Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-m9pkr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T19:09:58.797Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Addressing drought through rural religious communities in Senegal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2020

Laura L. Cochrane
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Severe ecological changes across the Sahel have created a difficult environment for agriculture and rural village economies. Rural communities, while small in scale, are creating new ways to transform their degraded environment. Their small size allows them to develop location-specific strategies to manage and improve water, soil and agriculture. This article focuses on two Sufi communities (daaras) in Senegal that integrate environmental work and spirituality. Religious organizations are influential in Senegal, as is the idea that labour is a part of both personal spirituality and shared religious teachings. As agriculture continues to be disrupted because of climate fluctuations, creating a habitable environment relies on applying region-specific agricultural science, and working through local structures. These conceptions of labour, along with the religious structures that support their work, make environmental projects spiritually significant, and also transformative for agriculture in a challenging environment.

Résumé

Résumé

Des changements écologiques profonds dans tout le Sahel ont créé un environnement difficile pour l'agriculture et les économies des villages ruraux. Des communautés rurales, quoique de taille modeste, créent de nouvelles manières de transformer leur environnement dégradé. Leur petite taille leur permet de développer des stratégies localisées pour gérer et améliorer l'eau, les sols et l'agriculture. Cet article s'intéresse à deux communautés soufies (daaras) au Sénégal, qui intègrent travail environnemental et spiritualité. Les organisations religieuses sont influentes au Sénégal, tout comme l'est l'idée que le travail fait partie de la spiritualité individuelle et des enseignements religieux partagés. Alors que les fluctuations climatiques continuent de perturber l'agriculture, la création d'un environnement habitable repose sur l'application de sciences agricoles spécifiques à la région et sur le travail réalisé dans des structures locales. Ces conceptions du travail, avec les structures religieuses qui soutiennent leur travail, rendent les projets environnementaux spirituellement significatifs mais aussi transformatifs pour l'agriculture dans un environnement difficile.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 90 , Issue 2 , February 2020 , pp. 339 - 356
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, A. and So, J. (1996) A Claim to Land by the River: a household in Senegal 1720–1994. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Augis, E. (2014) ‘Aïcha's Sounith hair salon: friendship, profit, and resistance in Dakar’, Islamic Africa 5 (2): 199–224.Google Scholar
Babou, C. A. (2003) ‘Educating the Murid: theory and practices of education in Amadu Bamba's thought’, Journal of Religion in Africa 33 (3): 310–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Babou, C. A. (2007) Fighting the Greater Jihad: Amadu Bamba and the founding of the Muridiyya of Senegal, 1853–1913. Athens OH: Ohio University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benjaminsen, T. A., Alinon, K., Buhaug, H. and Buseth, J. T. (2012) ‘Does climate change drive land-use conflicts in the Sahel?’, Journal of Peace Research 49 (1): 97–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boelens, R., Hoogesteger, J., Swyngedouw, E., Vos, J. and Wester, P. (2016) ‘Hydrosocial territories: a political ecology perspective’, Water International 41 (1): 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bouchier, J. (1971) ‘Enquête sur le mouvement coopératif dans un arrondissement sénégalais’, Civilisations 21 (1): 19–37.Google Scholar
Brenner, L. (2000) ‘Histories of religion in Africa’, Journal of Religion in Africa 30 (2): 143–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brooks, G. E. (1975) ‘Peanuts and colonialism: consequences of the commercialization of peanuts in West Africa, 1830–70’, Journal of African History 16 (1): 29–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buggenhagen, B. (2012) Muslim Families in Global Senegal: money takes care of shame. Bloomington and Indianapolis IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Cochrane, L. L. (2013) ‘Land degradation, faith-based organizations, and sustainability in Senegal’, CAFE: Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment 35 (2): 112–25.Google Scholar
Cochrane, L. L. (2016) ‘Rebuilding agriculture and the environment in Senegal’, Anthropology Now 8 (1): 47–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dakora, F. D. and Keya, S. O. (1997) ‘Contribution of legume nitrogen fixation to sustainable agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa’, Soil Biology and Biochemistry 29 (5–6): 809–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diagne, S. B. (2013) ‘A secular age and the world of Islam’ in Diouf, M. (ed.), Tolerance, Democracy, and Sufis in Senegal. New York NY: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Duruflé, G. (1995) ‘Bilan de la nouvelle politique agricole au Sénégal’, Review of African Political Economy 22 (63): 73–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gleditsch, N. P. and Nordås, R. (2009) ‘Climate change and conflict: a critical overview’, Die Friedens-Warte 84 (2): 11–28.Google Scholar
Glenzer, K. (2002) ‘La sécheresse: the social and institutional construction of a development problem in the Malian (Soudanese) Sahel, 1900–82’, Canadian Journal of African Studies 36 (1): 1–34.Google Scholar
Greenough, K. M. (2007) ‘Development agents and nomadic agency: four perspectives on the development “market”’, NAPA Bulletin 27: 110–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haque, N. (2018) ‘Senegal faces water shortage crisis’, Al Jazeera, 9 October.Google Scholar
