L’imaginaire socio-discursif de « la femme africaine » dans le discours des dirigeants politiques français

Abstract

Representations of « African women » are not neutral. They reveal a certain positioning regarding women in this part of the world. This article proposes to analyze the syntagm « African woman » and its variants, as a socio-discursive imaginary, in French politico-diplomatic discourse. Using the Discourse Analysis approach, we examine the knowledge of opinion that continues to affect the image of women on the African continent. Particular attention is paid to a corpus of speeches by French politicians, delivered in different contexts and in relation to various discursive constraints. The aim is to show how the « African woman » came to be, as an imaginary, how it circulates within social groups, and, finally, how political leaders use it in their speeches. This use operates a set of categorizations, maintaining the « African woman » in social imaginaries at odds with the realities of Africa.

Keywords

• audience
• doxa
• socio-discursive imaginary
• African woman
• politic-diplomatic discourse