Books by Aghi Bahi

The author carried out work 1994 to 2013 in three fields of communication and societal change namely: media communication of health-related policies; the use and appropriation of the internet and ICTs; and the media, politics and public space in a society in crisis. Communication mediated in Ivory Coast (mainly Abidjan) finds itself at the heart of this research, a society still "anthropologised" (Balandier) and in motion, a place of concrete change, contrast and multi-faceted crises where daily life goes on and where the contradictions of modernity are seen. Then, based on a broad view of communication, he invites us to critically reflect on the teaching and research methods in Communication Science in Ivory Coast. In effect, communication with the Other, being necessarily a political act, is inevitably translated in the "anthropo-logiques" to a composition in all societies. It is thus a question of rooting one's research more firmly in communicational anthropology in order to give an account of the abounding social change and the post-colonial social instability. A communication based anthropology, ambitious but cautiously so, bold yet measured, removed from all naive mimicry, should contribute to the development of Ivorian Information and Communication Sciences by focusing them on the construction of authentic objects.

The affirmation of cultural identity developed during the colonial and postcolonial years which has been the topic of bitter debates, is the root cause of the Ivorian crisis. However, is Ivoirity not a political maneuver or should it be viewed as the expression of liberal nationalism? This book traces the concept from its origins, explicates the conditions and context of the creation of a cultural nationalism which, progressively, has charted the course of an ethnic nationalism. The phenomenon of Ivoirity is inscribed in an already old historicity which feeds on cultural claims and affirmations. It seems to be a logical consequence of the policies of ivorisation of employment and capital initiated in the 1970s. There was a real consensus on the question of Ivoirity among the stake holders between 1960 and 2010. Their different managements of the citizenship questions and largely that of identity as well as the various "Trends" of Ivoirity are evidence. The narrative of Ivoirity is a response given by leaders who lack political imagination to resolve the political problems and challenges posed by multiform crises facing the country. As such, what could be the symbolic effects - the effectiveness and efficiency - of Ivoirity on the youths and the Media in a broader sense and even to Ivorian postcolonial politics in Côte d'Ivoire? This book also adopts a bottom-up approach with particular attention paid to the role of youths in media outlets, popular songs, street discussion forums created by youths (agoras, parliaments, and grins). The ties between youths and Ivoirity can be researched through such social phenomena. Through this, the book explores aspects of the Ivorian crises and inevitably, the 2010 Presidential elections and the stakes of the crises that followed.