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Niger

Nomads who cultivate beauty : wodaabe dances and visual arts in Niger

Upphovsperson: Bovin, Mette
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2001
Ämnesord: Niger, West Africa, Anthropology, Nomads, Social anthropology/ethnography, Socialantrolopologi/etnografi
Why do young men use mirrors and make-up more than girls? Why do the Wodaabe nomads of West Africa have beauty parades for men? Wodaabe's extraordinary and unique live performances are often misunderstood by outsiders. The book provides some answers about these aesthetic activities. One answer is courtship and "wife-stealing ceremonies" involving enemy clans, another is ethnic identity. Beauty and existence are linked. Wodaabe dances and visual arts are not "exotic" but are arenas for social action and identity politics in the largely agricultural society of the arid regions of Niger, Nigeria and Chad. The author describes Wodaabe cultural choices as "active archaisation". Different art forms are analysed in the light of identity construction by the Wodaabe. Their elaborate cultivation of beauty in make-up, tattoos, body paintings, calabash carvings, embroideries, and architecture all follow the principle of symmetry and order in the cosmos. The author emphasizes the gendered aspects of social life and identity construction and explores masculinity among nomadic Wodaabe men, who are living sculptures displaying their beauty as a spiritual act, full of honour and dignity. The book has many colour photographs and examples of Wodaabe art.  

The bush is sweet : identity, power and development among WoDaaBe Fulani in Niger

Upphovsperson: Loftsdóttir, Kristín
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2008
Ämnesord: Ethnic groups, Pastoralists, cultural identity, Ethnicity, Traditional culture, Social change, Social and cultural anthropology, Fula, Niger, Social anthropology/ethnography, Socialantrolopologi/etnografi
In this book Kristín Loftsdóttir gives the reader a highly personal insight into the lives of the Wodaabe nomads of Niger, who are striving to make a living between the bush and the city. Spending nearly two years as a Wodaabe, within a Wodaabe extended family and alternating between the nomadic setting of the bush and the urbanised life-style of the capital, Niamey, she was in a unique position to observe the effects that increasing urbanisation and globalisation, together with the modern tourist industry’s preconceptions and demands, have had on the identity and power relations of the Wodaabe. Interwoven with the abstract scientific observations are the more personal reflections and analyses of a young white woman on living within, and sharing all aspects of, the everyday lives of the Wodaabe with the broad spectrum of reactions which this entails. These sensitively written and honest descriptions, including details of what the author at times experiences as her own shortcomings within her project, give a most interesting dimension to the work not always found in social science studies which means that this book should appeal to a wider readership than might initially be expected.

Micro-regionalism in West Africa : evidence from two case studies

Upphovspersoner: Söderbaum, Fredrik | Taylor, Ian
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2007
Ämnesord: Regional cooperation, regional integration, regional development, regionalization, case studies, West Africa, Sahel, Niger, Nigeria, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
This collection seeks to complement and advance recent studies on regionalism in Africa and the implications that this has for the continent’s development. The two case studies on cross-border micro-regionalism in the borderlands of Mali-Burkina Faso and Niger-Nigeria are part of the work of the West Africa Borders and Integration (WABI). WABI is a research institute that looks at cross-border developments in West Africa, particularly at the convergence between political will and regionalisation on the ground. Providing a challenge to the considerable number of state-centric, formalistic and not seldom overly idealistic studies in this field, the two cases show quite clearly that formal borders either essentially do not exist in the Westphalian sense, being ignored by local populations and traders, or, are strategically used by (often self-styled) representatives of the state to extract resources and rents. In either case, the Eurocentric notion of fixed boundaries and bordered delineations has little purchase in the West African Sahel.

Beyond territory and scarcity : exploring conflicts over natural resource management

Medarbetare: Gausset, Quentin | Whyte, Michael | Birch-Thomsen, Torben
Utgivare: Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2005
Ämnesord: Resources management, environmentel degradation, natural resources, conflicts, boundaries, Living conditions, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Dmocratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Lesotho, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Social anthropology, Socialantropologi
The attainment of sound and sustainable environmental management is one of humanity's greatest challenges this century, particularly in Africa, which is still heavily dependent on the exploitation of natural and agricultural resources and is faced with rapid population growth. Yet, this challenge should not be reduced to Malthusian parameters and the simple question of population growth and failing resources.In this volume, ten anthropologists and geographers critically address traditionalMalthusian discourses in essays that attempt to move "beyond territory andscarcity" by:- Exploring alternatives to the strong natural determinism that reduces natural resource management to questions of territory and scarcity.- Presenting material and methodologies that explore the different contexts in which social and cultural values intervene, and discovering more than 'rational choice' in the agency of individuals.- Examining the relevance of the different conceptions of territory for the ways in which people manage, or attempt to manage, natural resources.- Placing their research within the framework of the developing discussion on policy and politics in natural resource management. The studies are drawn from a range of sub-Saharan African countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Lesotho, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sudan. CONTENT Introduction. Quentin Gausset and Michael Whyte Land and Labour: Agrarian Change in Post-retrenchment Lesotho. Christian Boehm Social Resilience in African Dryland Livelihoods: Deriving Lessons for Policy. Michael Mortimore The Making of an Environment: Ecological History of the Kapsiki/Higi of North Cameroon and North Eastern Nigeria. Walter van Beek and Sonja Avontuur Agro-pastoral Conflicts in the Tikar Plain (Adamawa, Cameroon). Quentin Gausset Transhumance, Tubes and Telephones: Drought Related Migration as a Process of Innovation. Kristine Juul Understanding Resource Management in Western Sudan: A Critical Look at New Institutional Economics. Leif Manger Within, and Beyond, Territories: A Comparison of Village Land Use Management and Livelihood Diversificationin Burkina Faso and Southwest Niger. Simon Batterbury Moving the Boundaries of Forest and Land Use History: The Case of Upper East Region in Northern Ghana. Andrew Wardell Transnational Dimensions to Environmental Resource Dynamics: Modes of Governance and Local Resource Management in Eastern DRC. James Fairhead

Tuaregerna, uranet – och bananteorin om terrorism

Upphovsperson: Persson, Henrik
Tidskrift/källa: Fjärde Världen
År: 2011
Ämnesord: Terrorism, Algeriet, Burkina Faso, Libyen, Niger, Mali, Naturresurser, Minoritetskulturer, Ursprungsfolk
Den brittiska antropologen Jeremy Keenan
har i artiklar och böcker om Sahara
och tuaregfolket på senare år berättat om
Sahelregionen och dess befolkning.
Särskilt efter händelserna den 11 september
2001 har dessa trakter uppmärksammats av
dem som jagar al-Qaida och dess allierade.
Men vad döljer sig bakom ytbilden?