Paper short abstract:

Starting from ethnographic research conducted in the Comoros on the contemporary challenges of coastal zone conservation, in this paper I propose to retrace the identitarian tension of its inhabitants related to the sense of Africanness and its imaginaries.

Paper long abstract:

Starting from ethnographic research conducted in the Comoros on the contemporary challenges of coastal zone conservation, in this paper I propose to retrace the identitarian tension of its inhabitants related to the sense of Africanness and its imaginaries. Blue economy policies, which are increasingly present in the Indian Ocean and are manifesting in the Comorian archipelago through the establishment and governance of marine protected areas, intersect and collide with the life trajectories of islands communities. This new oceanic interest impacts the dual peripheral status of the archipelago, both in relation to the african continent and the island centers in the Western Indian Ocean. The attraction force exerted by the african continent has a concrete impact on the aspirations and future orientations of Comorians, as opposed to the unfulfilled expectations offered by their “cousin island” of Mayotte. In the controversial relationship with France and French culture, the institutional opportunities of being part of the African Union seem to be diluted in everyday discourse, awakening a sense of Africanness understood as an occasion to definitively emancipate oneself from a game of dependency with France. This tactically recalls the historical ties with the continent, as well as the constant interplay of stereotypes in which the expression “ici c'est l’Afrique” indicates both the essence of a quiet life, but also the daily difficulties in moving forward. In the flux of the Western Indian Ocean, the rhythmic movements of exchange between center and peripheris shapes unseen ways of thinking Africanness, propelled from its margins.