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By simultaneously examining 'literatures of exile' and material collected in interviews, it can be shown that the return to Algeria does not concern all pieds-noirs in the same way. Indeed, their sociological profiles -- like their positions in the space of receptions of colonial history -- are very diverse. The act of returning can be considered a form of 'roots tourism' only when the work of mourning has been carried out independently of heroic accounts in which Algeria is identified as a French creation. Conversely, the skepticism of some pieds-noirs underscores the insurmountable incongruity (in the framework of an affective economy) between an Algeria that has been reconstructed a posteriori and the reality of a transformed country. With their remoteness from family tombs remaining one cause of the suffering of the pieds-noirs, the voyage can also be motivated by the project of collectively caring for the land of the dead. Thus the diversity of the meaning and uses of return, a phenomenon that spans the fugitive experience of re-socialization within a lost Algeria, the transmission of genealogical memory, the shared upkeep of family tombs and the shock of deracination tied to the search for the lost Algeria of an earlier generation. Adapted from the source document.

Brazilian culture and symbolical mediation : the ritual triangle.
The Brazilian society is probably one of the most contrasted and non egalitarian among the developing countries. As it is a very intricate society, it can be analysed according to various criteria that permit several multiple interpretations depending on the focus chosen. However, there is a principal bipolar relation that is based on the master/slave relationship rooted in the colonial history. This has always been used as a basis for any analysis of the Brazilian society. This permanent opposition is represented on the one hand by the social codes that symbolize the field of the home and on the other hand by the codes inspired by the field of the street. This text offers a sociological analysis based on a symbolic triangle ; the ambivalent and somewhat conflicting relation between the home and the street would be softened by the intervention of a third element, the other world that characterizes the mystical dimension of the social field. This is how the symbolic triangle of social interpretation is built. It can take the shape of various cultural fields such as carnival, literature and television.

During his childhood in Algeria, Rachid Boudjedra was faced with two realities : the one historical (the colonial situation) ; the other personal (he was the last child of his bigamous father's first wife).
As a writer he mixes History (in general and the colonial situation in particular) with his own personal family history.

French Language in Western French Africa. Linguistic Construction, Representations and Colonial Dominance.
This paper offers a reflection on the French language in the Western African colonies based on the cultural history and the history of representations. The main point of the exposition is focused on the linguistic production popularized by a specific form of press and littérature, i.e. the French spoken by Colonial Troupes. Through a great variety of sources, the authors show how this «language» turned to be one of the main instruments of French domination in Africa. They show also that the French native soldier has been partly «invented» as the caricature shows, and analyse the sense of the general contempt attached to this language, both in the French and African representations. This article illustrates ultimately the apprenticeship of the colonizer's idiom at the colonial school and the richness of the linguistic creativity exclusive to the African French language.

The adaptation of pol'al sci to the existing African pol'al situation is not easy since that situation is extremely complex. It is best to analyze this situation in depth & to view it in 3 diff forms: (1) under its traditional aspect which appears in a singular diversification of forms (societies whose pol'al aspects are joined to kinship groupings, those whose clan systems & lineages are the framework for pol'al life, those where other systems are the basis of pol'al action, & finally, those which exist as pol'al entities); (2) under its colonial aspect with its own peculiarities (the change in pol'al structure, the joining together of 2 admin'tions, the destruction of the traditional authorities, econ & cultural intervention); & (3) under its post-colonial aspect with its problems (the difficulties of integrating the pre-colonial past with the colonial past, the difficulty of adapting to modern pol'al & admin'tive life). In making use of ethnological & sociol'al studies, pol'al sci can effectively study 2 aspects of present day African politics: the pol'al parties & the pol'al doctrines or ideoloeies. Tr from IPSA by J. A. Broussard.

Relations between the people of Basotho and South Africans can only be understood with reference to the history of their meeting in the 1820s and their defeat by colonial forces in 1884. Despite the declaration of independence in 1965 and the end of apartheid in 1994, relations between the two groups remain ambivalent. Historical proximity resulting from significant labor migrations is still opposed to the legal denial of colonial despoilment and the refusal to allow free circulation on both sides of the border. (Polit afr/DÜI)

By comparing two international sporting events in the context of Tunisia at the beginning of the 21st century (the regional competition of the Mediterranean Games in September 2001 & the continental tournament of the Africa Cup in 2004), this article clarifies recent & current issues of political use of the past. It appears that the setting of sporting event reports between immediate political history & long history aims at promoting the current government, both nationally & internationally. In replacing the analysis in the context of political evolution in post-colonial Tunisia, the study shows how the increasing media impact of sporting events is used by endogen nationalism, official ideology, & even more so by authoritarian leaders. Beyond the continuous evidence of the exploitation of sporting events for political & ideological ends, it emphasizes the rebuilding of the imaginary identities of post-colonial nation-states. Adapted from the source document.

