Les ethnies ont une histoire, de Jean-Pierre Chrétien et Gérard Prunier

Les ethnies ont une histoire, is a book written after a conference internationally organized in 1986 by the African research center. During this meeting, there were many African researchers but Europeans assisted them, the principal topic was "the historical dimension of the ethnicity in Africa". Their goals were « d'esquisser un bilan des recherches récentes à partir de cas précis choisis dans des régions variées d'Afrique et sur des périodes très différentes, en fonction aussi de plusieurs approches disciplinaires, historique, anthropologique, politologique, géographique ou linguistique » (page 8).
The definition of the ethnicity and the contents of this term remain, in spite of the various debates, is often blurred and contradictory. The various studies gathered in this book analyze the dynamic histories in which forged the ethnic consciences like all the other communities. Ethnic conscience and mobilization are deeply implied by the political and social measures of the contemporary States.
jean-pierre chrétien et gérard prunier both direct research, and they are also both two of the historians of the unit associated with CNRS (National Social Research Center)"the Third World, Africa" (Equipe Paris I du Centre de Recherches Africaines).