Nouveaux lieux de sociabilité cosmopolites à Antananarivo

Abstract

In Antananarivo as well as in other Eastern African cities, there is a growing and visible presence of foreigners coming from developing countries. These international movements of people have several consequences and among them the creation of sociability places dedicated to this clientele (casinos, restaurants, hotels) or to the local population eager for these new things. Some Tananarivian people also create such new places coming from international fashions (bars, theatres, spas). An inventory of these new places is established and a typology is suggested. Their spatial localisation in the urban area is studied. It shows both the revival of the colonial central district and the development of new suburban central places. The diversity of the clientele is examined and far from being considered as foreign places and only dedicated to the rich ones, local urbanites like frequenting the new sociability places. They incorporate them to their daily practices and they develop new images of the elsewhere. A new exoticism is developed. Practices and representations observed in these places are analysed throughout the notion of creolization which insists on the interactions between different cultural influences. As well as other urbanites over the world, African urbanites are attracted by the consumption of the atmosphere of cosmopolitanism.

Keywords

• cosmopolitanism
• urban practices and representations
• exoticism
• Antananarivo
• Madagascar
• sociability place