Histoire de la revue Présence Africaine

He argues that the journal was born out of a dual necessity: to render visible the intellectual and cultural contributions of Black thinkers that had been long obscured by colonial and assimilationist policies in France, and to create a transnational, multilingual forum for autonomous African self-representation. The lecture traces the ways Présence Africaine cultivated this visibility across literature, philosophy, and politics, while remaining ideologically open and non-partisan. Fonkoua discusses the journal’s role in publishing foundational works of African philosophy—such as the French translation of La philosophie bantoue—and poetry, particularly within the Négritude movement. He also examines the significance of its associated publishing house and cultural festivals in Dakar, Rome, and Lagos as efforts to decentralize cultural authority from Europe and assert African intellectual agency on the global stage.

Finally, the lecture highlights tensions and generational shifts within the Présence Africaine project, such as the eventual critique by writers like Mongo Beti and the emergence of more radical thinkers like Frantz Fanon. Fonkoua concludes that Présence Africaine inaugurated a “lâche” or “flexible” mode of thought—rooted in poetic expression and relational philosophy—that continues to challenge the cultural hegemony of the West and rethink Africa’s place in global modernity.