Les recherches en histoire orale menées par un autochton, ou L'inconvénient d'être du cru

Aboriginal research in oral history: the plight of the native son.- Social sciences research in Africa, especially in history, has long been dominated by non-Africans -- military officers, political administrators and, later on, scholars. In the last decades Western-trained African specialists have entered the field. While the former put forth their otherness as a proof of the scientific validity of their work, the latter use the opposite argument and point to belonging as a criterion of objectivity. Both arguments appear somewhat obsolete insofar as a confrontation of views is a necessity for all research in the social sciences. The native scholar working on the history of his own country is bound to observe the rules and customs of his group: even more so as his experience of another (i.e. Western) way of life exposes him to the suspicion of the keepers of tradition. He must solve a contradiction between his own scientific ambitions and the local system of knowledge transmission (which also is or has been his).