%0 Journal Article
%T Local Landscapes and Constructions of World Space: Medieval  Inscriptions, Cognitive Dissonance, and the Course of the Niger
%A Paulo Fernando de Moraes Farias
%J Afriques : D¨¦bats, M¨¦thodes et Terrains d'Histoire
%D 2011
%I Centre d¡¯?tudes des Mondes Africains
%R 10.4000/afriques.896
%X In the West African Sahel, Islam induced processes of cognitive change as spaces and history were given new meaning over time. In the expanding Muslim universe, they were reconstructed with reference to the core regions of the Islamic world and the founding events of Islam. This brought issues of cognitive dissonance to the interpretation of the past, when people were simultaneously confronted with different and incompatible heuristic heritages. This paper investigates such changes in the representation of the past in the Tadm kk t /  ssuk valley of northern Mali between the Middle Ages and the 1980s. As social interactions were restructured and renegotiated among nomads from the seventeenth century onwards, some groups formulated new status claims by borrowing afresh from the Islamic repertoire. The commercial role the area had played in the Middle Ages ceased to be worth remembering. A new interpretation of the past was imposed upon the valley, and even well-dated Arabic medieval inscriptions were given new meaning. After 1980, the rise of Tu¨¡reg nationalism fostered yet another interpretation of the past of the ancient site. Cognitive dissonance is also displayed in the descriptions of the course of the Niger provided by Leo Africanus in the 16th century, and Mu ammad Bello in the 19th. En Afrique de l¡¯Ouest sah¨¦lienne, l¡¯Islam a induit des processus de modification cognitive qui, au cours du temps, contribu¨¨rent ¨¤ modifier la repr¨¦sentation que l¡¯on se faisait des lieux et de l¡¯histoire. Dans un univers musulman en expansion, elle fut reconstitu¨¦e en r¨¦f¨¦rence aux lieux importants et aux ¨¦v¨¦nements fondateurs du monde islamique. Ces changements introduisirent des probl¨¨mes de dissonances cognitives dans l¡¯interpr¨¦tation du pass¨¦, les acteurs ¨¦tant simultan¨¦ment confront¨¦s ¨¤ des h¨¦ritages heuristiques diff¨¦rents et incompatibles. Cet article ¨¦tudie de tels changements dans la repr¨¦sentation du pass¨¦ dans la vall¨¦e de Tadm kk t/ ssuk, situ¨¦e au nord du Mali, entre la p¨¦riode m¨¦di¨¦vale et les ann¨¦es 1980. ¨¤ compter du XVIIe si¨¨cle, suite ¨¤ des changements dans la nature des structures et des interactions sociales parmi les nomades, certains groupes revendiqu¨¨rent de nouveaux statuts emprunt¨¦s au r¨¦pertoire islamique. Le r le commercial tenu par la r¨¦gion au Moyen- ge fut expurg¨¦ des m¨¦moires. Une nouvelle interpr¨¦tation du pass¨¦ fut surimpos¨¦e sur la vall¨¦e, dans laquelle m¨ºme les inscriptions m¨¦di¨¦vales arabes, pourtant dat¨¦es, trouv¨¨rent un nouveau sens. Apr¨¨s 1980, la mont¨¦e du nationalisme Tu¨¡reg allait encore engendrer une interpr¨¦tation nouvelle
%K Touaregs
%K espace
%K inscriptions arabes m¨¦di¨¦vales
%K paysage
%K nationalisme
%K Tuaregs
%K space
%K Mali
%K arabic medieval inscriptions
%K ssuk
%K Tadm kk t
%K landscape
%K nationalism
%K Niger (River Valley)
%K Niger (vall¨¦e du fleuve)
%U http://afriques.revues.org/896