Blank Pali Page

Chapter 2 Until the 19th century, the territory of the original Phongsaly district formed a buffer zone between three Tai principalities: Sipsong Panna (now a district of Southern International agencies vs. national policies in the development of rural societies: Yunnan) and the Sipsong Chaû Taï (now subsumed into Northern Vietnam), and the kingdom of Luang Prabang (today a province of Laos). The word ‘Tai’ here refers to Phongsaly, Laos, from 1850 to present populations speaking a language of the Tai-Kadai family, and sharing some cultural features due to long historical adjacency and common origins or common patterns of Vanina Bouté & Steeve Daviau migration (encompassing the Lao, Shan, Lanna, Lü, and others). However, while Phongsaly as a political entity was defined by its relations to Tai states, this subregion had historically been populated by Tibeto-Burmese groups practising shifting cultivation. 1. A Diachronic Approach to Ethnicity and Development In the second half of the 19th century, because of repeated incursions by ethnic Ho Phongsaly district is located in the province that bears the same name, at the north- raiders, the king of Luang Prabang decided to reinforce control over his frontiers. ernmost edge of Laos. The district is largely mountainous; deep valleys are set between Since the Ho invasions crossed through Phongsaly, the king offered some prerogative mountain ranges averaging 1,200 to 1,900 meters in height, bordered on the west by a over the land in order to conciliate the indigenous population to fighting on behalf of furrow of lowlands (populated by the Lü people, speakers of a Tai language), and bor- the crown and to fix them on the territory. This territorialization process -- directly dered on the east by mountain ranges marking the Lao-Vietnamese border. linked to royal fiat -- federated into a single entity several different groups located upon a common territory (the original Phongsaly district) called Phu-noy. In Lao, this name literally means, “the small people”. This new group (constituted of Tibeto- During the last century, first Luang Prabang royalty, then the French colonial ad- Burmese peoples) structured itself around the prerogative for border control, and the ministration, and finally the Pathet Lao, have guided socio-economic development in society formed thereby had social hierarchies based on the Tai muang model (Bouté, the sub-region. Their actions, as we will see, have utterly re-shaped the circumstances 2005). the local population live with. The fact that certain populations were touched by royal power, in the early period, imparted to them a hierarchically organised system, prede- th termining their relations with the colonial administration thereafter. Subsequently, When the French arrived in what they would dub the 5 territory of Indochina (cor- there were sweeping changes, as the Communist government sought to destroy the responding to what is now Phongsaly province), they looked to the Phunoy population marks of the Old Regime. More recently still, after the Communist embrace of the to recruit their gardes indigènes. The supra-village level organisation and hierarchy of free-market economy, a further wave of French influence arrived, after the invitation of the Phunoy resembled their own conception of authority. The French reorganised the international development assistance in the 1990s, bringing about profound and wide- territory into tasseng administrative units, re-affirming Phunoy dignitaries in their spread changes. functions, with largely the same distinction they had enjoyed under the king. The analysis below is based on research conducted in Phongsaly province by Under French rule, Phunoy were exempt from taxes and corvées, and their enno- Vanina Bouté from 1999 to present, and draws upon the results of a socio-economic bled chiefs were put directly in charge of collecting tax from other ethnic groups. It was in the heart of this mountainous territory that in 1921 the French colonial admini- appraisal carried out by Steeve Daviau and Vanina Bouté in 2005. The latter appraisal th was part of a of study forest cover in Phongsaly district, commissioned by the devel- stration established the headquarters of their 5 military territory; this would later be- opment agency active in the region (discussed below) and financed by the French De- come the provincial capital of Phongsaly. This process of geopolitical reorganization velopment Agency (AFD). The Study was conducted between 2005 and 2006 by seems to have involved only the Phunoy; the other ethnic groups found in the area members of the University of Québec in Montréal and by the Laboratoire Asie du Sud- (e.g., the Akha) were of no interest to the colonial administration at all. This is testified Est et Monde Austronésien (CNRS, France). The Study had three aspects: a cartogra- to by the lack of documentation on other groups provided by colonial sources, apart phy of the forest cover (team leader: Y. Roche), a botanical study (team leader: Mme from Captain Roux’s monograph in 