People and domestic organization

In Dlonguébougou (DBG), rapid demographic growth has led to a tripling of the village population, but demographic performance remains uneven between households and couples. DBG demonstrates the persistence of domestic groups, of more than thirty people, far larger than comparable households elsewhere in West Africa. Working as a farming group, a residential unit, and an economic enterprise permitting livelihood diversification, these households also generate children and descendants. Institutions are key to managing risks in an uncertain setting. Larger groups find it easier to gather the capital to invest in key assets; they face less risk from failure to reproduce; and there is greater space for individual income earning. In this patriarchal society, women and girls travel well-worn marriage pathways between households and villages. Despite the advantages of large size, households fragment because of conflicts over assets or women, or following the death of the household head.

From abundance to land scarcity

How could the village of Dlonguébougou (DBG), which boasted abundant land in 1980, find itself land scarce just 25 years later? The answer lies in part with a tripling of the village population, the widespread use of oxen-drawn plough teams, and continued extensive patterns of farming. But, by far, the largest factor has been the arrival of many hundred incoming farmers from farther south, seeking land. Aerial photos and satellite images show the first wave in the late 1980s, from villages badly affected by bird damage to cereal crops, given their proximity to the irrigated lands of the Office du Niger, and the second wave unleashed by the establishment of N-Sukala, a sugar cane plantation 40 km to the southeast of DBG. Hundreds of families have lost their farmland to this irrigation scheme, and have migrated to seek land in neighbouring villages like DBG, putting further pressure on land.

Leaving the village on migration

The Sahel has been a region of movement for millennia, as people cope with drought, search for better land, and seek out new economic opportunities. People move from rural to urban areas and from Mali to elsewhere in West Africa. For the people of Dlonguébougou (DBG), migration has become much more significant since 1980. Increasing numbers of people have left the village permanently, and their children will be urban dwellers. As described through interviews, both men and women want to spend some time away from the village, exploring the world and earning some cash. Becoming a long-term migrant is not usually a one-off choice, but a process over time, which leads one to stay away. Migrant earnings are key to purchase of assets and buying personal goods such as a motorbike, clothes, and mobile phones. For some, they say they see no future in bush villages like DBG.

The farming landscape

This chapter describes the patterns of land use and the soils, vegetation, and landscape of Dlonguébougou. Climate change has brought greater concentration and intensity of rainfall, and farmers must cope with high variability. Millet is at the heart of the farming system, and sesame has become an important cash crop. While many young people go away on migration each year, the majority come back for 3 months to help their families at the height of the cultivation season. Increased pressure on land attributable to the spread of cultivation, scarcer quantities of manure for maintaining soil fertility, and the shift of labour from collective household activities to private farming of sesame have all led to a large fall in millet yields since 1980–1982.

History of Dlonguébougou and the wider region

Chapter 2 sets the village of Dlonguébougou within its wider region. Long-term shifts in rainfall have shaped the landscape and societies, from prehistory through to the emergence of the Ghana, Mali, and Songhai Empires, relying on trans-Saharan trade in gold, salt, and slaves. The Bambara kingdom of Ségou used warfare to exact tribute and control trade, but by the time of the French conquest, much of the region had been taken under the jihadist rule of El Hajj Oumar Tall. The colonial administration had profound, long-lasting impacts on village life, taxation, forced labour, military recruitment, and legal and political systems. Economic and political events since Independence in 1960 are described, including the growing conflict in the north and centre of the country, sparked by demands for Tuareg autonomy, but now spread into widespread instability.

Facing an uncertain future

This concluding chapter considers the future facing the people of Dlonguébougou and the wider region, given current forces at play and future scenarios. High levels of risk and uncertainty persist for rainfall, governance, demographic growth, and conflict. Today, insecurity spans Mali and the wider Sahel because of multiple entangled grievances, jihadist groups, youth unemployment, and centralization of power in capital cities. Reliance on military power will not win the day. From the Sahel being considered a geopolitical backwater, European countries are now focused on ways to stabilize the region, as it has become a source of migrants and instability. Pressures on land will continue with government neglect of dryland farming and further large-scale land allocations made for irrigated agriculture. Increased individualism and consumerism apparent at the village and the national level have damaged collective responses to the current crisis. The promise of the new land tenure law may not be achieved, and donor aid further shores up unaccountable and corrupt government.

Investment and prosperity

The last 35 years have seen an increase in the scale, diversification, and distribution of assets between households in Dlonguébougou (DBG). Poor economic statistics added to outward signs suggest nothing has changed in villages like DBG, but a more careful look shows major investment in livestock, wells, shops, solar panels, mobile phones, sewing machines, and motorbikes. Most people say they are better off now, having combined migration earnings, crop returns, and livestock sales over the last 35 years to achieve asset growth. A positive interplay of household size and the ability to take risks and reap higher returns means larger households gain higher returns to reinvest in further domestic growth. Will education of children be the next step in the cycle of investment?

Introduction to Dlonguébougou

This first chapter introduces the village and people of Dlonguébougou in Central Mali, and it describes my visits there. Lying between the desert and savannah, while it might appear remote from centres of power, this Sahelian village has been linked to the wider world for centuries, and its landscape traversed by traders, explorers, and military expeditions. The village was founded 3 centuries ago by three families who retain significant presence and power. Patterns of social organization, chiefly power, households, clans, casted groups, and herding communities are presented. Over the last 35 years, the village has grown threefold, and the pattern of settlement has spread over the surrounding fields. The chapter ends by presenting the background and purpose of this longitudinal study, its aims being to understand and document the evolution of village life since 1980, how people make a living, shifts in investment and prosperity, land pressures, and the significance of migration.