Cattle, Women, and Wells

This book describes the choices open to farming families in the Sahelian village of Kala, in central Mali. Life in this drought-prone region is harsh and full of risk to health, crops, and livestock, yet there are also opportunities open to the hard-working, audacious and lucky, bringing considerable returns if the timing is right. Three inter-related themes underlie the analysis of production and investment decisions faced by households; the role of risk, the long timeframe within which decisions are made, and the close links between economic performance and household size and organisation. Climatic variability and demographic uncertainty lie at the heart of domestic structures; the extreme vulnerability faced by single individuals means people cluster in large kin-based groups, pooling risks and providing protection. The very limited development of labour markets means that households rely almost entirely on their own members for their workforce, and generating the capital needed for investing in ploughs, wells, carts and livestock must stem from a good year’s grain surplus and migration earnings. Based on field-research over the period 1980-82, this study illustrates a successful response to making ends meet in a land abundant region, despite high risks of drought. A follow-up study of this village was published in 2020: Land, Investment, and Migration. Thirty-five years of village life in Mali (OUP).