in the wake of World War I.

Agostinho Neto

Agostinho Neto was an Angolan medical doctor who was born in the agricultural hinterland of Luanda City in 1922 and died in a Moscow hospital in 1979. He had been assimilated into Portuguese colonial society by gaining a school education at a Methodist mission station where his father was the minister, and he proceeded to university studies in Lisbon. There his radical politics fell foul of the dictatorial police, and after a spell in prison he escaped, via London, to become an itinerant political exile in Africa. There he became a guerrilla commander leading small bands of soldiers who fought a gainst both a Portuguese conscript army and rival political movements seeking independence for Angola. In 1974 the Portuguese colonial empire imploded, and Neto found himself leader of the largest nationalist movement in Luanda, the Movement for the Popular Liberation of Angola (Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola; MPLA). On November 11, 1975, he became Angola’s president as the last Portuguese governor-general sailed away on a gun-boat under cover of darkness. Neto’s four years in the presidential palace were not happy ones. Rival political movements not only challenged his legitimacy but also made unholy military alliances with South Africa, Congo, and the United States. He also alienated his domestic constituents, and when they attempted a coup d’état he rounded on them with all the ferocity that he had experienced himself when being persecuted by the Portuguese political police. His health rapidly deteriorated, and two years later he was flown to Moscow, albeit too late, to seek a cure.

How was the army of the Alash state built?

It was 1919, that is, on the eve of the mutual acknowledgement of the Alash Autonomy and the Soviet rule of each other and the incorporation of the Kazakh Autonomy in the USSR. However, historical facts confirm that the leader of the Kazakhs was attempting to build a national army, a fully legal one, even during the period of the first Russian revolution of 1905-1907, therefore in the period of the autocratic rule of the colonial empire, despite a number of insurmountable obstacles that seemed to stand in the way. The article is devoted to a historical analysis of the process of creating a legal national army of the Kazakh population and the political legalization of the Autonomous State of Alash on the territory of the Russian Empire in the late 19th – early 20th century. The leader of the Kazakh National Movement “Alash”, Alikhan Bukeikhan was attempting to build a legal national army even during the period of the first Russian Revolution 1905-1907. However, he achieved his goal only after the February Revolution of 1917 – on the eve of the civil war, launched by the Bolsheviks.The leader of the Kazakh National Movement “Alash”, Alikhan Bukeikhan was attempting to build a legal national army even during the period of the first Russian Revolution 1905-1907. However, he achieved his goal only after the February Revolution of 1917 – on the eve of the civil war, launched by the Bolsheviks

Indian-Pakistani Border: Historical Development and Contemporary Principles of Reconciling Contradictions

The article is devoted to the study of the issue of the historical foundations of the existing border conflicts between India and Pakistan and the latest efforts of these two states and the international community in relation of resolving them. The roots of the existing Indian-Pakistani border conflicts go back to the time when India was a part of British colonial empire. To a decisive extent, such conflicts were a consequence of the British authority’s policy, which, in an effort to weaken the liberation movement in India, incited enmity between the largest ethno-religious groups of the population – Hindus and Muslims. This policy eventually led to the formation of two separate neighboring states – India and Pakistan, and these countries inherited numerous border conflicts. The largest among them is Kashmir, due to the gap of this territory between India and Pakistan. For several decades, the state of Jammu and Kashmir, according to Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, had a special status and broad autonomy.However, the Indian government, headed by N. Modi, eliminated this special status by removing this article from the country’s constitution in August 2019. Over the past year, under the influence of serious geopolitical changes in the Indo-Pacific region and South Asia, the government of N. Modi initiated a return to the consideration of the status of the former state of Jammu and Kashmir, and also seeks to develop an updated format for his stay in India. On June 25, 2021 the prime minister of India held an important meeting with a group of prominent politicians from Kashmir, which was the first public event by the Indian government after the liquidation of the Kashmir autonomy. During the meeting, a number of issues were discussed about the preparation for the future elections in the region. N. Modi described the meeting as “an important step towards increasing efforts in the development and progress of the territory of Jammu and Kashmir”.

