Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire

IFAN (I.F.A.N., Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire or African Institute of Basic research) is a cultural and scientific institute in the nations of the former French West Africa. Founded in Dakar, Senegal in 1938 as the Institut Français d’Afrique Noire (the name was changed only in 1966), it was headquartered in what is now the building of the IFAN Museum of African Arts. Its charge was to study the language, history, and culture of the peoples ruled by French colonialism in Africa.

Early history

IFAN first formed from a combination of three forces: the French colonial "Civilizing mission", the desire for more efficient Indirect rule through the understanding of African cultures, and research into the resources of the French dominion in Africa. [See: David Robinson. Paths of accommodation: Muslim societies and French colonial authorities in Senegal and Mauritania, 1880-1920, Athens, Ohio University Press (2000) ISBN 0821413538] Governors General Ernest Roume (1902-1908) and William Ponty (1908-1914) oversaw a reorganization of the French higher educational system in the colonies, and placing Georges Hardy in charge, moved the colonial administration into a model which used elements from both a "Direct", Assimilationist policy and an Indirect, rule by African proxy policy. The first required educational resources be created provided for the small minority of "assimilated" Africans, while the later required French colonial administrators be educated in the workings of African societies. To these ends, Hardy oversaw the creation of the École normale supérieure William Ponty (under the administration of Joseph Clozel), the publication "Bulletin de l'Enseigement en AOF", and the "Comite d'etudes historiques et scientifiques de l'AOF" (1918). This last, immensely successful as a scientific journal, inaugurated what one historian has called an era of "..knowledge and control." [Robinson, ibid, (p.69 in French language edition, 2004, ISBN 284586485X )]

These imperial (or at best paternalist) scientific tools were tuned on their head in a number of ways. First, the African higher education system (and the École William Ponty in particular) became the incubator for the political leaders of the independence movement. The study of African cultures, though invaluable to modern historians, did little to legitimize French rule through their Chefs du Canton, but it did provide Francophone West Africans (such as Léopold Senghor) with the materials to bolster their sense of cultural importance, as demonstrated in the Negritude movement. Finally, Europeans and Africans who opposed colonial rule came together in the years after the founding of IFAN in Dakar. IFAN was first conceived as an integration of various French colonial research systems in the early 1930s, and the vision was one of putting science to the service of the colonial project. [Jacques Galliard quotes a publication from the early 30s:

"It is for us a sort of intellectual duty and a requirement of colonial honour to study the countries that we must administer and the people that we must educate and protect. This is, in part, one of the strongest justifications for colonisation, and it cannot be defined in material and economic terms . . . . The establishment of African science is indeed an exigency of our colonial policy (IFAN, 1961: 37). "

Galliard, Chapter 6, p. 157.]

The Popular Front government, in 1936, converted the "Comite d'etudes historiques et scientifiques de l'AOF" into the Dakar based IFAN, and placed naturalist Théodore Monod at its head. From the opening of the institute in 1938, Monod sought to promote Africans into positions of authority in IFAN, such as ethnologist Amadou Hampâté Bâ. With the end of the Second World War, an influx of African intellectuals and French radicals (such as Jean Suret-Canale) found homes in IFAN and its branches, some taking part in political agitation through organisations like the Senegalese Popular Front, the RDA, and the Communist Study Groups of the 1940s.

As independence loomed in the 1950s, IFAN became an increasingly African institution. It formed a parallel National Archives to the Archives of the Governor General in Dakar, [ [http://www.archivesdusenegal.gouv.sn/biblio.html Les Archives Nationales du Sénégal: La Bibliothèque, Présentation] . "l'arrêté 4803 du 24 novembre 1947 qui faisait de l'IFAN le dépositaire du dépôt légal". ] with Monod and the IFAN answering directly to the Minister of Overseas France - a rare degree of autonomy under the AOF system. By independence IFAN had offices in Saint-Louis, Abidjan, Bamako, Cotonou, Niamey, Ouagadougou, associated centers in Douala and Lomé, and permanent scientific research stations in Atar, Diafarbé, and Mont-Nimba. The 1940s and 50s saw more such projects undertaken, such as the 1943 "Office of Colonial Scientific Research" (ORSTOM) [Now the ORSTOM Soil Research Centre in Dakar-Hann] , and the University of Dakar in 1957. Each of these institutions, begun as colonial instruments, evolved with the coming of independence into African tools to meet African needs. [See J. Galliard, Passim.]

