Les Bushmen dans l´Histoire

Emmanuelle OLIVIER & Manuel VALENTIN (Dir.), 2005, Paris, CNRS Editions
ISBN: 2-271-06296-9

[Book in French]

This work is coming out at a time when “Bushmen” have become a focal point and are the subject of new stakes. While their countries of origin are beginning to grant them full-fledged citizenship and specific rights are being recognised for them by international organisations, the “Bushmen” are experiencing a transformation in their identity as well as the way they perceive themselves.

Their history, at first denied then linked to relations of domination, appears today like the production of a Bushman’s discourse on Bushmen. This book, situated in this context, is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the history of the Bushmen, from archaeological to colonial times, and on the views of Westerners on the “Bushmen” since the second half of the twentieth century. The second part deals with the endogenous production of history, but instead of working on an encyclopaedic knowledge of it, the authors have chosen to consider this issue through an analysis of the so-called “cultural” or artistic practices.