How the East Was Won

How did upstart outsiders forge vast new empires in early modern Asia, laying the foundations for today's modern mega-states of India and China? In How the East Was Won, Andrew Phillips reveals the crucial parallels uniting the Mughal Empire, the Qing Dynasty and the British Raj. Vastly outnumbered and stigmatised as parvenus, the Mughals and Manchus pioneered similar strategies of cultural statecraft, first to build the multicultural coalitions necessary for conquest, and then to bind the indigenous collaborators needed to subsequently uphold imperial rule. The English East India Company later adapted the same 'define and conquer' and 'define and rule' strategies to carve out the West's biggest colonial empire in Asia. Refuting existing accounts of the 'rise of the West', this book foregrounds the profoundly imitative rather than innovative character of Western colonialism to advance a new explanation of how universal empires arise and endure.

Nationalism, Liberation, and Decolonization in Angola

Angolan independence was achieved on November 11, 1975, after a 14-year-long war. The war was the result of three overlapping dynamics. The first was Portugal’s refusal to consider the possibility of a negotiated settlement for the independence of its colonies in Africa. Under the dictatorial regime of António Salazar, Portugal had become extremely dependent on its colonies, both economically and politically, and was therefore, by the late 1950s, bent on maintaining its colonial empire. The second was the development of nationalist feelings among Angolan elites, which eventually materialized in the late 1950s to early 1960s in two—and, as of 1966, three—competing nationalist movements. The third constituted a series of popular grievances within sectors of the Angolan population, especially landless farmers and plantation workers in the north, against their growing marginalization and impoverishment due to exploitative colonial policies. This eventually led to three uncoordinated revolts in January, February, and March 1961 that marked the beginning of the war of independence. The division of Angolan nationalism into three competing movements—the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA), the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA)—was shaped by Angola’s long history of violent integration into Portugal’s colonial empire. The 20th-century Portuguese colonial state in Angola relied on the exploitation of the so-called native workforce through a vast system of forced labor and on taxation. It was also exclusionary and discriminatory, leaving very few avenues for upward social mobility for Angolan “natives.” It was therefore mostly at the margins of the colonial world that such mobility was possible, especially within Christian missions. The integration of these Angolan elite groups into the colonial world, or their exclusion, followed different paths according to local contexts and histories. As a result, the different lived experiences of the social groups that formed the backbone of the nationalist movement made it exceedingly difficult for them to agree on a common vision for independent Angola. This, together with the uncompromising thirst for power of the leadership of the three movements and Cold War logics, contributed to the civil war that engulfed the country at independence and lasted until 2002.

Independence in opposition to the "Russian world": a philosophical and pedagogical dimension

In the article, the author analyzes some political and philosophical dimensions and perspectives that become relevant on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Ukraine's Independence. The author, positioning himself within the political philosophy and philosophy of history, points out several fundamental points relevant to the identity and positioning of Ukrainian society on "eternal issues of Ukrainian society", such as discussions on the national idea, national identity, its historical and spatial perspective. The author's presentation is divided into four points: the century-old perspective of the Ukrainian struggle for independence, definition of the current Ukrainian situation in the context of nation-building and confrontation with Russia, the theoretical dimension of "national idea" and "civil religion", practical conclusions about the Ukrainian kind of these concepts. The author relies on the methodology of modern Nationalism Studies, Postcolonial Studies, the experience of Ukrainian studies, especially in the era of Ukrainian modernity (XIX-XX centuries). He postulates that the thirtieth anniversary of Ukrainian independence is inextricably linked with the century of liberation struggles of the Ukrainian nation, that the situation in Ukraine, in particular in the context of defining national identity and confrontation with Russia, can be correctly described as a confrontation between independentists of a modern emerging nation and the colonial empire, which fights for regaining its power over the former colony-province, relies on its numerous loyalists and uses various methods of aggression (both "cold" cultural war and "hot" military confrontation) to subdue the region. The author offers his view on the concept of "Ukrainian national idea", based on the basic literary sources of the history of Ukrainian nation-building. Based on the research, the author offers certain practical conclusions important for teaching history, law, civic education and for the education of a responsible citizen in Ukraine.