Independence

By independence in 1960 IFAN had branches across French West Africa, in all the cities which were to become the capitals of independent states. The Dakar IFAN was transferred to Cheikh Anta Diop University in 1960, and Monod was kept on as director until 1965. In 1986 it was officially renamed "IFAN Cheikh Anta Diop", and maintains bugets, administration and staff independent of the university. It is today one of the most prestigious centers for the study of African culture in the world. As the main cultural research center of the colonies of French West Africa, it contains important collections from across Francophone Africa. Most branches of IFAN, notably in Conakry (Guinea), Abidjan (Cote d'Ivoire), and Bamako (Mali), became the basis for national archives and research centers. Some still retain the "IFAN" title. The IFAN of Soudan Francais became the National Museum of Mali, while IFAN of French Guinea became the "Institut National de Recherche et Documentation": the National Library, Archives and Museum of Guinea.

Publishing

IFAN is known as well for publishing, producing a number of academic journals ("mémoire de l'IFAN", "Bulletin de l'IFAN") and academic studies, mostly dealing with linguistics, anthropology, history and archeology. [See the bibliographical essay on pp.304-305 of
Peter Duignan, Lewis H. Gann, Victor Witter. Colonialism in Africa, 1870-1960. Cambridge University Press (1975) ISBN 0521078598] The "Centre de Linguistique Appliquée de Dakar", in conjunction with IFAN, has published extensive work on the Languages of Africa, notably the multi-volume "Lexique Wolof-Français". Other sections of IFAN have published definitive collections on everything from the fish to the dance of the West African region. [An example is Daget, J. (1948) La collection des poissons d'eau douce de l'I.F.A.N. Catologues et Documents (Institut Français. d’Afrique Noire).]

References

*Portions of this article were translated from the French language Wikipedia article , 2008-03-17.
* Theodore Monod. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0001-9720%28194310%2914%3A4%3C194%3ALFDN%3E2.0.CO%3B2-C&size=LARGE&origin=JSTOR-enlargePage L'Institut Francais d'Afrique Noire] . Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 14, No. 4 (Oct., 1943), pp. 194-199.
*Dorothy Smith. Scientific Research Centers in Africa. African Studies Bulletin, Vol. 10, No. 3 (Dec., 1967), pp. 20-47
*G. Wesley Johnson, Jr.. The Archival System of Former French West Africa. African Studies Bulletin, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Apr., 1965), pp. 48-58
*Philip D. Curtin. The Archives of Tropical Africa: A Reconnaissance. The Journal of African History, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1960), pp. 129-147
*Jacques Gaillard. [http://ahero.uwc.ac.za/index.php?module=cshe&action=downloadfile&fileid=81806115512041001233965 The Senegalese Scientific Community: Africanization, Dependence and Crisis] in Scientific communities in the developing world, Jacques Gaillard, V.V. Krishna and Roland Waast(eds). New Delhi, Thousand Oaks, Calif., and London: Sage Publications, 1997.
*Helen F. Conover. Official Publications of French West Africa 1946-1958: A Guide.
*fr Jean Moncelon. [http://www.moncelon.fr/desertenverite.htm Théodore Monod ou Le Désert en Vérité] , 2000. Retrieved 2008-03-17.
*fr [http://ifan.e-ucad.sn/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=68 Présentation de l'IFAN Ch. A. Diop: Historique] , http://ifan.e-ucad.sn.
*fr Cheikh Anta Diop, "Le Laboratoire de radiocarbone de l'IFAN", Dakar, Institut fondamental d'Afrique noire, Catalogues et documents, n° 21, 1968, 110 p.
*fr Dominique Hado Zidouemba, "Catalogue collectif des microcopies d'intérêt africain conservées à Dakar par la Bibliothèque de l'Institut fondamental d'Afrique noire, la Bibliothèque universitaire et les Archives nationales. Intr. de J. Fontvieille", Dakar, Département de documentation de l'Institut fondamental d'Afrique noire, 1967, XIII-4I p.

External links

*fr [http://ifan.e-ucad.sn/ IFAN on the website of UCAD]
*fr [http://www.refer.sn/article573.html « IFAN : l'héritage de Cheikh Anta Diop réhabilité »]