Paroles de papier. Discours et matérialité en contexte africain / Words of paper. Discourses and materiality in African context

The aim of this special issue is to highlight the role of paper as a material surface of expression and impression. It is a matter of questioning the interactions produced between textual messages and their form, through the layout, writing styles, and figurations on paper. From the hands of the craftsman to those of the researcher, the letter, the identity document or the personal Koran have taken care of the memory and experience of many intermediaries. When combined with the textual study of the documents, the written object can highlight conflicting messages, subtexts and stories that would otherwise have remained silent. Taking into account the material of the written word leads to questioning the role of the scriptural artifact in largely oral societies, and its analysis gives voice to many actors, present and past, in Africa. The result of a scientific collaboration between the Institut des Mondes Africains in Paris and the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Bergen, this special issue brings together historians, archaeologists and anthropologists of North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, united by the desire to give voice to the papers and agents who manipulated them in Africa, from the early Middle Ages to today.