1924. Bouakaykone) and socio-economic studies (team leaders: M. Mellac & J. Michaud). Our enquiries were part of this third aspect. Although the colonial administration set up military posts and created a horse track from the new headquarters and other posts located in the lowlands, it displayed little interest in agrarian and market development in the area. The only evidence of French 1.1 Territorial Reorganization Under Two Regimes investments in those sectors were some orchards (fruit plantations) in a few Phunoy villages and an attempt to build terraced paddy fields by some families in a few loca- tions (see below). The 5th military territory was considered “the poor child of Laos” sugar cane project was abandoned three years later because of repeated problems (Aymé, 1930: 131), and the lack of investment in the development of the area was ei- commercializing the crop. Paradoxically, due to their isolation, other highland minori- ther the cause or the consequence of this perception. ties, such as the Akha and Ho, were spared from such relocation projects. 1.2 Minorities under Communism: a Motor or Constraint to Development? 1.3 The District’s First (post-colonial) French Development Project In 1954, following the Geneva agreements, Phongsaly province fell under the authority of the fighting unit of the Pathet Lao. Among the reasons given by the revolu- It is in this context that the Projet de Développement du District de Phongsaly tionaries for the overthrow of the (non-Communist) government in Vientiane, was the (PDDP, Development Project of Phongsaly District) was started in 1996. Its existence domination of the ethnic minorities by the Tai population (especially by the lowland resulted from the Lao government’s specific request, stated in 1993, that the Caisse Lao). Communism promised the establishment of a strict equality for one and all. Française de Développement (CFD – the former name of the Agence Française pour le Développement, AFD) assist in the rural development of Phongsaly province for the The communist authorities sent households from ethnic minority backgrounds to purpose of reducing shifting cultivation. (Gentil, 1999) the lowlands both in order to increase rice production and in order to start integrating ethnic minorities into the task of “national construction”. This operation obtained the At this time there were 88 villages in Phongsaly district populated by various ethnic local Party members’ and high ranking civil servants’ blessings. From their point of groups. Two Tibetan-Burmese groups made up the majority: the Phunoy were located view, resettlement in the lowlands would allow highlanders to become paddy rice in the south-west quarter of the district (40 villages) and the Akha were concentrated in farmers, effectively a promotion from being shifting cultivators (perceived as low- the northern part (16 villages). A few Ho, Hmong and Laoseng villages were also scat- status by the Tai populations) into a position of relative prestige and increased social tered over the district’s territory. Despite having different systems of production and status. land management, most of the groups practised shifting cultivation. The district was at that time extremely isolated, with no reliable road network. The main access was by Hence in 1968, some 200 Phunoy households from 18 villages were involved in boat on the Nam Ou River, crossing the district on a North-South axis, reaching Luang planned resettlement (Jouanneau & Laffort, 1998: 121). Despite the fact that other Prabang province downstream. highland people had joined the ranks of the Pathet Lao in the area (e.g., Khmu & Hmong), only Phunoy were chosen for this operation of settling in the lowlands. Evi- dently, Phunoy civil servants wanted their own people, exclusively, to benefit from what they considered an economic opportunity. But this period ended with the Communists coming to power at the national level in 1975 and the establishment of the Lao PDR. The project of remaking the country to ease centralized administration and the desire to develop a modern socialist economy resulted in the stigmatization of ethnic minorities. There were prevalent perceptions of them as potentially dangerous and hard to control: as illegal loggers destroying the forests, illicit-drug producers, and, as farmers, they were deemed to be practising an environmentally hazardous and archaic system of production. From being spearheads of the revolutionary movement, the highlanders came to be seen as constraining the development of the nation. (Goudineau, 1997) Population displacements were intended as a general remedy, to reorient the farm- ing methods and other economic activities of indigenous peoples and also to better control them. In Phongsaly district, Phunoy villages were directly affected by the lat- est changes in policy. This was in part because they were the most accessible from the headquarters: between 1994 and 1996, many of them were resettled along the road between Boun Neua and Phongsaly, with the objective of cultivating sugar cane.

Load more