International audienceThis article links Fanny Colonna’s latest work to a sociological discussion highlighting the issue of the role of attachment – both in the main areas of life in society and in the emotional structure of one’s personal life. It questions the phenomenological dimension of attachment and the position of the researcher who must give an account of it. It examines the complex characteristics of the permanence of the self and the bonds between friends and family, navigating through a world fractured by the changing configurations of the colonial era and the fragmented history of post-colonial times. It concludes by focusing on a historical anthropology that closely examines everyday reorientations and the evolution of some of...