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This study aims to explain a farmer-herder conflict in the inland Niger delta of Mali. We focus on the interests and motivations of the actors involved in the conflict and the rent seeking of the local administration in handling the conflict. Since independence, the customary pastoral leaders (the jowros) have gradually lost power and wealth to the benefit of previously underprivileged farmers (the rimaybe). We argue that this process is mainly the result of national policies and laws giving priority to agricultural development at the expense of pastoralism. The result has been large-scale conversions of dry season pastures to rice fields. This pastoral marginalisation also results in increased land use conflicts between herders and farmers. In addition, rent seeking by local officials is perpetuating land use conflicts in the area. Hence, officials are benefiting from conflicts, while especially pastoralists, but also farmers, are losing out. The droughts of the 1970s and 1980s, leading to a more rapid encroachment of rice fields on pastures, as well as the power vacuum that emerged in the early days of the decentralisation process, further aggravated land disputes. Finally, we use this case study to call for an inclusion of issues of rent seeking and corruption more centrally in political ecology. KEY WORDS: Mali, farmer-herder conflicts, political ecology, rent seeking, corruption

Kalabougou is a village across the Niger River from Segou, Mali The village dates from the time of the Bamana Empire, which thrived in the region from the seventeenth to [...]

This paper explores the influence of women's social networks on child survival through a comparative investigation of two ethnic groups in Mali, West Africa. Data are drawn from a study of women's social networks and health conducted during the period 1996-97. Separate samples of 500 ever-married women aged 15-49 were surveyed at two geographically distinct sites representing Bamanan and Fulbe populations respectively. Consistent with known differences in economic risk, household structure, and cultural norms, descriptive analysis reveals a greater probability of child death among the Fulbe, and a larger mean size of total, material, practical and cognitive networks among the Bamanan. Cox regression models are used to examine the association between social network size, function and composition and the odds of child death (1-5 years). Among the various biological, household and community-level variables tested in the basic model, spacing exerts an expected negative effect on the odds of child death in both groups, while household SES predicts child survival only among Fulbe children. When variables representing the educational and psychosocial attributes of the mother are included, no effects are detected in either group. Controlling for these factors, the size of total, practical, cognitive and emotional networks are found to significantly increase the odds of child survival among the Fulbe only. Compositional variables, such as the extent to which natal kin, non-kin or husbands figure in a woman's network, nor the degree to which networks are located within household yield any significant results for the Fulbe. Among Bamanan women, however, the higher the proportion of network members living in the household, the lower the odds of child death. The paper concludes by discussing the methodological, conceptual and practical implications of these findings. Keywords: Social networks; Mali; Women; West Africa; Child mortality; Health

Key-words: Cultural heritage, looting, protection, conservation, Mali, One of the greatest disasters for African archaeology is the systematic plundering of archaeological sites for the antiquities trade (e.g. Schmidt & McIntosh 1996; ICOM 1994). An eloquent proof of [...]

A striking recent development in Mali is the rise of extremely successful women singers who dominate the musical programmes of national radio and television and the audio- and video-cassette market. [...]

To judge from the kind of set expression, haughty and distant, often seen on the women's faces, one would guess that the mystery it conceals is no easy one to [...]

Reconceptualization of the rural household in West Africa has emphasized dynamic processes that determine household form and function. This article examines the role of the household in mobilizing farm labor. Negotiating within the framework of the household to gain access to labor is itself a process that transforms the household. Within households individuals have different production interests related to their social status. In a case study village 50 km southeast of Bamako, Mali with a rainfed sorghum/millet based cropping system, it was found that individual farm workers have very different work patterns, managing their own farms and working for others. Key words: Household, labor, women, farming systems; West Africa, Mali

Research in West Africa has begun to document the phenomenon of child fostering although little attention has focussed on other types of non-maternal child care arrangements and their impact on child health. Evidence from a sample of 77 weaned children under five in rural Mall found that over one third (35%) of children were not the prime responsibility of both their biological parents. Nineteen per cent (N = 15) of the sample were formally fostered children, known as sukaabe bambaabe, who lived neither with their biological mothers nor with their biological fathers. Others lived under flexible or semi-permanent non-maternal care arrangements both within and outside the agnatic family. Factors precipitating fostering are outlined and are divided into: (i) those under which the child is fostered away from its biological family through force of circumstance; and (ii) those under which the child is actively requested by its foster mother. Rather than fostering providing a universal option for over-burdened mothers with too many or too closely-spaced children, the field evidence shows that the movement of children within and between households is rigorously controlled by the female social hierarchy. Children are transferred in a uni-directional fashion from the care of their low status biological mothers to high status foster mothers. Their transfer serves to visibly reinforce socio-political power differentials between these women who are at different stages of the female life-cycle and in different sets of household circumstances. Economic factors are not associated with the decision to keep the child or to foster it away, but do appear to determine whether the children living under non-maternal care are fostered out under a structured or unstructured fostering arrangement. Contrary to findings in other West African settings, fostering per se has little impact on children's nutritional outcomes as measured by their weight-for-age Z-Scores, probably because the use of surrogate or sibling caretakers is common in this environment even for children who are the full responsibility of their biological mothers. The context of the fostering, however, does influence fostered children's nutritional status. Those children who were requested by their foster mothers had better nutritional outcomes than those who were fostered in by force of circumstance. It is concluded that the concept of 'maternal and child health' and the 'maternal-child' dyad around which both health interventions and demographic evaluations are centred, may not always be appropriate in areas of high fostering prevalence. Key words - child fostering, women's status, women's health, Fulani

Aoua Keita's autobiography 'Femme d'Afrique' reveals the participation of women in the independence of French Sudan, now Mali. Keita worked with the Union Soudanaise du Rassemblement Democratique Africain to give women the right to participate in social, economic and political contexts. The African women's movement differed from Western feminism in that the goals included freedom to choose husbands and family planning. Keita believed the women's movement started as a response to both patriarchical colonialism and bureaucratic lack of attention to women's needs within the independence movement.

A survey of 2,000 young Malians finds an emerging change in sexual behavior. First sex and motherhood are taking slightly later for women and female education is having an impact on this trend. For men, there is a trend toward earlier sexual activity and procreation. Urban men tend to have a longer period of sexual activity before they become fathers.

When comparing stratified Fulani village societies, little direct relationship between the degree of heterogeneity and the success in collective action was found, except when heterogeneity among leadership and elite groups [...]

73 min.; 1994; prod. & dist.: ONF Bamako, Mali (Afrique), mars 1991. La dictature militaire s'ecroule et, avec elle, la loi du silence. Falaba Issa Traore, homme de theatre, de [...]

Songhai communities living in Gao (Mali) today have a distinctive cuisine, in which pounding and boiling/steaming technologies are dominant. Other characteristics include the use of ceramic stoves and kitchen mobility. Archaeological excavation at Gao, together with historical evidence, suggest that certain of these characteristics can be projected back a thousand years to the Iron Age. In turn, these technologies have social implications, particularly when considering the lives of women at this period. Keywords: Gao; Mali; Iron Age; cooking technology.