Proceeding through a series of case studies centred on the representation of African dictatorships, this work re-examines the relationship between the political and the aesthetic in current approaches to postcolonial themes. The texts analysed are in French and in English, and range across literature, film and social science. Following a number of recent interventions in the field of postcolonial criticism which have placed renewed emphasis on the aesthetic and the literary, this thesis questions the nature of the political resistance that critics sometimes ascribe to certain aesthetic practices. However, contrary to recent analyses which have construed the future of postcolonial criticism as an alternative between a ‘political turn’ and an ‘aesthetic turn’ (for example Bongie 2008 & 2010), my thesis contests the notion that criticism can only be legitimized by either an evaluative conception of aesthetics or a commitment to progressive politics. Instead, this work argues for a form of criticism that would place the complexity of aesthetic experiences at the heart of its investigations, and shows how representations of African dictatorships offer a privileged opportunity to understand the mutual embeddedness of the political and the aesthetic. In this way, I hope both to intervene in current methodological debates animating postcolonial studies and other forms of politicized criticism, and to offer new insights into a major topic in post-independence African literature and in representations of Africa more generally.

Traditionally, African states have played an active and relevant role in the formulation and development of international investment law. Generally, the contribution of African states is demonstrated through the active participation of African states in deliberations of the Non-Aligned Movement, the role of African states in the creation of specialized institutions such as UNCTAD and the strategic use of numerical strength by African states to sponsor numerous United Nations Resolutions. During the epitome of Africa’s active participation, African states aggressively resisted the internationalization of foreign investment rules. However, the practice of African states appears to have changed through the conclusion of BITs containing far-reaching treaty provisions. On the basis of the foregoing, the thesis reviews the types of BITs concluded by African states with the objective of establishing the investment treaty practice of African states. In so doing, the thesis examines whether African treaty practice conforms or differs from general investment law. While reviewing the treaty practice of African states the thesis also explores the extent to which the emerging investment treaty practice interferes or restrains legitimate policy making of African states. This thus raises awareness to (i) African specific concerns with respect to the international law of foreign investment (ii) the controversy entrenched in substantive treaty standards (iii) the suitability of treaties concluded by African states and (iv) the possibility of drafting more acceptable rules that balance the interests of African states vis-à-vis interests of foreign investors. The thesis argues that there has been a paradigm shift in the investment treaty practice of African states. Specifically, the present treaty practice of African states suggests that African states have retreated from previously held positions augmenting for state sovereignty to a more peculiar position of acquiescence. Broadly, the current state of African investment treaty practice is all surprising when contrasted with the fierce resistance African states mounted against the internationalization of foreign investment rules in the last century. The thesis demonstrated the extent to which African treaty provisions restrain legitimate policy making and suggests how African states can contribute to the further development of international investment law.

This thesis aims at analysing comparatively the literary production of three African female authors - the Cape Verdean Dina Salústio (1941), the Mozambican Paulina Chiziane (1955) and the Angolan Rosária da Silva (1959) - so as to observe the authors' cultural construction of their complex postcolonial nations from a female-focalized point of view and their representation of the women of these nations interacting with the transcultural contexts of each analysed country. Their works demonstrate the importance of thinking nationalism and national identity through gender, simultaneously highlighting the potential of situated gender analysis for the understanding and contestation of the power networks that consolidate the supremacy of hegemonic discourses. Hence, the main argument that this thesis develops in three distinct chapters (each one devoted to the literary production of each author) and in the light of a particular theoretical framework is that the building of the post-independence nations under analysis is structured through gender differentiation. The point of departure for this project is the work developed by specific postcolonial theorists who analyse and deconstruct hegemonic discourses of identity. Hence, Benedict Anderson's understanding of the nation as an 'imagined political community' (1991) is explored and widened by Homi Bhabha's theorization of the dynamics of national discourse (1990), whose instability comes from the friction between its pedagogical and performative dimensions. This emphasis on empowering marginality takes us to Edward Said's reflections on exile (2001). For Said, the condition of exile represents an irrecoverable displacement of the human being as regards her/his own homeland, a state which she/he will permanently try to revoke. Andrea O'Reilly Herrera (2001) uses the term insílio to emphasise the psychological and emotional dimensions of this state, which precedes the actual physical exile. Reflections on the active involvement of the displaced in the renegotiation of the nation are also at the core of Mary Louise Pratt's theorization of contact zones, autoethnography and transculturation (1991). The emphasis on the disruptive potential of autoethnography is recaptured in Graham Huggan's study of the Post-Colonial Exotic (2001), focusing specifically on the potential of what he called 'celebratory autoethnography'. Nonetheless, considering that these approaches are largely gender blind, the study questions their premises further by incorporating postcolonial feminist theories and feminist theories from sociology. Anne McClintock (1995) and Nira Yuval-Davis's (1997) important proposal of the analysis of nationalism through the lens of a theory of gender power gave access to multiple experiences of the nation. Amina Mama's (2001) proposal of the analysis of individual and national identity through gender with a view to understanding and dismantling the power structures in operation adds to these strong theorizations. Considering that the three examined countries had one-party socialist regimes immediately after independence, Catherine Scott's study on gender and development theories (1995) facilitates a situated analysis of gender as well. Through this outlook, the study assesses the feasibility and limitation of the application of such theories to the gender-related issues in the specific context of postcolonial lusophone Africa. Furthermore, it explores the possible existence of common 'lusophone postcolonial' spaces that link these women's experiences of Portuguese colonialism and the socialist experiment. Women who Give Birth to New Worlds: Three Feminine Perspectives on Lusophone Postcolonial Africa, submitted by Maria Tavares to the University of Manchester for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 2010.

