From Slavery to Aid: Politics, Labour, and Ecology in the Nigerien Sahel, 1800–2000 (African Studies, Series Number 135)

From Slavery to Aid engages two major themes in African historiography, the slow death of slavery and the evolution of international development, and reveals their interrelation in the social history of the region of Ader in the Nigerien Sahel. Benedetta Rossi traces the historical transformations that turned a society where slavery was a fundamental institution into one governed by the goals and methods of ‘aid’. Over an impressive sweep of time - from the pre-colonial power of the Caliphate of Sokoto to the aid-driven governments of the present - this study explores the problem that has remained the central conundrum throughout Ader’s history: how workers could meet subsistence needs and employers fulfil recruitment requirements in an area where natural resources are constantly exposed to the climatic hazards characteristic of the edge of the Sahara. Cover 1 Half-title 3 Dedication 4 Series information 5 Title page 7 Copyright information 3 Table of contents 9 List of Maps 11 List of Figures 12 Preface and Acknowledgements 13 Maps and illustrations 18 Note on Language, Names, and Anonymisation 21 Transcription of common and proper names 22 The name ‘Ader’ 23 Anonymisation 24 Note on the terminology of slavery 24 Currency Conversion Rates 27 Lis of Acronyms and Abbreviations 29 Glossary 33 1 At the Desert's Edge 37 Ecology and Politics 39 The Imperative of Mobility 44 From Slavery to Aid 53 For a Perspectival History 61 Conclusion 69 2 Between Sokoto and Agadez: Inter-Ethnic Hierarchy in the Nineteenth Century 70 Land and People 74 Ader at the Time of Sokoto's Expansion 78 Sokoto's Tenuous Hold On Ader 90 View From Within: Environmental and Political Insecurity 94 The Organisation of Dependence in Tuareg Hierarchies 98 Tributes, Violence, and Slavery 103 Tributes 103 Violence 108 Slavery 119 Asna Social and Supernatural Hierarchies 125 Keita, the Lake 129 The Sacrifice 130 Asna-Tuareg Networks 133 Conclusion 139 3 Entangled Histories of Colonial Occupation, 1899-1917 140 Prelude to Occupation 144 ‘It Was Necessary to Show We Were the Strongest’ 151 Attitudes of Indigenous Chiefs: Hausa and Lissawan Submission 157 Kel Gress Defeats at Zanguebe and Galma 163 Makhammad and Iwellemmeden Resistance 170 Normalising Government: Borders, Chiefs, and the ‘ Bellah Question’ 178 ‘The Bellah is Indispensable to the Tuareg’ 182 The Uprisings of 1916-1917 187 Epilogue: The Massacre of Tanout 194 4 Governing Labour - Slave, Forced, and Migrant, 1918-1945 197 Slow Death of the Indigénat 200 Persistence of the Question Bellah 205 The Crisis of Native Rule 211 Prestations: Between Forced Labour and Fiscal Obligations 219 The Migration Question 224 From Slaves to Migrants 228 Conclusion 236 5 The Development of ‘Development’, 1946-1983 238 The Will To Develop: Colonial mise en valeur in the Keita Valley 242 The Invention of a ‘Voluntary Region’ 251 The Committee of the Ader Doutchi Majiya 252 How the New Institutions Worked 256 Recasting Labour as Participation 264 Social Impacts of Developmentalism in Keita, Tamaske, and Ibohamane 268 The Development Society 274 Desertification in National and International Policy 282 The Initiative of Italian Cooperation in the Sahel 287 Conclusion 291 6 Fighting Against the Desert, 1984-2000 292 The Keita Project 295 Managing ‘the Keita Miracle’ 298 Sensitising the Peasant 303 La Femme de Keita 308 Women Workers in the Project's Worksites 313 Gender, Development, and the Slow Death of Slavery 318 Negotiating Gender and Status in the Keita Project 326 The Project and Labour Migration 331 Conclusion 336 7 Between Development and Dependence 339 Change and Continuity at the Desert's Edge 340 Aid, Subjectification, and Subjection 344 The Experience of Dependence 349 Bibliography 357 Oral Testimonies and Interviews 357 1999 357 2005 357 2008 360 2010 361 Fieldnotes 361 Archives 361 Archives Nationales de France, Centre d'Archives d'Outre-Mer (Aix en Provence): ANF-CAOM 361 Service Historique de la Défense, Bibliothèque de l'Armée de Terre (Paris, Chateau de Vincennes): SHD-BAT 361 Archives Nationales du Senegal: ANS 362 Archives Nationales du Niger: ANN 362 Niamey, Archives du Ministere du Plan (AMP) 363 Tahoua, Archives Regionales de Tahoua (ART) 363 Tahoua, Service Regional du Genie Rural (SRGR) 363 Keita, Archives du Projet Keita (APK) 363 Primary Sources 363 Secondary Sources 365 Published secondary sources 365 Unpublished secondary sources 387 Theses 389 Dictionaries 390 Index 393 From Slavery to Aid takes two major themes of African historiography - the death of slavery and the birth of aid - and constructs a social history of the Ader region, an understudied region of the West African Sahel in today's Republic of Niger. This Book Explores Transformations In The Relationship Between Ecology, Politics And Labour In The Nigerien Sahel Over Two Centuries.