This paper addresses the emergence of political parties in a small town of French Guyana, St-Laurent du Maroni, in the 1970 and 1980’s. Based on ethnographical data (interviews and ethnographical uses of archives), it considers how local social networks shaped the institutionalization of parties. Indeed we’ll see how this process of institutionalization interferes with creol sociability and traditional popular networks (the carnaval, familial relations and friendship, catholic networks and sport activities specially football). We’ll focus on electoral mobilizations during two very competitive pulls (1977 and 1983) to demonstrate how networks of creol popular relations structure the local political competition. Studying these campaigns in the concrete activities of solicitation of votes (canvassing, meetings, local comities of solidarity) as well as in the selection of candidates in the two camps, we’ll see that political activities are embedded in social informal relations.