Held, I. M., Delworth, T. L., Lu, J., Findell, K. L. and Knutson, T. R. (2005) ‘Simulation of Sahel drought in the 20th and 21st centuries’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 102 (50): 17891–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hill, J. (2018) Wrapping Authority: women Islamic leaders in a Sufi movement in Dakar, Senegal. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hynes, W. G. (1979) The Economics of Empire: Britain, Africa and the new imperialism, 1870–95. London: Longman Group.Google Scholar
Kaptué, A. T., Prihodko, L. and Hanan, N. P. (2015) ‘On regreening and degradation in Sahelian watersheds’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 112 (39): 12133–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kerr, R. A. (2003) ‘Warming Indian Ocean wringing moisture from the Sahel’, Science 302 (5643): 210–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Latha, R. H. (2010) ‘A re-shaping of gender activism in a Muslim context – Senegal’, Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity 83: 55–67.Google Scholar
Lecomte, B. (1992) ‘Senegal: the young farmers of Walo and the new agricultural policy’, Review of African Political Economy 55: 87–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacDonald, A. M., Bonsor, H. C., Dochartaigh, B. É. Ó. and Taylor, R. G. (2012) ‘Quantitative maps of groundwater resources in Africa’, Environmental Research Letters 7 (2): 1–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mbow, B. (2001) La voie Baye Fall, ou la lumière du dedans. Dakar: ECARICOM.Google Scholar
Mertz, O., Mbow, C., Østergaard Nielsen, J. et al. (2010) ‘Climate factors play a limited role for past adaptation strategies in West Africa’, Ecology and Society 15 (4): 25 <https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol15/iss4/art25/>, accessed 28 October 2019.Google Scholar
Narizny, K. (2007) The Political Economy of Grand Strategy. Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Ngom, M., Gray, K., Diagne, N. et al. (2016) ‘Symbiotic performance of diverse Frankia strains on salt-stressed Casuarina glauca and Casuarina equisetifolia plants’, Frontiers in Plant Science 7: 1331 <https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2016.01331/full>, accessed 28 October 2019.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Patterson, A. S. (1999) ‘The dynamic nature of citizenship and participation: lessons from three rural Senegalese case studies’, Africa Today 46 (1): 3–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patterson, A. S. (2003) ‘Power inequalities and the institutions of Senegalese development organizations’, African Studies Review 46 (3): 35–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perry, D. (2000) ‘Rural weekly markets and the dynamics of time, space and community in Senegal’, Journal of Modern African Studies 38 (3): 461–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogers, C. L. (1977) ‘Desertification’, Science News 112 (18): 282–3, 285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roudier, P., Muller, B., D'Aquino, P. et al. (2014) ‘The role of climate forecasts in smallholder agriculture: lessons from participatory research in two communities in Senegal’, Climate Risk Management 2: 42–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roy, A. (2010) ‘Peasant struggles in Mali: from defending cotton producers’ interests to becoming part of the Malian power structures’, Review of African Political Economy 37 (125): 299–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, J. J. (2014) ‘Historicising the hydrosocial cycle’, Water Alternatives 7 (1): 220–34.Google Scholar
Sieveking, N. (2007) ‘“We don't want equality; we want to be given our rights”: Muslim women negotiating global development concepts in Senegal’, Africa Spectrum 42 (1): 29–48.Google Scholar
Stepan, A. (2013) ‘Stateness, democracy, and respect: Senegal in comparative perspective’ in Diouf, M. (ed.), Tolerance, Democracy, and Sufis in Senegal. New York NY: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Stephenne, N. and Lambin, E. F. (2004) ‘Scenarios of land-use change in Sudano-sahelian countries of Africa to better understand driving forces’, GeoJournal 61 (4): 365–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swyngedouw, E. (2009) ‘The political economy and political ecology of the hydro-social cycle’, Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education 142: 56–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thioub, I., Diop, M. C. and Boone, C. (1998) ‘Economic liberalization in Senegal: shifting politics of indigenous business interests’, African Studies Review 41 (2): 63–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tignor, R. (1987) ‘Senegal's cooperative experience, 1907–1960’ in Waterbury, J. (ed.), The Political Economy of Risk and Change in Senegal. New York NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Tschakert, P. and Tappan, G. (2004) ‘The social context of carbon sequestration: considerations from a multi-scale environmental history of the old Peanut Basin of Senegal’, Journal of Arid Environments 59: 535–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ware III, R. T. (2009) ‘The longue durée of Quran schooling, society, and state in Senegambia’ in Diouf, M. and Leichtman, M. (eds), New Perspectives on Islam in Senegal: conversion, migration, wealth, power, and femininity. New York NY: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Ware III, R. T. (2014) The Walking Qur'an: Islamic education, embodied knowledge, and history in West Africa. Chapel Hill NC: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Watson, C. (2012) ‘Sprouting success in Senegal: trees offer growing solution to Sahel’, Guardian, 11 June <https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2012/jun/11/sprouting-success-senegal-trees-sahel>, accessed 28 October 2019.Google Scholar
West, C. T. (2015) ‘Public and private responses to food insecurity: complementarity in Burkina Faso’, Culture, Agriculture, Food, and Environment 37 (2): 53–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zeng, N. (2003) ‘Drought in the Sahel’, Science 302 (5647): 999–1000.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed