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Disguising chiefs and God as history: questions on the acephalousness of LoDagaa politics and religion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Sean Hawkins
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Résumé

Cet article examine deux périodes dans l'historiographie et l'ethnograhie des LoDagaa du nord du Ghana et analyse les similarités entre ces deux périodes. A la fin des années 20, l'institution de chef de clan a été écrit dans l'histoire des LoDagaa par les administrateurs coloniaux, seulement deux décennies après qu'ils aient euxmêmes créé cette institution dans une société qu'ils avaient une fois considérée comme étant déprivée d'autorité politique. Au début des années 30, les administrateurs coloniaux ont créé une fiction historique, à savoir que les chefs avaient toujours existé parmi les LoDagaa, malgré l'opinion des premiers officiers, qui étaient de l'avis qu'il n'y avait pas eu de chefs avant l'arrivée des Britanniques. Les administrateurs avaient besoin de finasser avec le passé non pas afin de convaincre les LoDagaa de la légitimité des chefs, mais afin de continuer à gouverner par l'intermédiaire des chefs une fois que le pouvoir indirect avait été introduit. Les manoeuvres politiques coloniales avaient été rendues indigoènes afin de survivre sous les termes du pouvoir indirect. Le finassement du passé a légué des ambiguités et contradictions qui sont évidentes dans les attitudes contemporaines envers la position des chefs parmi les LoDagaa.

Parallèlement, dans les années 70 et 80 le clergé indigoène parmi les LoDagaa, qui avait remplacé les missonaires qui lui avait précédé dans les années 60, commença à réexaminer la nature de Dieu dans la pensée religieuse indigène afin de rétrécir la distance entre la culture des LoDagaa et le catholisme. L'idée d'acculturation qui s'était développée après le deuxième Conseil du Vatican fut à la base de cette démarche. Les prêtres LoDagaa ont réexaminé la religion indigoène et découvert l'existence d'une croyance en une divinité unique et de sa vénération, qui avait été négligée par les premiers missionaires et ethnographes. Ces derniers avaient soutenu qu'il n'y avait qu'une notion diffuse et inutile d'un Dieu absolu dans la culture et pensées des LoDagaa.

Le Dieu qui avait été auparavant inutile fut répatrié, comme s'il avait été exilé par des premiers observateurs d'une manière et dans des circonstances similaires à l'invention des chefs en tant que réalité pré-coloniale. Tandis que des revisions politiques ultérieures étaient faites par des officiers coloniaux, avec le consentement de leurs chefs coloniaux, inclinés à changer la culture et l'histoire des LoDagaa par souci de commodité administrative, les révisionistes d'après étaient apparemment plus incliné à défendre et préserver la culture indigoène plutôt que de la changer. Cependant, la notion du culte de Dieu comme ayant existé avant les missionaires est autant une fiction historique que l'idée de l'existence des chefs dans la période précoloniale.

Type
Re-interpreting the past is Ghana
Information
Africa , Volume 66 , Issue 2 , April 1996 , pp. 202 - 247
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1996

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