Céline LABRUNE-BADIANE

The French colonisation, cooperation and policies of the black diaspora by the independent African states have created opportunities for encounters in Africa and specific links between Caribbeans and Africans in the colonial and post-colonial periods. This research project aims to reconstruct trajectories, restore the diversity of experiences of Caribbeans in Senegal, and thus show the complexity of their relationship with Africa and historicise it. It is a question of analysing their representations of Africa, their motivations, the institutional and political frameworks for their long-term mobility, lifestyles, cultural practices, perceptions by the Senegalese, the impact of their experiences on how they defined themselves, given the weight of the representations on them and the identities assigned to them. The objective is to analyse constructions, dynamics and identity strategies in post-slavery, colonial and post-colonial contexts, the way in which identities are made and recomposed, as well as the political and social uses in the francophone Black Atlantic.

Céline Labrune-Badiane earned her PhD in History (which won the Louis Cros Prize) at the University of Paris VII in 2008, and taught Contemporary History at the University of the French West Indies from 2009 to 2011. She subsequently taught in secondary schools. Her research has focused on the history of the school in French West Africa and on highlighting the combination of political, economic and social dynamics underlying the institution of the school since its establishment in the colonial period until today. She has also written a book with Etienne Smith on the cultural productions of African teachers in French West Africa (scholastic, scientific, literary, artistic and intellectual) and their diffusion within the colonial public space. Currently, she is working on identity processes in the Black Atlantic. In a socio-historical perspective, Céline Labrune-Badiane is primarily interested in the actors, their individual trajectories and their capacity to free themselves from imposed statutes, conditions and identities. Her research contributes to reflections in contemporary African history, in a comparative and connected perspective, through the circulation of models, actors and ideas within the colonial, imperial and post-colonial spaces.

LABRUNE-BADIANE, Céline et SMITH, Etienne. Les hussards noirs des colonies. La production des savoirs par les instituteurs en AOF, Paris : Karthala, 2017 (à paraître).

LABRUNE-BADIANE, Céline, DE SUREMAIN Marie-Albane et BIANCHINI, Pascal (dir.). « L’école en situation postcoloniale », Cahiers Afrique, n°27, 2012, 243p.

LABRUNE-BADIANE, Céline. « Voyages vers un « continent imaginaire » : Antillais au Sénégal (1960-1970) », Outre-Mers, n°378-379, juin 2013, pp. 137-151.

LABRUNE-BADIANE, Céline. « Éducation et identité des « Portugais » en Casamance XIXe-début XXe », Afrika Zamani, n°20-21, 2013, pp. 131-148.

LABRUNE-BADIANE, Céline. « Portraits de coopérants antillais et guyanais au Sénégal (1960-1980) », Goerg O. et Raison-Jourde F., « Les coopérants français en Afrique », Cahiers Afrique n°28, 2012 pp. 211-225.