Mirjam de Bruijn

Insecurity and pastoral development in the Sahel.

In this article it is argued that conventional agro-ecological and organizational concepts used in pastoral development are strongly biased towards the formulation and enforcement of norms. This leads development experts to attempts to control pastoralists and their herds. The policies and development interventions based on these assumptions have been largely unsuccessful. As a consequence attention for dryland areas and pastoral development has declined among researchers and development agencies. An important reason for this failure is the fundamental misfit between these normative concepts and the reality of dryland ecosystems and pastoral society. In order to show this, an alternative view on rangeland ecology and pastoral society is presented, supported by a case study of Fulbe pastoral society in dryland Central Mali. The authors argue that approaches to pastoral development must be revised in the direction of the dynamics inherent in the pastoral way of life.

Ecology and power in the periphery of Maasina : the case of the Hayre in the nineteenth century

This article explores political tensions between successive 19th-century rulers of the inland delta of the Niger in central Mali - the Fulbe Diina (1818-1864) and the Futanke (1864-1893) - and the pastoral interests of the Fulbe chiefdoms on the eastern periphery of the area, a region known as the Hayre. Dalla was the main authority of the Fulbe in the Hayre, which in the second half of the century was divided into two Fulbe chiefdoms: Booni and Dalla. The Diina, or Maasina State developed a strict political and economic organization, including a set of rules regarding natural resource management. By contrast, the Futanke introduced chaos into the area as it lacked a strict organization, a legitimate power base and a network of power relations. Analysis of the changing forms of local governance and natural resource management in the Hayre demonstrates that although different strategies were employed by the Fulbe and Futanke States to control the area, the internal dynamics of the Hayre can only partly be explained by the influence of these central powers. In each period, the pendulum swung between external control and the internal dynamics of the Hayre, and the area was never an integral part of an undivided empire. Notes, ref., sum

Facing Dilemmas: Former Fulbe Slaves in Modern Mali

ResumeCet article illustre d’une part, la maniere dont les hierarchies Fulbe traditionnelles au centre du Mali ont clairement defini les relations de dependance sociale, d’autre part leur role important dans la politique locale. Les anciens esclaves, les Riimaybe, luttent pour trouver une nouvelle place dans la societe, en essayant de reconcilier passe et present. Les recits historiques de trois groupes differents de Riimaybe dans des colonies differentes sont ici relates. Apres quatre decennies d’independance, et a une periode ou la conscience des droits de la personne et la democratisation se sont accrues, comment envisagent-ils leur situation? La majorite des Riimaybe doivent faire face a des dilemmes sociaux et materiels lies a l’acces aux agences de developpement, a l’education et a la politique. Leurs remarques sur l’identite sociale refletent la dynamique des negociations en cours a l’interieur des relations hierarchiques actuelles.

Connecting in mobile communities: an African case study

African geographical mobilities should be understood in terms of their increasingly global development over the last two decades, and as an interplay of scales of mobility between continents and be...African geographical mobilities should be understood in terms of their increasingly global development over the last two decades, and as an interplay of scales of mobility between continents and between African regions or nations. The relationship between these various times and scales of mobility shape mobile communities as a daily reality for many Africans. African family histories and personal lives are full of connecting with those who have left. In recent years, these daily practices have been radically altered by improvements in communication technology – with travel, radio messages and letter writing being replaced by mobile telephony as the main connecting technology. This article explores how the development of connecting technology has changed the social dynamics of African mobile communities and focuses on the changes in (old and new) social hierarchies that are related to possibilities of accessing mobility and connecting technologies. It is based on a qualitative case study of a mobile community in Africa, which is part of the Mobile Africa Revisited programme that is investigating the relationship between new ICTs, mobility, marginality and social hierarchies.

Strength beyond Structure

Drawing on a wide range of historical and anthropological case studies from various parts of Africa, this anthology provides an understanding of the importance of agency in processes of social transformation, especially in the context of crisis and structural constraint.

Research practice in connections: travels and methods

In the edited volume Les discourses de voyages, Romuald Fonkoua (1998: 5–10) introduces travel literature, with exploration traveling as the center of social analysis. He refers to the fascination surrounding travel and the relationship between traveling and discovery. This perspective is similar to that of travelers at the turn of the twentieth century who set off to discover the world, to experience things that were unknown and new to them. Fonkoua adds another perspective to the discoverer, namely, the writertraveler (le romancier). It is, in the end, travel itself that forms the basis of the writing by the ethnographer and the novelist. Obviously, as Fonkoua points out, discoveries and travel writing are also constructed by people “in the other world” and in this sense travel is always about interaction. The construction of the world in those days was largely inspired by travel and journeys and we are now taking up this notion of “travel as discovery” and extrapolating it to our own constructions of the world.

The Importancce of Socio-Cultural Differences and of Pathway Analysis for Understanding Local Actors’ Responses

The enormous diversity of responses to the drought conditions in the last thirty years makes it difficult to formulate general conclusions about people’s responses to climate change. It is important to study the pathways of decision-making units at the micro-level and even at individual level and to emphasize the socio-economic differences in changing patterns of responses and the gradual changes in people’s ‘habitus’. To understand the options available to people it is wise to focus on the technological changes in land use, the changes in the control over resources, migration and mobility, the trends of livelihood diversification and institutional change

Citizen Journalism at Crossroads: Mediated Political Agency and Duress in Central Africa

These three examples show the connectivity of young people in Chad since 2010, during which time Facebook was appearing on cheap phones and the Internet became available to more people. As we will see in the different (hi)stories of the young people, individual adoption of technology is narrowly related to the connectivity environment, and it is especially related to the individual’s skills and eagerness to connect. Who are the young men and women who are eager to connect? And what are the circumstances that make this possible?

Introduction Connectivity and the Postglobal Moment: (Dis)connections and Social Change in Africa

This bridge (Figures I.1 and 1.2) inspired me when I (Mirjam) was in Saint-Louis in 2009. It connects Saint-Louis to its colonial past. Louis Faidherbe was the Governor of French West Africa in the nineteenth century and is perceived as one of the “creators” of this relationship. The colonial regime has clearly had an impact on present-day Senegal and, in a way, the bridge represents a connection between the past and the present. The bridge is memory and a memory of the technologies that the French brought. It is a memory of colonial times.

‘Mobile phone communication in the mobile margins of Africa : The `communication revolution' evaluated from below’

By now the mobile phone has become an everyday device on the African continent. Even Africans who do not possess a handset themselves are familiar with its existence and may refer to mobile telephony in their daily conversations. Yet it was only in the 1990s that the first African cities acquired mobile phone connections, and only about ten years later that mobile telephony became possible in many rural areas.