The huge parastatal sectors in postcolonial African societies interested sociologists in the 1970s and 1980s, but have never found a historical discussion – and the experience of change towards the democratization (eventually) has not yet been interpreted by historians. This study attempts to bring both elements together for the case of Benin, a country particularly shaken by massive economic decline, lay-offs and unemployment in the second half of the 1980s. It relies on an unusual and spectacular source, a series of petitions sent by workers and workers’ delegates to the presidential office of Mathieu Kérékou in 1989/90 (the presidential office partly added to these petitions whole dossiers of comments and correspondence with other authorities, i.e. ministerial directorates and the police). This analysis highlights how parastatal workers and their spokesmen tried to communicate about economic and social disaster with the authorities, how they protested and attempted to make claims about social norms and justice, and how they attacked “corruption”. I would hold that the cases studied cannot stand for a model of experiences, but they nevertheless represent a number of elements of a social history of decline: as well as protests and arguments, and views on the practice of petitioning, the discussion will also highlight individual trajectories that nevertheless exemplify, in my view, representative experiences and a history of daily life in Benin's parastatal sector. The interpretation also attempts to show how imminent democratization, through the creation of a National Conference in early 1990, changed the strategies and the context of workers’ protest. It includes a number of exemplary, and quite spectacular, cases of mismanagement and closing of parastatal companies, such as the Société Sucrière de Savè and SONICOG. I would think that the approach is unique so far for both Beninese and West African history.

后殖民时期非洲社会中庞大的准国家部门在1970年代和1980年代引起了社会学家的兴趣，但从未找到历史性的讨论-朝着民主化的转变（最终）的经验尚未得到历史学家的解释。这项研究试图将贝宁的这两个因素结合在一起，贝宁这个国家在1980年代下半年受到大规模的经济衰退，裁员和失业而特别震惊。它依赖于一个不寻常且引人入胜的消息来源，工人和工人代表在1989/90年度向MathieuKérékou总统办公室发送的一系列请愿书（总统办公室部分向这些请愿书添加了全部意见和与其他当局的往来信函，即部长级首长和警察）。该分析突出了准半官方工人及其发言人如何与当局就经济和社会灾难进行沟通，他们如何抗议并试图对社会规范和正义提出主张，以及他们如何攻击“腐败”。我认为所研究的案例不能代表经验的典范，但它们代表了社会衰落历史的许多要素：以及抗议和争论以及对信访实践的看法，讨论还将突出在我看来，贝宁的半身人的个人轨迹仍然代表着典型的经历和日常生活的历史。该解释还试图通过1990年初召开的全国代表大会来说明即将实现的民主化，改变了工人抗议的策略和背景。它包括许多管理不善和关闭准国有公司（例如，SociétéSucrièredeSavè和SONICOG）的管理不善和倒闭的案例。我认为到目前为止，这种方法对于贝宁和西非历史都是独一无二的。