This article examines reciprocal relations among Wolof small farmers in
Senegal after the emergence of rural weekly markets (loumas) and the implementation
of neoliberal policies in the 1980s. Contrary to the notion that
markets are a force of social dissolution, new trading practices and free market
policies have not weakened community relations among small farmer
neighbours and kin. Rather, the spatial and temporal patterning of loumas
has served to strengthen intra-community bonds. Farmers have, since the
formation of loumas, limited their travel beyond their home zones. While at
loumas they interact avidly with extralocal merchants, they have not allowed
outsiders to settle permanently in local villages. Furthermore, because loumas
occur only once a week, farmers continue to benefit from daily, multiplex
interactions with one another. After analysing the spatial and temporal organisation
of loumas, this article looks at specific examples of small farmers
augmenting their economic security during a period of economic restructuration
by innovating new modes of reciprocal exchange with one another.