
Welcome to the research portfolio of the ERC StG project MaDAf “A History of Madness in West Africa: Governing Mental Disorder during Décolonisation (1940s-1970s)” (2021-2025).
MaDAf traces the history of madness in West Africa during the period of decolonization and after independence. The project focuses on three main areas related to the history of Africa, decolonization, and the history of madness. By examining the decolonization and post-independence periods, the project aims first to emphasize the ruptures but also the continuities in the everyday governing of madness. Read more
Upcoming ERC events

March 16, 3:30pm-5pm – Madaf team :
Zoom meeting “Considering vulnerability in mental health research” 16 March 4-6:00 pm
Write to us for the connection link.
March 22, 3pm-5pm – Camille Evrard : Seminar De Tanger à Cape Town. Parcours de recherche, terrains, écritures, “Du legs militaire colonial à la folie des soldats (Sahel, 1950-1980). Formats d’histoire, embûches, échecs ?”, Seminar “De Tanger à Cape Town. Parcours de recherche, terrains, écritures”, LPED, CNE, IMAf, Marseille.
March 21 – Paul Marquis : “La folie entre deux rives. Le rapatriement des patients européens d’Algérie vers les hôpitaux psychiatriques métropolitains (1962-1963)”, Meeting entitled : Les transferts de patients psychiatriques, Le Mans.
May 31 – June 3,
ECAS Panel : « Questionning the trauma. Mental disorder among African fighters (20th-21st centuries) ». Organisation : Camille Evrard & Paul Marquis, Cologne, Germany
April 13 – Romain Tiquet, « Rentrer par effraction ? Reflexions méthodologiques et éthiques sur l’analyse des dossiers de patients de la clinique psychiatrique Moussa Diop (Dakar – Sénégal, Années 1960) », Cycle of conferences « Penser par les marges », IRMC, Tunis, Tunisia
April 13-14 – Paul Marquis, « La formation, la doctrine et l’action. L’Ecole d’Alger, un réseau psychiatrique en contexte colonial (années 1920 – années 1960) », Meeting entitled : Faire l’histoire des réseaux du soin: acteurs, espaces et pratiques de l’Antiquité à nos jours, campus Condorcet, Aubervilliers, Paris.
Latest news from the MaDAf team


[New Publication] “I’m sicking tired of starving ». From colonial ambition to mental collapse. When colonial settlers go mad, Madagascar, 1912-1939“, in Revue d’Histoire Contemporaine de l’Afrique, by Raphaël Gallien (MaDAf team).


[New Publication] Gestion policière et enfermement non pénal : la mise à distances des “fous dangereux” dans le Sénégal colonial.
A publication by Romain Tiquet about the link between madness and police repression In Clio@Themis [En ligne], 23 | 2022.


Call for papers – ECAS 2023, Cologne
“Questioning the trauma. Mental disorders among African fighters (20th – 21st centuries)”, a panel proposed by Paul Marquis and Camille Evrard (MaDAf team)


A call for papers for an upcoming issue on the “sources of madness” coordinated by the MaDAf team.


[New Publication] “Living in danger of abandonment: Adama’s everyday life with chronic mental illness in Niamey“, in Anthropologie & Santé, by Gina Aït Mehdi (MaDAf team).
The Madaf team was at the REAF in Toulouse, with a discussion about madness and its institutions. A panel organized by Raphaël Gallien, with Gina Aït Medhi, Olivia Legrip-Randriambelo, Romain Tiquet
[Read more]
Geography of the project