Contribution to the bureaucratico-lineagery systems in Africa : The case of Congo : the administration of the managers in the state entreprises

Abstract

African countries are faced with two contradictory logics : the logic of lineage and the logic of bureaucraty. The former comes under the traditional lineage system, that of magicoreligious beliefs that of chiefhoods. It is based on compulsory mutual aid, solidarity and reciprocity, and on a hierarchy of predilection between family lines, lineages and clans. Within the frame of the "nationste" that the government is striving to build, that solidarity extends down to the ethnic group, even the area (north, south, etc...) and it becames an oppositional solidarity, it turns into an antagonism and struggles. This phenomenon usually refered to as "tribalism", we prefer to call it ethno-lineagery phenomenon. It can be found in black Africa as well in the Maghreb area. The bureaucratic logic or rather "rationality" is characterized by impersonality, impartiality, of written information in the intrabureautic communication, centralization and the organization into a hierarchy... That logic officialy valorized and perfected, remains influenced, in its application by the first logic, the articulation between the two logics is the bureaucratico-(ethno) lineagery system : the B.E.L.S. The cultural socio-economic and politic under-development, and its administration by the ruling class explain the persistence, the revalorization or the activation of the phenomenon. We can observe the B.E.L.S. in Congo at three levels : -The zonal composition of regimes from 1957 to 1984 (from Yulu to Sassou) -The passage from the school (instrument of social reproduction) to the entreprises -The ethnic and zonal proportion of the boad of directors and management posts.