Short Abstract

If madness is still a fertile ground for numerous researches in Europe, this issue remains to be explored in Africa. This multidisciplinary panel aims to reconsider madness beyond psychiatry in order to create a relevant laboratory to reassess both societies and State in Africa.

Long Abstract

If the topic of madness is still a fertile ground for numerous researches in Europe, this issue remains to be explored in Africa. In recent years, however, new research dynamics have brought out the richness of the topic. It allows us to rethink the history of Africa from its periphery and consequently, to renew the study of the State and of African societies. Going beyond a clinical history of psychiatry, the goal of this panel is twofold: 1/ to elaborate a multi-located study of madness (prison, justice, "traditional" spaces of treatment of madness, etc.) 2/ to cross an institutional study of mental disorder with local situations over the longue durée in order to break with the colonial axiom. To do this, we intend to focus on studies "from below", questioning the effectiveness of practices and daily negotiations facing the narratives and practices supported by political and medical authorities.

The main goal of this panel is to study connexions and disruptions in the study of madness on the African continent through the building of a comparative approach, both geographical () and interdisciplinary (history, anthropology, sociology, geography, etc.). It will be also the occasion to discuss methodologies and sources used by researchers in order to carry out, more broadly, an epistemological renewal of the studies on madness from the South

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