La résolution de la crise ivoirienne nécessite l’organisation d’une élection présidentielle inclusive. Sur la base de l’Accord de Pretoria, les Nations Unies vont s’impliquer dans la gestion du processus électoral, conformément à la Résolution 1765(2005) du Conseil de sécurité, instituant le mandat de certification.La certification du processus électoral ivoirien constitue dés lors une activité électorale inédite au cœur de la souveraineté nationale. En effet, la gestion du processus électoral par les organes nationaux et un organe international repose sur une architecture juridique hybride, mélangeant le droit national et le droit international, devant permettre la sauvegarde des résultats de l’élection présidentielle. L’acceptation du mécanisme de la certification par les autorités nationales dans ce processus régalien modifie substantiellement la traditionnelle hiérarchie des normes qui attribue à la Constitution et au Conseil constitutionnel une place privilégiée dans les rapports internes et externes.Ainsi, la mise en œuvre du mandat de la certification enlève toute force obligatoire à la décision du Conseil constitutionnel censée revêtir l’autorité de la chose jugée. La déclaration de certification des Nations Unies accorde au candidat proclamé par la Commission électorale indépendante, une légitimité et une crédibilité internationales au détriment du candidat proclamé vainqueur par le Conseil constitutionnel. Cette situation pousse le Conseil constitutionnel ivoirien à se dédire, et reconnaître la supériorité de la certification sur sa décision. / The resolution of the Ivorian crisis requires the holding of an inclusive presidential election. On the basis of the Pretoria Agreement and in accordance with Security Council Resolution 1765 (2005) establishing the certification mandate, the United Nations throughout the Special Representative of the Secretary-General were involved in the electoral process.The certification of the Ivorian electoral process constitutes an unprecedented electoral activity at the heart of national sovereignty. Indeed, the management of the electoral process by national bodies and an international body built on a hybrid legal framework, including national law and international law, to safe-guard the results of the presidential election. The acceptance of the certification’s mechanism by the national authorities in this stately process modifies substantially the traditional hierarchy of the norms which assigns to the Constitution and the Constitutional Council a privileged place in the internal and external reports.Thus, the implementation of the Special Representative’s mandate deprives all binding force from the Constitutional Council’s decision, which is supposed to have the authority of res judicata. The United Nations certification’ statement grants international legitimacy and credibility to the candidate proclaimed by the Independent Electoral Commission to the detriment of the candidate proclaimed victor by the Constitutional Council. This situation urges the Ivorian Constitutional Council to recant, and recognizes the superiority of certification on its decision.

