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For some fifteen years, the debate relating to civil society and its functions has accompanied the crisis in post-colonial African societies and the reshaping of international development policies. Historical hindsight allows us to highlight a vast debate, of a theoretical nature, on the nature of civil society and the organizations that claim to belong to it. It also casts light on the de facto proliferation of organizations supposed to constitute civil society and that are probably part of an unprecedented reshaping of social and political relations in these former colonies. This paper reviews the concept of civil society, its dimensions, and debates relating to African contexts.