Association Connaissance de l'histoire de l'Afrique contemporaine (ACHAC)

Administrative History

ACHAC (Association Connaissance de l'histoire de l'Afrique contemporaine) is a consortium of scholars and researchers devoted to exploring and promoting discussion of race, iconography and the colonial and post-colonial periods of Africa and Europe. Founded in 1990 by historian and author Pascal Blanchard, ACHAC organizes conferences and prepares scholarly publications on these topics, often in conjunction with other associations. Participants who assisted in the transfer of the materials in this collection include Dr. Blanchard, anthropobiologist Gilles Boëtsch, Director of Research at the CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique), and historian and filmmaker Eric Deroo.

ACHAC has created presentations on these topics in a variety of media, including a CD-ROM as well as a traveling educational exhibition entitled Images et colonies, consisting of pre-printed panels offering a critical analysis of popular images from the French colonial period. ACHAC's journal Plein Sud, a publication devoted to African studies, released several issues in 1991 and 1992 and also serves as the publishing imprint for ACHAC's conference proceedings. ACHAC's website (achac.com) will be available online as of Dec. 31, 2001.

ACHAC members participate in conferences and publish articles on topics central to its mission. Most recently, two such articles appeared in the French journal Le Monde diplomatique : "Ces zoos humains de la République coloniale" (Aug. 2000) and "1931! Tous à l'Expo..." (Jan. 2001). Other articles recently appeared include "L'Afrique noire inventée," Historiens et géographes, no. 367 (1999-2000); "Sauvage ou assimilé?", Africultures (Feb. 2000); and "L'invention du corps du colonisé à l'heure de l'apogée coloniale," Le corps dans tous ses états (CNRS Editions, Dec. 2001).

Publications:

Images et colonies : iconographie et propagande coloniale sur l'Afrique française de 1880 à 1962. Nanterre : BDIC ; Paris : ACHAC, [1993] Images et colonies : nature, discours et influence de l'iconographie coloniale liée à la propagande coloniale et à la représentation des Africains et de l'Afrique en France, de 1920 aux indépendances : actes du colloque organisé par l'ACHAC du 20 au 22 janvier 1993 à la Bibliothèque nationale. Paris : Syros, 1993.Conference papers delivered at the Bibliothèque nationale, Paris, 1993. L'Autre et nous : Scènes et types. [Paris] : Syros ; ACHAC, 1995. Conference papers delivered in Marseille, 1995. L'Afrique : un continent, des nations. Toulouse : Milan, 1996-1997. A children's book. Images d'empires : 1930-1960, trente ans de photographies officielles sur l'Afrique française. Paris : Editions de la Martinière, Documentation française, c1997. Imaginaire colonial, figures de l'immigré; special number of Hommes et migrations, June 1997. De l'indigène à l'immigré. Paris : Gallimard, c1998. Series: Découvertes. Histoire, 345. Afriques; special number of Passerelles, no. 16, May 1998. L'héritage colonial : un trou de mémoire; special number of Hommes et migrations, Nov. 2000. Paris noir, 1878-2000. Paris : Ed. Hazan, 2001.

Conferences:

Images et colonies, Bibliothèque nationale (Paris, 1993)

Maghreb et Afrique noire au regard du cinéma colonial, Institut du monde arabe (Paris, 1994)

Scènes et types (Marseille, 1995)

Miroirs d'empires (Lille/Brussels, 1996)

De l'indigène à l'immigré (Lille/Paris, 1997)

Zoos humains? Mémoire coloniale! (Marseille/Paris, 2001)

Exhibitions:

Images et colonies (appeared in 18 countries in Africa, Europe and America, 1993-1998)

Images et colonies (educational exhibition with 120 copies circulating world-wide, 1995-2000)

L'appel à l'Afrique (appeared in 6 African countries, 1995-1998)

Miroirs d'empires (Lille/Brussels, 1996)

Zoos humains (Paris, Bamako, New York, 2001-2002)

From the guide to the ACHAC collection, 1880-ca. 1975, (Getty Research Institute)