VAD/SGAS-Tagung uni basel 16. Mai 2008

1. VAD/SGAS-Tagung uni basel16. Mai 2008 Change and persistence in crisis : a gender case study in Western Ivory Coast Thomas Bearth thomas.bearth@flashcable.ch

2. Zoom 3 - Tura – das „Trapez“

3. Zoom 4-Kpata (Dorfebene)

4. 19.9.2002 – 16.4.2007

5. Crisis and gender

6. Women in the gerontocratic system • Control of all aspects of public life by male elders • Nature of this control: includes occult power. • Violation of rules tends to be sanctioned as sorcery. • Lñáñá as a resource.

7. Gender divide as a sacral institution • Religious institutions translated into taboos which dominate social life. • The sacred is gendered • Hence: Gender is sacred • The sacred is excluded from the class of negotiables • ‘The social is embedded in the « sacred »’ • The sacred as pretext for maintaining control.

8. Die Palaverhütte: Think tank (M) lokaler Entscheidungen Die Palaverhütte – Afrikas „think tank“ ist männlich

9. Dual-gendered distribution of sacred institutionsThe limits of „apatam-centered research strategies“ Nach Gonnin 1986:213

10. Communicative spaces-1

11. Communicative spaces-2

12. Dual-gendered economy • Rights of property in the exogamous clan: • Bride-price (law of transitivity) • Transmission by patrilineal descent (agnatic law) • Division of labour, dual-gender system • Male revenue (cash crop) • Female revenue for zñáän ‘soup’ • Male control over F+M revenue • Loophole: F economic activity + associations

13. Being a Tura women means to cope with3-fold marginalisation • - Tura = minority, isolated, remote, retarded. Quote Dantomba • - as a woman within Tura society. Her place is not in the public space (apatam, palaber hut), but in the houseu • - latency, in school. Limited right to own resources. « Speaking a minority language compounds the marginalisation of being a woman. » (Robinson 1996 :216)

14. Socio-political effects of crisis Institutional vacuum Compensation Strengthening of traditional authority Revitalization of Tura culture Celebrations Tura Language festival Disappearance of state government Zero mobility French-speaking administration and institutions vanish School system collapses

15. Cycle of secondary poverty induced by war (gwili) and isolation Breakdown of local economy male economy female economy PRE-CRISIS cash crops garden produce CRISIS Export routes Markets dried closed out Palm leave brooms joint male-female activity (video FEB. 2005) only income-generating activity left (DG-203, 205, passim)

17. Palm leaves for economic survival

18. Palm leave brooms industry Kpata, February 2005

19. PBI is emblematic of unsustainabilityboth in ecological and economica terms • 1 palm tree yields: 2-3 brooms, 10h work + 1-4h transport on foot, producer price: 8c/piece. 3 years needed for recovery (if at all); 3 years yield from palm oil sales is 10 times as much! • Palm tree by-products - soap and potassum (salt substitute) - must now be bought on the market. • The palm-tree eco-system of small mammals (protein source) is destroyed. • PBI money increases dependency from money and destroys basis for sustainable income. • The women know it. (We know this from LLH-1.)

20. Local analysis-1 (men) • Listening towhatmenaresaying • Miõn' koáyaaeákolääleáwöàöàkoáaàpeìzeáyñáineáñàñnkomiõnleàeàzaâayaáan-le-gä-le • All thatisleftofour „maleness“ nowistheword in ourmouth. • Even for 50 cfatobuytobacco, wedepend on them.

21. Local analysis-2 (women) Listening to whatwomen are saying .Ko väaánwñáñá' go le\any other income-generating activity We palm-broom-F1 make TM. 4. Ko väaánwñáñá’ go laâ, le ko suáuàkpñáñálõlaaá, le ko aànggbawñáññábuu-buunñáboà-aálaâa Wemakebrooms DEF and wedried-cassavabuy CONT, and wethemgive money 10-10-little-PL

22. Local analysis-3 (all) • Ale-kõàõà aàa bhe le. • “Its manner does not exist.” F/M: There is no alternative (to the PBI) Old men: There is no alternative (to relinquishing our authority).

23. From dependency to poverty: re-alignment of gender roles • The Pre-war economic system, or what remains of it, is shaken to its foundations. • Strategies for coping with poverty fail: system of inter-gender borrowing • New: self-diagnosed poverty • Women’s new role as the only provider in accordance with traditional role images • Radical reversal of dependency relations • the crisis sparked a more radical reversal in the balance of economic power between men and women

24. Communicative spaces-3Sitting in the old man’s place

25. 2007: 2 years later Pre-postcrisis? Coffee + PBI (still!) + Firewood

26. A paradigm of change and persistence

27. Attempts at explanation • Entrenchment of tribal ideology • Socialization • Strategy • Economic • Non negotiable O-knowledge • In-group solidarity • Success story of indirect strategies • Extreme poverty: co-depence, defies change

28. Learning from crisis? • Integrating crisis experience  • Negotiating scope of negotiation • Expanding scope of negotiation • Kono Ditomba • Ditomba 0701.doc

29. To learn more Dynamiques du genre : le cas toura. Stratégies de survie en temps de crise. Abidjan : Editions Livres Sud (EDILIS). Avec des contributions de Joseph Baya, Thomas Bearth, Rose Marie Beck, Mohamed Doumbia, Douoh Honorine Guéli, S. Jacques Silué, Geneviève Singo, Lydie Vé Kouadio. Préface François A. Adopo. 286 p. + iv planches couleur. ISBN : 978-2-915403-64-0 Vente en librairie : 7500 cfa. Vente en Europe : 24 € (www.soumbala.com).

30. www.lagsus.de Thanks to the Volkswagen Foundation for sponsoring LAGSUS IN A TIME OF CRISIS Language, Gender & Sustainability Thank you for your attention