L'IDENTITE DANS LES DISCOURS AFRICAINS CONTEMPORAINS.

This paper focuses on the idea that identity is a key question for any one interested in understanding African twentieth century writings or further, even when they are not directly related on it. For, if we observe problems like tradition and modernity, relations to West, African future or utopia, it appears that answers vary with the approach of African identity directly or indirectly developed by authors. What will specify this research is that, contrary to the ordinary discourses on the question, the paper shows that the main concern of African thinkers is not the differentiation with West but the relation of Africa to Africa. It will highlight the two main attitudes in stressing that before the independences, Africa was for Africans a model of identity, and it became a countermodel after. In both, the relation with Europe was positive in that the former tried to promote co-existence with the West, and the latter took Europe as an ambivalent model of identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]