Mimer le peuple: African leaders mimic the people for legitimacy

Patrick Belinga Ondua and Freddy Ndi analyze the political practice of 'miming the people' in African contexts, where leaders adopt the signs, affects, and languages of the populace to consolidate authority while keeping them from real decision-making. This technique, rooted in post-independence regimes, uses performances—gestures, clothing, music, cultural references—to create symbolic legitimacy without institutionalizing popular participation. The researchers presented their work at the 9th Rencontres des Études Africaines, held from June 29 to July 2, 2026, at Campus Condorcet in Aubervilliers, near Paris. They argue that miming the people symbolically repairs past violence without transforming power relations, fabricating an imaginary continuity between anticolonial struggles and current regimes. The contemporary challenge, they assert, is not to better imitate the people but to truly recognize their existence in institutions, decisions, and conflict resolution—in short, in the existence of democracy.