Le fanga comme savoir et destinée: Signification sociale de la réussite personnelle au Soudan occidental

The etiology of the rise and fall of important persons provides a link between the social patterns and interpretive schemes of nineteenth century western Sudan and the present. It corresponds to continuities between the political modalities of the past and those that articulate with nation states since independence. This article focuses on purposeful ritual action in the western Volta region as an enabling condition of social success. The notion of fanga (« force ») underlies personal trajectories and their social ambient. Analytic categories such as legitimacy, political office, succession, territory, are of limited usefulness in understanding these social landscapes where juxtaposition of dissimilar but equivalent social segments prevails. The euphoria of decolonization following World War II provides an example of how these paradigms emerged in social action as urban populations and their rural periphery started participating in electoral politics.