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AT VERSAILLES AS IN LIBREVILLE! À VERSAILLES COMME À LIBREVILLE!

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English version   The construction of the Palace of Versailles, a titanic construction site of the second half of the 17th century, deeply divided the minds of its time. Far from being perceived only as an architectural masterpiece, this pharaonic project has raised intense reflections on governance, the allocation of public resources and the posture of the intellectual in the face of the hyper-concentration of power. The reactions of contemporaries are divided into two major dynamics: those who helped to legitimize the royal company, and those who denounced its costs and excesses. The votes for: The triumph of state greatness The power of the time had perfectly grasped the importance of attaching the services of the intellectual elites. Thanks to a system of skillfully distributed pensions, many writers and thinkers have become the architects of the Versailles « narry ». Charles Perrault and the argument of modernity: For Perrault, Versailles was not only a palace of ple...
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CBON IMPOSES UPON THE GABONESE PEOPLE A DISTRACTION CALLED: RETURN TO AUTHENTICITY ! CBON IMPOSE AUX GABONAIS UNE DISTRACTION APPELÉE: RETOUR À L’AUTHENTICITÉ !

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English version   When he took power in 1965, Joseph Désiré Mobutu had an urgent need to create a unifying national identity that would allow him to create a cult of personality that would make him the only strong man in the country. His solution: create a concept of return to authenticity that would make him the number one patriot. The return to authenticity consisted of renaming the country Zaire, changing the names of cities, forcing citizens to abandon their Christian first names for African first names, imposing the use of abacost instead of the Western suit-tie, etc. This had a real psychological impact. For many Zaireans, it was a necessary step in mental decolonization, a way to regain African pride flouted by decades of Belgian colonial regime. However, it is indisputable to say that this ideology did not solve any of the country’s structural problems and ended up serving as a smokescreen to mask disastrous governance and state kleptocracy. Very quickly, authenticity in Za...
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