Relinsert

This project takes as starting points the religious plurality in Burkina Faso and some anthropological observations of the end of the 1950’s, which pointed the way religious conversion was a pathway of integration for the Burkinabe migrants in Ivory Coast. Then, we want to interrogate how religion can still be a way of getting integrated for migrants (returning, internals or internationals) who currently (re-) settle in Burkina Faso. The developments of the religious practices of migrants are interrogated through fieldwork researches in three regions of Burkina Faso: the capital Ouagadougou, which focuses internal, international and returning migrations; Koudougou, third town of the country and historical city of departure for migrants going to Ivory Coast; Sinikiéré and Ouarégou, two small towns of the « Bissa country », characterized by a strong migration tradition directed through Italy and Libya. The main hypothesis of that project is that religions in migration, although possibly associated with migratory logics of individuation or of emancipation, appeared until now as a factor of cohesion and of integration in the context of these four Burkinabe localities. Combining social anthropology, geography and history methodologies, we will study the migrants’ practices at a local scale (living area, family) and more globally in urban and rural public area. Integration will be interrogated in relation to the religious plurality of the context that characterized these towns. Then, it will be analysed from an articulation between spatial analysis (cartography of the places of worship) and socio-anthropological and historical fieldwork inquiries. Several entries will allow us to approach the notion of integration through religions in migration: religious conversion, by putting in perspective religious and migratory histories; the involvement of migrants in family ceremonies at a local level, as revealing their integration in local social networks; solidarity mechanisms such as zakat in Islam; the play of denominational NGOs and the associated equipment in the access to basic public services (health, education, social services); the visibility in the public area and the local governance stakes linked with religious in migration or returning migration. However, the limits of these processes of integration and the possibilities of being excluded will also be considered, especially in the national and sub-regional context presently weakened by the rise of terrorism and of violent radicalism. With this three years research project, a new team will be created around this thematic of religions and migrations in Sub-Saharan Africa, in the context of the partnership relations between the IMAF (UMR 243 IRD 8171 CNRS) and the INSS/CNRST in Burkina Faso. The researchers will do fieldwork together in the selected localities and will work in a multidisciplinary way. The dissemination of the results of the program relies on a strategy built around three main scientific events (a launch workshop, a study day at midterm and a final international conference). It is also based on training activities for students, on scientific publications and on other means more appropriated for the general public (book created in association with a photographer, film) or for politicians and decision-makers (policy brief). One of the main expected results is the proposal of another reading of the links between religions and migrations, decentring this question and considering it from the Burkinabe instance, in which these two dimensions are not necessarily understood as a cause of social exclusion or of discrimination when they are thought together.