Revue d'histoire contemporaine de l'Afrique

Double special issue edited by Françoise Blum (CHS, Paris), Ophélie Rillon (Imaf, Paris) and Elena Vezzadini (Imaf, Paris).

Editorial coordination within RHCA by Anaïs Angelo and Romain Tiquet.

This double issue of the Revue d'histoire contemporaine de l'Afrique looks at ordinary trade unionism in twentieth-century Africa. It calls for documenting routine life in trade union organisations—beyond the paroxysmal moments of struggle—for questioning the power relations that shape organisations and international cooperation internally, and for analysing the way in which trade union memories and legacies are passed on (or not) as history unfolds. By focusing on social relations in the world of work and ordinary activism, the aim is to reflect on the possibilities and constraints when writing trade union history, with a twofold ambition: to write a history of everyday trade unionism that is attentive to social gender, race, class and generation relations; and to write a transnational history of trade union solidarity across imperial borders.

Cover photograph: Photographic collection of the SNEA-B.