“YOU WHO HAVE BEEN TO SCHOOL, WHAT HAVE YOU BECOME?”: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF UNIVERSITY LIFE IN BENIN By Marcy Hessling O’Neil A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Anthropology 2012 ABSTRACT “YOU WHO HAVE BEEN TO SCHOOL, WHAT HAVE YOU BECOME?”: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF UNIVERSITY LIFE IN BENIN By Marcy Hessling O’Neil This dissertation examines the relationship between higher education and social mobility among students and their families in Benin, West Africa. In this study I draw on ethnographic research conducted at the public University of Abomey-Calavi in Cotonou, Benin in 2010. I utilize interviews, historical documents, and participant observation to analyze the shifting relationships that students have with their families. In 1990 Benin had one of the lowest rates of enrollment at all levels – primary, secondary, and tertiary – in sub-Saharan Africa. Twenty years later, after numerous awareness campaigns and education policy adjustments, Benin’s educational system is overflowing with students. Among sub-Saharan African countries Benin is projected to have the second highest number of university students per 100,000 inhabitants by the year 2015. The rapid increase in student enrollments has been accompanied by efforts to build up the infrastructure within the education system, partially funded through international aid. Donors have played a significant role in shaping Benin’s education reform, in part because access to funding is often tied to Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers that must be approved by the World Bank. In this dissertation I ask: How does the process of “becoming something” affect the students’ relationships with their families, many of whom have very little formal education? How do their experiences shed light on the effects of global initiatives designed to increase access to education as part of a larger strategy of poverty reduction? Using Bourdieu’s theories of habitus and cultural capital, I analyze the shifting relationships that students have with their family members. University students enjoy positions of status within their families, and express aspirations for upward mobility as adults. This growing segment of society, and their families and communities, have been told that education will enable them to go forward and “become something.” Yet such upward mobility is not necessarily transferred to all members of the extended family, leading to jealousy and resentment. In this dissertation I aim to present an alternative narrative to the dominant discourses on the benefits of education found throughout reports issued by the World Bank, UNICEF, USAID and other agencies, as well as to allow the reader insight into the lived experience of being a university student in Benin during a period of fantastic growth. I examine the excitement, ambiguity, and uncertainty that come with being a university student in Benin. My findings suggest that there is a disjuncture between the elite aspirations of the students, including social status, upward mobility, and ability to reciprocate with their extended families, and their perceptions of possible success upon graduation. Particularly among students with lower socioeconomic backgrounds, education as a means of “becoming something” is an empty promise. This study contributes to literature on higher education policy in contemporary Africa, as well as the expanding body of scholarship examining higher education and social inequality. Copyright by MARCY HESSLING O’NEIL 2012 To Stu v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are so many people who have helped me along the way that I am sure to omit at least a few. To those individuals, I apologize in advance. E ma bínú. First and foremost, thank you to the students at UAC for their participation in this research, and for putting up with my visits and questions for months on end. I would also like to thank Bienvenu and Annie Azehoungbo and their extended families who took me in and made me feel welcome beginning with my first trip to Benin in 2005. This dissertation would not be as rich without them. Thank you to my research associates Natacha Hounmavo and Sandy Chikou for your assistance while I was in Benin, and help with fact-checking once I returned to the States. Merci beaucoup to Fidel Alladaye and Sourou Whannou for all of your help over the years, and for the hundreds of kilometers that you put on your motos driving me around. To Tata Katrine, e she púpò for being a motherly figure for me in Cotonou and taking care of me while I was there. I would also like to thank the academic community in Benin; Dr. Bienvenu Akoha, Dr. Paulin Hountondji, and Dr. Leonard Wantchekon and the administration at CE.BE.LA.E. and IREEP who provided me access to facilities and invited me to various events over the years. I would like to thank my committee members at Michigan State University, Dr. Mara Leichtman, Dr. Anne Ferguson, Dr. Andrea Louie and Dr. Nwando Achebe for pushing me to become a better academic than I ever thought possible. I am also endebted to my outside committee members, Dr. Doug Falen from Agnes Scott College and Dr. Guerin Montilus from Wayne State University. Your guidance and support has allowed me to write a dissertation that I believe in, thank you. For financial support during the course of my graduate studies at MSU I would like to vi thank the African Studies Center, the Department of Anthropology, and the Graduate School. Thank you to the Fulbright IIE for funding my dissertation fieldwork. A big thank you goes out to Joseph Baynesan and the McNair Scholars Program at Wayne State University. Your faith in me as an undergraduate was instrumental in my ability to complete my graduate studies. Thank you so very much. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends who have supported me through this journey. Leah Ewing Ross was an amazing editor whose comments taught me how to be a better writer. To everyone at Team Detroit, thank you for allowing me to be a squatter in your office space and for providing “the ambiance that is proper for a student” as I wrote this dissertation. Kelly, thank you for listening to me read chapter drafts, and subjecting yourself to my presentation rehearsals. Thank you to my fellow students at MSU - Kate Patch, Nicole Truesdell, Fredy Rodriguez Mejia, Amanda Abramson, and Cris Chapman – for your friendship and comraderie. To Iole, thank you for not telling me I was crazy to leave the advertising world and go to school full-time. To Mollie and the dissertation boot camp crew in North Carolina, thank you for giving me a space where I could think, theorize, and scribble every month. To Nikki and Raine, thank you for setting aside study time at Panera or the library to read chapter drafts. Thank you to my mom for letting me know you love me, with or without the PhD. To Aidan and Ava, we now have to come up with a replacement for “Jinx, you’ve gotta write my dissertation.” Finally, the biggest thank you goes out to my husband, Stu, without whom I would have given up on this a long time ago. Your support, encouragement, love, and patience were essential. Je t’aime. vii Table of Contents List of Tables ............................................................................................................................. x List of Figures ........................................................................................................................... xi List of Key Abbreviations ....................................................................................................... xii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1 Significance and Purpose of the Study .......................................................................... 7 Engaging with the Literature ....................................................................................... 12 Methodology ................................................................................................................ 21 Fieldwork Challenges and Positionality ...................................................................... 34 Organization of the Dissertation .................................................................................. 38 CHAPTER TWO: HISTORY AND POLITICAL ECONOMY OF EDUCATION IN BENIN .......................... 40 Dahomean Empire ....................................................................................................... 44 Missionaries, Colonialism, and Education .................................................................. 46 Official Colonial Policy, Formal Education and Status .............................................. 48 Independent Dahomey and Marxist Period ................................................................. 54 Democratic Renewal and Outside Interventions ......................................................... 58 CHAPTER THREE: CULTURAL CAPITAL, RECIPROCITY AND SORCELLERIE ....... 67 Part One – Inherited, Embodied, and Acquired Cultural Capital ................................ 67 Case Study: Fabrice ......................................................................................... 71 Case Study: Geneviève .................................................................................... 77 Education as a Means of Inclusion and Exclusion .......................................... 84 Part Two – Reciprocity and la Sorcellerie .................................................................