Edited by Gina Aïtmehdi, Camille Evrard, Raphaël Gallien, Paul Marquis and Romain Tiquet

We are happy to announce the publication of the latest issue of the journal Sources. Materials & Fieldwork in African Studies, entitled Sources of Madness.

The contributions composing this special issue bring together historians and anthropologists to explore the daily realities of madness under and in the aftermath of colonialism. Drawing on institutional and personal archives, interviews and testimonies, observations and photographs, but also tackling absence and refusal, the six articles span French West Africa and contemporary Algeria, Gabon and Ghana, as well as colonial Algeria and the Upper Volta in the 1970s.
This diversity of contexts highlights the complementarity and/or competition between medical and non-medical representations of madness, including those formulated by people suffering from psychiatric disorders and their families and friends.
The issue thus highlights the intersection of various “dispositifs” (medical, judicial, religious or ritual), bodies of knowledge and spaces dealing with madness, in order to capture the complexity of life trajectories. By critically analysing the forms of intimacy established with the respondents, we ultimately examine how methodological reflexivity contributes to renewing the epistemological basis for the study of madness in Africa.

Gina Aïtmehdi, Camille Evrard, Raphaël Gallien and Paul Marquis Introduction. Traces of Madness: African Sources and Terrains (20th–21st Century) 

Yannis Boudina Ordinary Trouble: Reflexive Ethnography of a Form of Madness in a Salafist context (Tizi-Ouzou, Algeria) Distúrbios no ordinário: etnografia reflexiva de uma forma de loucura em contexto salafista (Tizi-Ouzou, Argélia)

Paul Marquis A Hospital Journal. Reforming Psychiatry in Colonial Algeria during Wartime (1953–1959) 

Cecilia Draicchio What’s in a Refusal? Methodological and Ethical Notes from an Ethnography of Mental Health Care in Rural Ghana 

Cordille-Verdia Babongui-Mba Doing Research while Being Scared to the Bone: Reflexively Looking back on a Field Study on Madness in Gabon. Investigar com um frio na barriga. Retorno reflexivo de uma pesquisa de campo sobre a loucura no Gabão

Romain Tiquet On the Paths of Jean-Louis Renauld: Private Archives as a Way into the History of a Post-Colonial Psychiatric Unit (Bobo-Dioulasso, Upper Volta, 1972–1974) Nos ‘rastos’ de Jean-Louis Renauld : arquivos privados para abordar a história de uma unidade psiquiátrica após a independência (Bobo-Dioulasso, Alto Volta, 1972-1974)

Silvia Falconieri Writing the Legal History of Madness in French Africa (End of the 19th Century–1960): Sources and Cross-analysis using Digital Tools. Escrever a história jurídica da loucura na África francesa (fins do século xix-1960)  : Fontes e análise cruzada com a ajuda de instrumentos digitais