摘要：Borders in Africa unfold in diverse appearances besides their being markers of national identity. Added to their being important realms of migration flows, cross-border areas are nests of growing multifaceted insecurity problems among which organized transnational crime is the most topical. While States paradoxically hang on to criticized regional intergovernmentalism, local public authorities, though not necessarily autonomous, engage in local initiatives or modes of "borderland governmentalities". In the borderlands of Senegal, Guinea Bissau and The Gambia, preceding research reveals how borders appear as spheres of material and symbolic stakes (Tandia 2007, Sindjoun 2002). A sort of "homeland nationalism" stems from identity narratives of the borderlands, a "localism" that yields a "local system of governance" between cross-border State and non-State agents and services in order to supplement the countryside from inter-State anomic diplomacy. Among other questions, we ask to what extent and how local representation of identities and territories produce new meaning/s or perceptions of borders. To what extent and how production of border meaning/s springs from (is linked to, produces and is produced by) cross-border governance. Theoretical analysis of the literature will be leveled with empirical accounts of cross-border governance and community building, through qualitative empirical data (interviews, focus groups and life stories) processed in a socio-anthropological perspective