Cette thèse apporte une analyse documentée sur la décentralisation malienne appréhendée au prisme des partenariats entre les Régions de Tombouctou et Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes d’une part et entre la Région Koulikoro et la Coopération technique belge d’autre part, en faisant appel aux Policy Transfer Studies (PTS) et à l’approche cognitive et normative des politiques publiques. Elle fait d’abord une analyse succincte de l’historique de la mise en œuvre de la réforme de décentralisation remontant à la genèse de l’Etat malien (1960). Après la transition politique amorcée à la fin du mois de mars 1991 au Mali, la mise en œuvre de la décentralisation a pris une importance cruciale pour le devenir même du pays, notamment depuis la rébellion touarègue qui continue à sévir dans le nord du pays. Pour autant, après plus de deux décennies et malgré quelques acquis non négligeables, cette réforme demeure confrontée à divers obstacles.Ensuite, elle fait le bilan des projets d’appui à la décentralisation dans les Régions de Tombouctou et Koulikoro notamment à travers leurs partenariats respectifs. Sur ce sujet, la thèse met un accent particulier sur la pertinence des appuis réalisés, leur alignement à la politique nationale de décentralisation mais aussi des difficultés d’appropriation qui entravent la réussite du transfert des modèles du « développement local » promus par les partenaires techniques et financiers. Cette thèse démontre que, faute de moyens financiers suffisants alloués par le gouvernement malien à la réforme de décentralisation, celle-ci se trouve de fait dans une situation de dépendance quasi-totale à l’aide financière et technique internationale. De plus ce travail démontre que le nouvel engagement financier du gouvernement malien relatif au transfert de 30 % des recettes publiques aux collectivités territoriales à l'horizon 2018 ne confère pas suffisamment de marge de manœuvre aux collectivités territoriales. Enfin, cette thèse s’accompagne d’un travail analytique sur les principaux résultats du diagnostic relatifs aux obstacles à la décentralisation au Mali en général et formule un certain nombre de préconisations pour aider à surmonter lesdits obstacles. / This thesis provides a documented analysis of Malian decentralization through the prism of partnerships between the regions of Timbuktu and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, and between the Koulikoro Region and the Belgian Technical Cooperation. The thesis utilises Policy Transfer Studies (PTS) and the cognitive and normative approach toward public policies. It begins with a concise analysis regarding the history of the decentralization reform, implemented alongside the genesis of the Malian State (1960). After the political transition in Mali that began at the end of March 1991, the implementation of decentralization became crucial for the future of the country, especially with respect to the Tuareg rebellion. After more than two decades and in spite of some significant gains, however, this reform still faces various obstacles, which are explored throughout. This thesis then turns toward the projects supporting decentralization in the Timbuktu and Koulikoro Regions, particularly those founded in their respective partnerships. Special emphasis will be placed on the relevance of the support provided, their alignment with the national decentralization policy, and in addition the difficulties of ownership, which hinder the transfer of the "local development" models promoted by the technical and financial partners. This thesis demonstrates that, due to the lack of sufficient financial resources allocated by the Malian government to decentralization reform, this one is in fact in a situation of almost total dependence on international financial and technical assistance. In addition, this project illustrates that the Malian government's new financial commitment to transfer 30% of public revenue to local authorities for 2018 does not give local authorities enough leeway. Finally, this thesis concludes with an analytical overview of the diagnosis relating to the obstacles to decentralization in Mali as a whole, and provides a number of recommendations to help overcome these obstacles

L’évaluation de l’expérience de l’Unité africaine par rapport à l’Unité européenne dépasse l’aspect conceptuel car orientée vers une philosophie d’intérêt commun. Ainsi, il faut reconnaitre que l’idée d’Union en elle-même, est née d’un ensemble de circonstances historiques, politiques et socio-économiques. Cette évidence met en relief l’originalité de l’Union européenne qui, contrairement à l’Union africaine, a suscité une longue prise de conscience des pays fondateurs, lesquels se sont retrouvés à l’issue de la Seconde Guerre mondiale face à la nécessité de reconstruire leurs pays à tous les plans. A contrario, il semble que peu de nouveautés aient été apportées par l’Union africaine à l’Organisation de l’Unité africaine préexistante. Force est de constater, en outre, que l’Union africaine n’a fait que reconduire de façon formelle la structure institutionnelle de l’Union européenne sans prendre en compte la particularité socio culturelle et politico économique du continent africain. / The evaluation of African Unity’s experience in relation to the European Unity exceeds the conceptual aspect as oriented toward a philosophy of mutual interest. Thus, we must recognize that the idea of ​​Union itself was born of a set of historical, political and socioeconomic. This evidence highlights the originality of the European Union who, unlike the African Union, sparked a long awareness of the founding countries, which met at the end of World War II faced with the need to rebuild their country at all levels. Conversely, it seems that little new has been made by the African Union to the Organization of African Unity preexisting. It is clear, moreover, that the African Union has only formally renew the institutional structure of the European Union without taking into account the socio-cultural and politico economic peculiarity of the African continent.