Ce que nous apprennent les dictionnaires... Lecture critique de l'article de loan Couliano sur <La Religion des Akan>

Abstract

The Colonial Order was supported by a campaign of misinformation (in Europe, about Africa), and of mystification (in Africa, about Europe). In 1887, A.B. Ellis describes the condition of the MI speaking peoples as one low in civilisation... and hesitates in using the word <Religion> to talk about the <beliefs> of these <savages>, and we quote : ' By the words <religion> and <religious beliefs>, I do not mean the belief in a Supreme Being who controls the universe, which belief is indeed limited to but a small proportion of the human family; but a belief in the «latest« of beings, ordinarily invisible, upon whose favour or indifference man and his fate depend. In this form religion is commonly found among savage tribes, and the less developed is the intelligence of the people, the cruder and the more absurd appear their religious notions; for it is not the religion that is the cause of the civilisations, but rather the higher stage of civilisation that gives birth to higher religious ideas.' I

The Colonial Times have passed and gone... The Pools of the NEGRITUDE (L.S. SeqMor, L. Damas, A. Cdsaire, and many others) raised their voices, proclaiming a New Order; they won the support of a number of western intellectuals, like Jr. Sartre, who prefaced the Anthologie de in Nouvelle Poesie Negro et matzoth. de Gangue Francais., edited by LS. Serighor in 1948 1 J.P. Sartre declares, in this Black Orpheus: Strange and decisive divergence: the race has transmuted itself into historicity. the Present black explodes and temporalizes itself. Negritude inserts itself with its Past and its future in the Universal History it is no more a state, neither even an existential attitude; it is a Becoming. The Black contribution in the evolution of Humanity 6 no more a flavour, a taste, a rethink, an authenticity, a cluster of primitive instincts; it is aimed enterprise. a patient construction, a future's but have things max changed, since Africa's independence? Are we getting a ducat, intellectually honest picture of African kutory, of African Literatures, of African Religions, of African Cultures...in a recent works on Africa? Whilst African scholars dig deeper and deeper into the long-hidden Past, and Underline the contribution of the great African Empires to Humanity, many researchers continue to aggs Africa, or 'which is probably even worse to portray a false picture of African Traditional Valuta. loan Catharses Diazonamide des Religions appears to be a striking example of the still misting MISINFORMATION about Africa. In our brief paper, we shall analyse the dictionary's article on what the author calls 'La Religion der Akins'. we wish to demonstrate how-treacherous dictionary article can be, when it confuses a few true (a few true facts with so many approximations.