36.62, Confs: Anthropological Linguistics; Cognitive Science; Discourse Analysis; Ling & Literature; Sociolinguistics / France

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-36-62. Fri Jan 10 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.62, Confs: Anthropological Linguistics; Cognitive Science; Discourse Analysis; Ling & Literature; Sociolinguistics / France

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Date: 10-Jan-2025
From: Issa KANTE [issa.kante at univ-reunion.fr]
Subject: Counter-Hegemonic Discourses in the Indian Ocean and in Africa: Thinking and Writing a Shared World?


Counter-Hegemonic Discourses in the Indian Ocean and in Africa:
Thinking and Writing a Shared World?

Date: 12-Nov-2025 - 14-Nov-2025
Location: University of Reunion island, France
Contact: Issa KANTE
Contact Email: issa.kante at univ-reunion.fr
Meeting URL:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1L5CM1SWyqIoiBKKKkTY7Ci8Ed5PWppNV/view

The full CfP is available for downloading in French and English at:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1L5CM1SWyqIoiBKKKkTY7Ci8Ed5PWppNV/view.
Important dates
 • Publication of the CfP: January 7, 2025
 • Deadline for Abstract Submission: Friday, March 14, 2025
 • Notification of Acceptance: April 15, 2025
 • Preliminary Program: June 23, 2025
 • Conference Dates: November 12–14, 2025
Submission Guidelines
Please send a 500-word abstract and a 150-word biographical note to
the organizers:
 • issa.kante at univ-reunion.fr
 • valerie.magdelaine at univ-reunion.fr
 • veronique.bonnet8 at wanadoo.fr
 • yolaine.parisot at u-pec.fr
Call for Papers:
Counter-Hegemonic Discourses in the Indian Ocean and in Africa:
Thinking and Writing a Shared World?
In a world beset by various forms of imperialism, the great powers and
multinational companies, often benefiting from the complicity or
resignation of the local elites, seek to impose their conception of
the world and to maintain their domination over countries of the
so-called “Third World” or “Global South”. The islands in the
south-western Indian Ocean, whether independent nations or French
overseas territories, have been facing different but persistent forms
of coloniality of the mind and the power system, from which they
unsteadily or strategically attempt to escape. To challenge these
forms of subjugation, wide range of intellectual discourses, often
expressed as counter-discourses, have emerged (S. B. Diagne, M. Diouf,
N. Etoke, P. Hountondji, L. Miano, A. Mbembe, B. Mouralis, V. Mudimbe,
F. Sarr, F. Vergès, N. wa Thiong'o, K. Wiredu, etc.). They advocate a
reversal of the imperialist logic and a deconstruction of the
hegemonic mechanisms that have been at work for centuries in Africa
(particularly in sub-Saharan Africa) as well as in other formerly
colonized societies, including the Indian Ocean ones. Interestingly,
forms of convergence between the islands of the Indian Ocean and
French-speaking Africa have been emerging through the use of concepts
and notions that have been re-appropriated and reinvested, sometimes
with different or subtle meanings. For instance, in the essays of some
French-speaking African intellectuals or at the Ateliers de la pensée
in Dakar, there are allusions to the notion of creolization (see M.
Arnold, 2021) or to rhizomatic social structures, which is generally
applied to Creole contexts – though this usage often overlooks issues
specific to the Indian Ocean. Similarly, after a period of profound
avoidance of Africa, which had only been present sporadically
(Rabemananjara’s role in negritude and Présence africaine, the
“Mauritian negritude” forging connections to Senghor, etc.), there is
now a re-appropriation of symbolic relationships as well as a certain
desire to “becoming African” (A. Mbembe). This can be seen in the
literary and artistic expressions, with recurring references to
Cesaire’s notion of “Nègre” and to Africa (particularly in the poetry
of Raharimanana and Djailani…). In the sphere of associations and
their activism on social networks (Rasine Kaf, Fondation Héva, for
example), there is a desire for a greater recognition of the “black”
portion of Creole identities. Certain forms of pan-Africanism are also
endorsed and may lean toward ideological radicalism – an approach
openly advocated by some political movements, such as the Economic
Freedom Fighters (EFF) in South Africa. Whether intellectual movements
or militant and political organizations, they all seek to create
connections that are more resonances and symbolic allusions than
actual references. Yet they share a common objective: the fight
against hegemonic representations and discourses. In the intellectual
discourse, these resonances often stem from a globalized theoretical
and referential fabric. They are absent from political discourses,
especially in Africa, which primarily pursue a decolonial fight
focused on issues specific to Africa. This conference aims to reflect
on the intersections of these references (or their absence) to a
“becoming African” of Africa as well as of the islands of the Indian
Ocean, in order to better understand not only their counter-hegemonic
intentions but also the limits of the attempts to refocus on oneself,
or even the emergence of new notional and discursive hegemonies.
Stemming from the political vocabulary, the concept of hegemony took
on particular importance following Antonio Gramsci’s writings, and has
been extended to a number of disciplines. In this Gramscian
perspective, the transposition of this concept to various issues
enables the analysis of the different modes of hegemonic adherence and
domination, which are based on a system of ideas, values, beliefs and
attitudes aimed at reinforcing the power and ideology of the elite
(Savoie and Rizzuto, Lexique Socius). In the Indian Ocean and on the
African continent, the counter-hegemonic discourse in its broadest
sense (i.e. all discursive forms and practices which challenge
hegemonic ideologies, practices and structures) emerges as a means of
resistance and as a new field of anti-imperialist, decolonial,
anti-racist and egalitarian re-appropriation. As M. Angenot (1989)
argues, a dominant (hegemonic) cognitive or discursive entity at a
given time can also be combined with multiple (counter-hegemonic)
strategies which oppose it, antagonize it and alter its elements.
Adopting an alternative to the various political, cultural and
linguistic strata and manifestations of hegemony, in what ways do
counter-hegemonic discourses in the Indian Oceanic and African
societies seek to think, write and forge possibilities for social
change, emancipation and self-determination? The counter-hegemonic,
pan-Africanist and decolonial discourses (whether literary, artistic,
political, media, etc.) raise the question of how they somehow lead to
a “provincialization of Europe” (D. Chakrabarty) and to a
self-refocusing which would not establish new hegemonies or engage in
“hegemonic search” (J.-F. Bayart). Additionally, what does the
recourse to hitherto unseen points of convergence tell us about a
counter-hegemonic intent from the South towards the South? It is
indeed relevant to rethink these issues by integrating the
Indian-oceanic question, which has often been marginalized or even
forgotten, and by giving equal consideration to African political
discourses and essays that have sometimes become a kind of “new media
catechism” (Elgas; Mangeon). Moreover, the aim is also to propose a
refocusing of discourses and epistemes and to question the concepts of
hegemony and counter-hegemony: are we witnessing the emergence of new
postcolonial hegemonies? Can this refocusing be seen as an underlying
attempt to create “a world in common” between the islands and
archipelagos of the south-west Indian Ocean and the continent.
This multidisciplinary international conference aims to analyze not
only the writings, literatures and arts of the islands of the
south-west Indian Ocean which invoke Africa in order to create new
solidarities “of the Souths” or even for an “Afrasian sea” (Karugia
and Erll), but also, in reverse, the way in which African discourses
construct their own strategies of emancipation, and particularly in
their poetic, anthropological, political, and media dimensions. To put
it differently, one of the major questions brought up by this
conference is to understand how these discourses (literary, political
and media) – which pursue the emancipation and decolonization of both
the Indianoceanic and African thought and a re-evaluation of the
notion of creolization, whether explicitly mentioned or underlying –
can help to shape new “relationalities” or even a “common ground”.
Could they establish new fields of force between the islands of the
Indian Ocean and the African continent? Focusing particularly on
discourses against political and cultural hegemony (A. Gramsci),
discursive and linguistic hegemony (M. Angenot, 1989), and media
hegemony, this conference invites interdisciplinary perspectives to
examine how these various forms of discourse attempt to deconstruct
