M. Diawara—Aboriginal Research in Oral History: The Plight of the Native Son. Social sciences research in Africa, especially in history, has long been dominated by non-Africans—military officers, political administrators and, later on, scholars. In the last decades Western-trained African specialists have entered the field. While the former put forth their otherness as a proof of the scientific validity of their work, the latter use the opposite argument and point to belonging as a criterion of objectivity. Both arguments appear somewhat obsolete insofar as a confrontation of views is a necessity for ail research in the social sciences. The native scholar working on the history of his own country is bound to observe the rules and customs of his group: even more so as his experience of another (i.e. Western) way of life exposes him to the suspicion of the keepers of tradition. He must solve a contradiction between his own scientific ambitions and the local System of know-ledge transmission (which also is or has been his).

This article analyzes the poststructuralist criticism of development and insists on the implication of integrated local knowledge and not only indigenous technical knowledge (IK). The article underlines the cultural dimension and the political dimension that touch age and gender of implicated groups. The poststructuralist criticism of development is justifiably stinging. But it has a nihilism that does not bring anything constructive. By making development specialists the focus of their concern, the small farmer - whom they seem to support - paradoxically disappears from sight. Once all the other players are eliminated from consideration except the World Bank and other big players, the reality of development becomes a homogeneous playing field. To block out this sterile theoretical excess, we must take into consideration the different actors in society and consider how each one takes on its own reality of development, which is also present in western agencies simultaneously at work in villages of the Malian Sahara.

The Manding Bard and Globalization. — As the social surfaces of information are changing, an original, fertile artistic field is emerging in the Manding world. New stars and bards (griots) are producing texts in tune with the changes under way. This investigation is based on emerging social functions (promoted by the Malian government—if not already by colonial authorities, or even earlier) and on the media that are forging a new universe. As nonbards gain access to the stage, women corne into competition with men who often play little more than second role. However men who are not bards control show business. The Manding cultural zone is used to this sort of change. History is being recycled as it has always been, given that the rules of composition are far from fixed.

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