Book - The Dakar-Djibouti Expedition 1931-1933: Counter-Investigations

Description

This book, dedicated to the Dakar-Djibouti Mission (1931-1933), offers a contemporary and critical reexamination of one of the major ethnographic expeditions of the 20th century, led by Marcel Griaule.

Over the course of a twenty-month journey through West Africa to Djibouti, the mission collected thousands of objects, manuscripts, photographs, natural history specimens, and sound recordings, now preserved primarily at the Musée du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac.

The book goes beyond the traditional account of the expedition to offer a multivocal approach, grounded in counter-investigations and local testimonies. It highlights African participants and female figures long rendered invisible, while examining the conditions under which objects were collected and the issues of memory tied to the colonial period.

By bringing together African and European perspectives, it sheds light on the cultural and relational transformations brought about by this mission, offering a critical, nuanced, and collaborative reading of this expedition that laid the foundation for French ethnology.