In April 2007 the University of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, granted an honorary doctorate to the prominent Belgian anthropologist Professor René Devisch (one of that University's alumni) for his immense contributions to Congo studies. For the CODESRIA Bulletin this was reason to organise (in the time-honoured manner of the leading anthropological journal Current Anthropology) a multivocal critical discussion of René Devisch's extensive and wide-ranging speech of thanks; the contributors to this discussion include Mudimbe, Keita, Depelchin, etc. The collection came from the press in November 2008, and is about to be uploaded onto the CODESRIA website. Wim van Binsbergen's contribution to this collection deals with the dilemmas of vicariousness, performativity, identity loss and personal myth in the transcontinental construction of Africanist knowledge:

Wim van Binsbergen, 2008, ‘Existential dilemmas of a North Atlantic anthropologist in the production of relevant Africanist knowledge: On the occasion of the University of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, granting a honorary doctorate to Professor René Devisch of the Catholic University Louvain, Belgium', CODESRIA Bulletin, 2008, pp. 15-20 (click for PDF).

the same argument was also published in French as:

van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 2008, ‘Dilemmes existentiels d’un anthropologue du nord de l’Atlantique dans la production de connaissances africanistes appropriées’, Bulletin du CODESRIA, 2008, 1-2, pp. 15-20

In order to limit the paper to manageable length, the CODESRIA Bulletin Editors proposed to omit the extensive bibliographical and critical apparatus but to include a link to the present webpage, on which the original, full article can be found: http://www.shikanda.net/devisch.htm (click here for full version) ; regrettably, time has not yet allowed to prepare a similarly full, French version

 

continue to the index page of the Shikanda portal -- an overview of Wim van Binsbergen's websites (on African Studies; intercultural philosophy; African religion; Afrocentricity and the Black Athena debate; Ancient modes of thought; Ethnicity and politics; Sangoma divination and healing; Nkoya society and culture; Berber civilisation and history, and poetry)

continue to Shikanda's Topicalities page -- a record of Wim van Binsbergen current research and recent / imminent publications

continue to Shikanda's Bibliography page -- listing all of Wim van Binsbergen's publication, most of them with clickable links to PDFs