The Keita Project: an Anthropological Study of International Development Discourses and Practices in Niger
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THE KEITA PROJECT: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT DISCOURSES AND PRACTICES IN NIGER Benedetta Rossi Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Social Anthropology London School of Economics and Political Science University of London 2002 1 UMI Number: U171920 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U171920 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 0 * U 6 'c y r o f POLITICAL b m M F Sos'i 92. ABSTRACT This thesis is an ethnography of an Integrated Rural Development Project which began its activities in 1984 and is aimed at ‘fighting against desertification’ in the Ader Doutchi Majiya Region of Niger. The Project is financed by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and, until 2000, was implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations. The thesis aims at contributing to our understanding of ‘development’: how it works; what configurations of power and forms of agency it produces; and how it is perceived by different categories of actors involved in it, including planners, project staff, and the men and women living in the ‘intervention area’. The thesis contains nine chapters. Chapter one introduces the thesis’ aim, theoretical import and methodological approaches. Chapters two and three provide an introduction to the historical and socio-economic context of the Ader Doutchi Majiya. Chapter four unravels the discourses of development which made the Project and its strategies possible in the early 1980s. Chapter five looks at the concepts and practices of development of project staff, and Chapter six focuses on local people’s perceptions and patterns of agency in relation to the Keita Project. Chapters seven and eight compare the discourses and practices of planners, project staff, and local people, with reference to two axes of project ‘intervention’: gender (Chapter seven) and participation (Chapter eight). Chapter nine concludes the thesis. The thesis contributes to theory in the anthropology of development, bringing together actor-oriented and structural explanations into one analytical framework and arguing that there are limits to the productive pursuit of either on its own. It contributes to anthropological studies of change in West African societies; and it adds new insights to the ‘ethnography of aid’, making available some ‘lessons learned’ from the Keita Project to a potentially interdisciplinary audience. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS A cknowledgements ......................................................................................................................7 A bbreviations and a c r o n y m s ..................................................................................................9 C om m ents on the t e x t ............................................................................................................... 10 1. INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................11 1.1 Th e K eita P r o jec t ..................................................................................................................12 1.2 P roblematising the O bject of St u d y .......................................................................... 15 1.3 Iden tifying A n alytica l Fra m ew o r k s : A c to r -o rien ted a nd Stru ctu ral - discursiv e A pproa ches R econsidered ................................................................................20 1.4 R elations betw een D iscourse a nd H ier a r c h y : In teg ra tin g A cto r - oriented and Stru ctu ral -d iscursive P erspectives ............................................. 27 1.5 Reconceptualising the O bject of Stu d y : D ista nce a nd D istanciation in D ev elo pm en t ...................................................................................................................................32 1.6 M eth o do lo gy a nd F ieldw o rk O rganisation .......................................................... 42 1.7 T h esis O rganisation ........................................................................................................... 47 2. HISTORICAL REVIEW OF THE ADER DOUTCHI MAJIYA........................49 2.1. Introduction ..........................................................................................................................49 2.2 From the E arly m igrations to K a n t a ’s Su prem a cy (X I - X V II C entu ries ) ...............................................................................................................................................................52 2.3 T he Istam bu law a in the A D M (X V III C entury ) .....................................................56 2.4 T h e Sokoto J ihad of U sm an dan F odyo U n til the Z a m a n i (X IX C entury )59 2.5 T h e A D M D uring French C o l o n ia l is m ...................................................................... 63 2.6 Th e A D M in In d epen d en t N iger as a Site ‘of C om m o n P roblem s and C o m m on D evelopm en t Possibilities ’ .................................................................................. 70 2.7 C o n c l u sio n ...............................................................................................................................75 3. CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONTEXT...........................76 3.1 Introduction ...........................................................................................................................76 3.2 So cial O rganisation in the A D M B efore C o lo n ia l ism ......................................79 3.3 C ontemporary L ivelihood Pa t t e r n s .......................................................................... 84 3.4 E colo gica l V ulnerability , M a le M ig ratio n a nd th e R elev a n c e of P ro ject A ctivities for L oca l L ivelihoods and the Sex u a l D ivision of L a bo u r ............................................................................................................................................... 89 3.5 T he H ousehold and F ood P ro d u ctio n , Transformation , and C onsu m ption P a t t e r n s ...........................................................................................................................................95 3.6 W o m en 's L ives a nd the Sexual D ivision of La b o u r ............................................. 97 3.7 C o n c l u sio n .............................................................................................................................100 4. ‘FIGHTING AGAINST DESERTIFICATION IN THE SAHEL’: UNRAVELLING THE MACRO NARRATIVE AND RELATED REGIMES OF PRACTICES................................................................................................................102 4.1 Introduction .........................................................................................................................102 4.2 Setting the Sc e n e ............................................................................................................... 103 4.3 ‘D esertification’ in the Sahel and the Establishm ent of A d H o c Institutions ...................................................................................................................................106 4.4 T he ‘D esertification ’ N a r r a t iv e ............................................................................... 108 4.5 T h e Initiativ e of Italian C o operatio n in the Sa h el (1 9 8 4 ).............................110 4.6 Italia n Integ ra ted R u ral D evelopm en t P rojects in the Sa h e l .................. 113 4.7 ‘D esertification ’ in N ig e r ’s D evelopm en t So c ie t y ........................................... 117 3 4.8 T he PD R /A D M O rig ina l P roject D o c u m e n t ..........................................................119 4.9 C o n c l u sio n .............................................................................................................................122 5. THE PROJECT ........................................................................................................................... 125 5.1 Introduction .........................................................................................................................125 5.2 P roject M a n a g e m e n t ........................................................................................................ 127 5.2.1 Carotti, the sarkin aiki .....................................................................................128 5.2.2 Oumarou, the Coordinateur National .............................................................134 5.3 T he D ivisions a n d the P erso n n el : D iscourses of D ev elo pm en t am ong the PD R/A D M S t a f f .......................................................................................................................... 138 5.3.1 Niger is an underdeveloped country ’: the project staffs view o f the desertification narrative and o f Niger’s