dominant ideologies, and social-cultural structures and norms. Do
these discursive constructions and strategies reflect a desire to
bring the islands of the Indian Ocean closer to Africa, and to seek a
reappraisal of their shared history? Researchers are invited to
address the questions outlined above, as well as the following topics
– this list is not exhaustive:
 - What is the degree of spreading of the idea of the “future of
Africa” (Mangeon, 2022) in the Indian Ocean, and in what types of
discourses?
 - How and through what media is expressed the historically downplayed
black and African part of the identities in the Indian Ocean islands?
 - Does the encounter between an “Africanization” of thought and the
immediately contemporary mutations of the Indian Ocean allow the
implementation of new discourses and new aesthetics?
 - What are the new forms of cosmopolitanism of the Souths that emerge
in the various African discourses and essays, and what are the
resonances for the islands of the southwest Indian Ocean?
 - How can we clarify the thought and future of the islands of the
Indian Ocean in the light of new African thoughts?
 - How do these thoughts, which are in the process of becoming new
hegemonic discourses of the "Global South", articulate with the old
utopias of Indianoceanism?
 - To what extent are ideological and political representations in the
questioning and repositioning of political, intellectual, and civil
society actors expressed differently, similarly, inclusively or
exclusively in the Indian Ocean and in Africa?
 - What is the degree of articulation between counter-hegemonic
thinking and African decolonial political discourse?
 - How is it possible, poetically and politically, to “make a country”
(Chamoiseau et al., 2023) without, in practice, renewing a hegemonic
gesture, wherever it stems from?
Panels and perspectives of analysis
Panel 1: Literature (oral, written, multilingual) and the arts:
 - Reassessment of dreams of unification of Indianoceanism in the
light of contemporary African thoughts.
 - Conception and inscriptions of a “becoming Black” or a “becoming
African of the world” (A. Mbembe).
 - Inscriptions of the “Black” in contemporary literature of the
Indian Ocean.
 - A look back at forms of “negritude” in the Indian Ocean (J.
Rabemananjara, R. Noyau, E. Maunick, etc.).
 - Inscriptions of Africa or blackness in the contemporary visual arts
of the Indian Ocean (“art-creology” by W. Zitte, etc.), and connexions
with East and South Africa in the visual arts, music and contemporary
dance.
 - Migration and border writings.
 - Perspectives on the notion of “Afrasian Sea”: is there a desire to
write “the Souths”, and how does it connect Africa, India and the
Indian Ocean?
 - A shared ecocriticism for putting on trial the transnational
devastation of resources.
 - African thought and the re-evaluation of the notion of
creolization.
 - Translation and untranslatable: nations, borders, migrations, the
creation of an “In-common”?
Panel 2: Discourse analysis and critical linguistics
 - French discourse analysis (A. O. Barry, D. Maingueneau, S. Moirand,
A.-M. Paveau...), media discourse analysis (P. Charaudeau, S.
Moirand...) Critical Discourse Studies (N. Fairclough, T. A. van
Dijk...).
 - Anti(neo)colonial, anti-imperialist, decolonial and pan-Africanist
discourses and ideologies in south-western Indian Ocean and African
societies.
 - (Counter-)hegemonic worldviews and representations of societies,
cultures, languages and nations.
 - The counter-hegemonic role of the media: traditional, digital and
social networks.
 - Online activism and the spreading of counter-hegemonic discourses.
 - Environmental activism and sustainable development as forms of
resistance.
Panel 3: Thoughts and theories
 - Reassessment of the relevance and interest for the Indian Ocean of
contemporary essays on translation.
 - Philosophical rehabilitation of pan-Africanism
 - Universalism, “pluriversalism”, agentivity or antiphons.
 - Cosmopolitical utopias, “Afrofuturism”, “Afrotopia”.
 - Connexions between creolization and Ateliers de la pensée (M.
Arnold).
 - Representation of the self and the other in counter-hegemonic
discourse.
 - Black feminism in the Indian Ocean and Africa, new
counter-hegemonic masculinities, queer and identity issues, gender and
hegemony (R. Connell and J. Messerschmidt, R. Connell).
Non-exhaustive selected references are listed on our website.



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