Published by the French editions Karthala, the work was to be presented on Saturday in Dakar by its author, the French historian Séverine Awenengo Dalberto, researcher at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). It is titled “The idea of autonomous Casamance – Possibilities and moral debts of the colonial situation in Senegal“.
The bookstore “To the four winds“announced the cancellation of the dedication on Facebook, without explanation. The author and the authorities did not react to requests from AFP.”The investigation shows that the autonomy of Casamance was one of the possible failures of colonization and decolonization, envisaged by French and Casamance actors.“, says the announcement note for the presentation of the work.
The Alliance for the Republic, the party in power until the presidential elections in March, protested in a press release against the publication of a work which “calls into question the acquired knowledge“on peace in Casamance and east”dangerous“for national unity.”The work deals with the idea of Casamance in the long term, it is not a manual of armed separatism. Social sciences must be discussed, if necessary contradicted, but not censored“, reacted on X Elara Bertho, another researcher at the CNRS.
The book sparked lively debates on social networks in Senegal, where mention of the conflict in Casamance remains sensitive. The Senegalese state rejects autonomy. A previous work by another French researcher, Jean-Claude Marut (“The Casamance conflict – What the weapons say“, Karthala), was banned in 2010. Casamance, separated from northern Senegal by the Gambia, is the scene of one of the oldest conflicts on the continent since separatists took to the underground in December 1982. After having thousands of victims and ravaged the economy, the conflict has significantly decreased in intensity but persists slowly.
