Kelma Manatouma is MIASA junior fellow and lecturer at the University of the Antilles (Guadeloupe). He completed his PhD in Political Sciences at the University of Paris-Ouest la Défense-Nanterre. Previously, he was member of the research programme on “The Bureaucratization of African Societies”, run by the German Historical Institute Paris and CREPOS in Dakar. He is a specialist in the trans-border region of Chad and the Central African Republic as well as in identification and biometric politics.
MIASA Project: Dynamics of the recomposition of national and transnational identities in the Central African crisis in Chad
This research project consists of analysing the political and social dynamics of the recomposition of national and transnational identities of the ‘returnees’ from the Central African crisis in Chad. The aim is to analyse the political and humanitarian dynamics of the mechanism for combating statelessness among ‘returnees’ in southern Chad. I then intend to study these different dynamics in the light of the reconfiguration of the role of the state in the management of this social and humanitarian crisis. The study will place particular emphasis on the historical overview of the Central African crisis and its ramifications in Chad. This will help to understand the historical, political and social links between the two countries. I also pay particular attention to the problem of the politicisation of identities in the context of war.
Selected publications
Kelma Manatouma, « Identification and the formation of the Chadian State. Historical perspectives on identity papers », Revue Francia, 2021.
Kelma Manatouma, « Testimonies and Social Markers in the Age of Biometrics. The Work of the Identity Control and Verification Commission in Chad”, In: Séverine Awenengo Dalberto & Richard Banégas, Identification and Citizenship in Africa Biometrics, the Documentary State and Bureaucratic Writings of the Self, Routledge, Cambridge, 2021.