History and historiography of politics in africa. The need for a critical re-reading.
The ancient African political society were not only not democratical, but above all did not contain any seed directly profitable to democracy, concept and process of the developed countries. Three inherited hinderances must be underlined : the concept of social inequality, the consensus principle and inseparability of religion and politics. The autocracy of colonial regimes did not favour the democratical thought, in spite of an unavoidable influence of the parent-state, would it be only through school contacts. Nevertheless, the consciousness of the individual and the impossible but necessary search for a balance between the paradoxical but complementary principles of freedom and equality are universal attainments in history hampered by no determinism. But all african of foreign research workers should bear in mind the scouring of commonplaces inherited from the colonial period. These should note be posed as dogmas any longer, though scientific writings are still padded with them (ethny, dualism, tradition/modemity, traditional power, and so on...). In short, time has come to decolonize the history of Africa.

The apotheosis of « the wider France » the colonial conception and french public opinion Raoul Girardet
The colonial exhibition organisai in Paris in 1951 marked the heyday of the colonial conception in the history of contemporary France. By comparison with the former period there was a perceptible increase in the interest takcn in the Overseas Empire and this can be seen in the press as well as in teaching or in romanesque literature. At the same time a relatively coherent doctrine of French imperialism was established : this doctrine was founded on the principle of « the wider France », that is on the extension of the traditional idea of national sovereignity to all the overseas territories. Nevertheless it was also during these years of apotheosis that the colonial conception was first questioned. The attacks were threefold : the campaign of the French communist party against imperialism, the denunciation of corrupt practices and scandais in the colonies and the questioning of the postulate of the cultural supremacy of the colonizing nation. It is nevertheless difficult to guage thé exact effects of such currents. By the reactions to which they gave rise these anticolonial attacks even resulted in certain milieux in a widening and deepening of the colonial idéal : the concept of the Empire was gradually supplanted by that of the Community.

The Ursulines in Java : A Century of Catholic Education (1856-1956)
Being the first catholic order to settle in the Netherlands East Indies in 1856, the ursulines experienced a great expansion in Java during almost a century. Based on the archives of the order stored in Rome, this article explores this history and highlights the contradictions in the collective memory of the nuns, torn between their ideal of a missionary apostolate in a distant land and the reality of local expectations, namely the education of girls belonging to the upper classes of colonial society. Despite the spectacular development of their activities in the archipelago, it was in fact only from the 1920s that the ursulines began timidly to open the door to indigenous society. Secluded in two ways – inside their convents and as part of the isolated European environment – the ursulines were kept away from the souls they were hoping to convert for a long time. In that sense, their history probably represents one of the most striking examples of the ambiguities of missionary activities in a colonial context.

African historians have shown little interest in the collection or critical examination of documents which concern population, its distribution or movement. From the example of Senegambia, the authors show that this study of population, using a multi-disciplinary approach, is a prerequisite for the over-all history of social formations. Sources are rarely those of classical demographic history but are, above ail, unconventional ones. Yet thèse allow the coverage of various periods and the treatment of important démographie themes which require true statistical data, bearing in mind the limits inherent in the available evidence. However, in underlining recent developments in knowledge of the pre- and proto-historic periods, pre-colonial and colonial, the authors show that the understanding of the past of African populations is not confined to a few statistics and can be greatly increased by the use of all the sources which are still accessible. Two annexes are devoted to the earliest administrative censuses and demographic inquiries and also to the division by sex in thèse documents.

Remarks on Violence in Buddhist Ideology and Social Practice in Sri Lanka

Contrary to a common opinion, the Buddhist discourse on violence is essentially ambivalent. A casuistry built up during two milleniums of interaction with the lay society interprets violence as legitimate when used for the defense of the Doctrine, while condemning it in social relations inside the Buddhist polity. The history fo Sri Lanka is a case in point. The rise of violence, which is assuming a critical dimension in communal relations, may be understood as the product of the breakdown of traditional values under the colonial and post-colonial impact, or else as the modern form of the built-in tensions of any Buddhist society.

This article presents a brief overview of Australian history. First, it stresses the time-old presence of the Aborigines so as to recall that the history of the continent-island did not start with the arrival of Captain Cook in 1770. Then, it considers the formation, in the 19th century, of a British settlers' colony and its transformation, in the 20th century, into an English-speaking nation state. It also criticizes a certain historiographical trend that tends to relegate the Aborigine people to the pre-colonial past. Adapted from the source document.