As part of a partnership agreement signed by the University of Kinshasa and the French Institute of Kinshasa, the School of Criminology had the honor and privilege of receiving Jean-Pierre OLIVIER de SARDAN for the seminar entitled “For a rigorous empirical study of African modernities“. This 20-hour seminar was held from March 25 to 1^er April 2024 at the School of Public Health of the University of Kinshasa and was moderated by Professor Sara LIWERANT, Deputy Director of the School of Criminology of the University of Kinshasa in charge of research and the Criminology Center attached to it. It was attended by nearly 70 participants in person and nearly 40 on Zoom, divided between professors, researchers, doctoral students and learners in Social Sciences (Criminology, Socio-anthropology, Political Science and International Relations, Law, etc.) from the University of Kinshasa and the National Pedagogical University as well as other Congolese and foreign teaching and research institutions.

Jean-Pierre OLIVIER de SARDAN is a socio-anthropologist and Franco-Nigerian. He is Emeritus Research Director at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris, Director of Studies at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in Marseille, co-founder of the Laboratory for Studies and Research on Social Dynamics and Local Development (LASDEL) based in Niamey and Parakou and of the Association for the Anthropology of Social Change and Development (APAD). Recognized for his rigor and empirical grounding in African fields, he has worked in particular on corruption, elections, public policies, administrations, the delivery of public services and the object of “development”. His scientific production is so important that we can only cite his major works here, namely, published by Karthala The tangle of crises in the Sahel. Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso (2023), The Revenge of Contexts: The Misadventures of Social Engineering in Africa and Beyond (2021), Village Elections: An Ethnography of Electoral Culture in Niger (2015), Inhospitable Medicine: The Difficult Relationships Between Caregivers and Patients in Five West African Capitals (2003), Anthropology and Development: An Essay on the Socio-Anthropology of Social Change (1995), published by Academia-Bruylant The rigor of qualitative research. The empirical constraints of socio-anthropological interpretation. (2008).

The seminar was divided into sub-themes. The first session was devoted to “African modernities.” Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan justified this title by the desire to counter the clichés that weigh on both anthropology and Africa. He insisted on not confining oneself to an immemorial Africa because “nothing from the past arrives as is but undergoes transformations“, he advocated the empirical study of African modernities, that is to say, organizations (associations, businesses, bureaucracies, etc.), the State and its apparatus (public services, bureaucracy, etc.), public policies (whether implemented by the State, international organizations, NGOs, etc.) and development projects that are part of the landscape of our countries. The second session focused on the constraints of power. He notably presented the notion of “local rivalries" that is to say, sociabilities shared by the actors of political power giving rise to "fierce battles", just like family sociabilities... During the fourth session, Jean-Pierre OLIVIER de SARDAN focused on the methodological precautions necessary for interpretation in terms of culture. After tracing the history of this notion, he insisted on the arbitrary generalization (not based on empirical work), often abstract leading to an ideological and not empirical culturalism. The fourth session was dedicated to decolonial studies. Committed to a political decolonialism that he distinguishes from scholarly decolonialism, he drew attention to the two forms of the latter: ideological decolonialism and empirical decolonialism. Finally, the last session of the seminar allowed to present his latest work on public service reforms in Africa and particularly "the reformers from within"which allow for the modification of "practical standards".

In general, Jean-Pierre OLIVIER de SARDAN underlined the importance of an anthropology of proximity and an anthropology of discordances going against the homogenization of societies, the presence of multiple accountabilities of actors, the consideration of contextual rationalities, the positionalities chosen by researchers, and the essential refusal of the dogma of concepts to which he prefers “exploratory concepts”.

This seminar thus allowed professors and students of social sciences to debate on qualitative methodology, on the concepts that Jean-Pierre OLIVIER de SARDAN has developed empirically over sixty years in Africa. In view of the importance of this seminar, the Secretary General for Research enhanced it with her presence by closing this important scientific event and presenting certificates of participation and very high consideration to the participants as well as to Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan. She thanked the French Institute of Kinshasa, through its Director, Mrs. Françoise Balais, for the facilities granted in terms of logistics and the support provided to Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan.