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VAD/SGAS-Tagung uni basel 16. Mai 2008. Change and persistence in crisis : a gender case study in Western Ivory Coast Thomas Bearth [email protected]. Zoom 3 - Tura – das „Trapez“. Zoom 4-Kpata (Dorfebene). 19.9.2002 – 16.4.2007. Crisis and gender. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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VAD/SGAS-Tagung uni basel16. Mai 2008
Change and persistence in crisis : a gender case study
in Western Ivory Coast
Thomas [email protected]
Zoom 3 - Tura – das „Trapez“
Zoom 4-Kpata (Dorfebene)
19.9.2002 – 16.4.2007
Crisis and genderHow crisis affects- Gender relations
- Gender discourse
- Gender taboo
Crisis & conflict
- Economic power relation
- Empowerment of women
- Urban poverty
Crisis as a learning experience
In the context ofGerontocratic rule
Economic disaster
Loyalty to rule vs. Survival need
Female exclusion from public arena
Resilience of tradition
Konon, Action Research (RANT)
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.
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.
Die Palaverhütte: Think tank (M) lokaler Entscheidungen
Die Palaverhütte – Afrikas „think tank“ ist männlich
Dual-gendered distribution of sacred institutionsThe limits of „apatam-centered research strategies“
NachGonnin 1986:213
Communicative spaces-1
Communicative spaces-2
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
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)
Socio-political effects of crisis
Institutional vacuumDisappearance of state government
Zero mobilityFrench-speaking administration and institutions vanishSchool system collapses
CompensationStrengthening of traditional authority
Revitalization of Tura cultureCelebrationsTuraLanguage festival
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 broomsjoint male-female activity (video FEB. 2005)
only income-generating activity left (DG-203, 205, passim)
Palm leaves for economic survival
Palm leave brooms industry
Kpata, February 2005
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.)
Local analysis-1 (men)
• Listening to what men are saying
• Miõn' koá yaa eá ko lääleá wöàöà koá aà peì zeá yñáin eá ñàñn ko miõn leàeà zaâa yaáan-le-gä-le
• All that is left of our „maleness“ now is the word in our mouth.
• Even for 50 cfa to buy tobacco, we depend on them.
Local analysis-2 (women)
Listening to what women are saying. Ko väaánwñáñá' go le \any other
income-generating activity We palm-broom-F1 make TM.4. Ko väaánwñáñá’ go laâ, le ko
suáuàkpñáñá lõ laaá, le ko aàng gba wñáññá buu-buunñáboà-aá laâa
We make brooms DEF and we dried-cassava buy CONT, and we them give money 10-10-little-PL
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).
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
Communicative spaces-3Sitting in the old man’s place
2007: 2 years later Pre-postcrisis? Coffee + PBI (still!) + Firewood
A paradigm of change and persistence
Changes due to crisis Change and persistence in gender relations
Inversion of economic dependency relations
Claim to ownership of acquired property
Female control of economic survival resources
No attempt to conquer public space
Recognition of female economic prominence by men
The prison doors are open, but …Recognition of male dominance as a prerequisite to female initiative (Singo 2007:236)
IdemUrban context (AGRA Project)Women’s association in Abidjan
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
Learning from crisis?
• Integrating crisis experience • Negotiating scope of negotiation• Expanding scope of negotiation
• Kono Ditomba• Ditomba 0701.doc
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).
www.lagsus.de
Thanks to the Volkswagen Foundation for sponsoring LAGSUS
IN A TIME OF CRISISLanguage, Gender & Sustainability
Thank you for your attention