Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T17:16:50.718Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THREE STORIES ABOUT LIVING WITHOUT MIGRATION IN DAKAR: COMING TO TERMS WITH THE CONTRADICTIONS OF THE MORAL ECONOMY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

Anne-Line Rodriguez
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article focuses on life without migration in Dakar. In a context of scarcity of opportunities and the emergence of emigrants as new models of success, many who remain are seen as unsuccessful and are under a personal or social expectation to emigrate. This paper examines the unfolding of everyday life without migration. Through ethnographic description, it points to the coexistence in the capital city of changes and continuities in the moral economy, the scarcity of income-generating opportunities for men, and women's growing financial contribution. This article suggests that, for those of an age to support their families, these transformations often mean living with contradictions. To overcome these tensions, inventive strategies of ‘demonstration’ and ‘concealment’ are deployed to fit in with the moral economy. However, living without migration in Dakar is often easier when an alternative moral economy is adhered to.

Résumé

Cet article traite de la vie à Dakar sans la migration. Dans un contexte de pénurie d'emplois et simultanément d’émergence des émigrés comme nouvelle figure de la réussite, ceux qui restent à Dakar sont souvent vus comme ne réussissant pas et se trouvent alors sous pression d’émigrer. Cet article examine le déroulement de la vie quotidienne menée, involontairement ou volontairement, sans la migration. A travers la description ethnographique, il met en évidence la coexistence, dans la capitale sénégalaise, de changements et permanences de l’économie morale, du manque d'opportunités de travail pour les hommes, ainsi que de la contribution financière croissante des femmes. L'article suggère que, pour ceux en âge de soutenir leurs familles, ces transformations impliquent souvent de vivre avec des contradictions. Pour s'adapter à l’économie morale et surmonter ces tensions, des stratégies ingénieuses de « cacher/montrer » sont déployées. Toutefois, vivre à Dakar sans la migration semble plus aisé lorsque l'on adhère à une économie morale alternative.

Type
West African mobilities
Information
Africa , Volume 85 , Issue 2 , May 2015 , pp. 333 - 355
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2015 

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

REFERENCES

Adjamagbo, A., Antoine, P. and Dial, F. B. (2004) ‘Le dilemme des Dakaroises: entre travailler et “bien travailler”’ in Diop, M. C. (ed.), Gouverner le Sénégal: entre ajustement structurel et développement durable. Paris: Karthala.Google Scholar
Ames, D. W. (1962) ‘The rural Wolof of the Gambia’ in Bohannan, P. and Dalton, G. (eds), Markets in Africa. Evanston IL: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Amin, S. (1969) Le monde des affaires sénégalais. Paris: Minuit.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amin, S. (1973) Neo-colonialism in West Africa. New York NY and London: Monthly Review Press.Google Scholar
Augis, E. (2009) ‘Jambaar or Jumbax-out? How Sunnite women negotiate power and belief in orthodox Islamic femininity’ 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
Banégas, R. and Warnier, J.-P. (2001) ‘Nouvelles figures de la réussite et du pouvoir’, Politique Africaine 82: 5–23.Google Scholar
Berry, S. (1989) ‘Social institutions and access to resources’, Africa 59 (1): 41–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, S. (1993) No Condition is Permanent: the social dynamics of agrarian change in sub-Saharan Africa. Madison WI: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Bloch, M. and Parry, J. (1989) ‘Introduction: money and the morality of exchange’ in Parry, J. and Bloch, M. (eds), Money and the Morality of Exchange. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Boone, C. (1992) Merchant Capital and the Roots of State Power in Senegal, 1930–1985. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bredeloup, S. and Pliez, O. (2005) ‘Migrations entre les deux rives du Sahara’, Autrepart 36 (4): 3–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buggenhagen, B. A. (2001) ‘Prophets and profits: gendered and generational visions of wealth and value in Senegalese Murid households’, Journal of Religion in Africa 31 (4): 373–401.Google Scholar
Buggenhagen, B. A. (2012) Muslim Families in Global Senegal: money takes care of shame, Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, A. (2004 [1969]) Custom and Politics in Urban Africa: a study of Hausa migrants in Yoruba towns. London and New York NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Comaroff, J. (1985) Body of Power, Spirit of Resistance: the culture and history of a South African people. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cruise O'Brien, R. (1979) ‘Introduction’ in O'Brien, R. Cruise (ed.), The Political Economy of Under-development: dependence in Senegal. London and Beverly Hills CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Dial, F. B. (2008) Mariage et divorce à Dakar: itinéraires féminins. Paris: Karthala.Google Scholar
Diop, A.-B. (1965) Société toucouleur et migration. Enquête sur l'immigration toucouleur à Dakar. Initiations Africaines 18. Dakar: Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire (IFAN).Google Scholar
Diop, A.-B. (1981) La société wolof, tradition et changement. Les systèmes d'inégalité et de domination. Paris: Karthala.Google Scholar
Diop, A.-B. (1985) La famille wolof. Paris: Karthala.Google Scholar
Diop, A.-B. (1992) ‘Les paysans du bassin arachidier. Conditions de vie et comportements de survie’, Politique Africaine 45: 39–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diouf, M. (2000) ‘The Senegalese Murid trade diaspora and the making of a vernacular cosmopolitanism’, Public Culture 12 (3): 679–702.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ebin, V. (1992) ‘A la recherche de nouveaux “poissons”. Stratégies commerciales mourides par temps de crise’, Politique Africaine 45: 86–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evers, H.-D. (1994) ‘The traders' dilemma: a theory of the social transformation of markets and society’ in Evers, H.-D. and Schrader, H. (eds), The Moral Economy of Trade: ethnicity and developing markets. London and New York NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Evers Rosander, E. (2005) ‘Cosmopolites et locales. Femmes sénégalaises en voyage’, Afrique et Histoire 4: 103–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fouquet, T. (2008) ‘Migrations et “glocalisation” dakaroises’ in Diop, M.-C. (ed.), Le Sénégal des migrations. Mobilités, identités et sociétés. Paris: Karthala.Google Scholar
Gerry, C. (1979) ‘The crisis of the self-employed: petty production and capitalist production in Dakar’ in O'Brien, R. Cruise (ed.), The Political Economy of Under-development: dependence in Senegal. London and Beverly Hills CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Guyer, J. I. (1993) ‘Wealth in people and self-realisation in Equatorial Africa’, Man 28 (2): 243–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guyer, J. I. (1995) ‘Introduction: the currency interface and its dynamics’ in Guyer, J. I. (ed.), Money Matters: instability, values and social payments in the modern history of West African communities. Portsmouth and London: Heinemann and James Currey.Google Scholar
Guyer, J. I. (2004) Marginal Gains: monetary transactions in Atlantic Africa. Chicago IL and London: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hahn, H. P. and Klute, G. (eds) (2007) Cultures of Migration: African perspectives. Münster: LIT Verlag.Google Scholar
Havard, J.-F. (2001) ‘Ethos “Bul Faale” et nouvelles figures de la réussite au Sénégal’, Politique Africaine 82: 63–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heath, D. (1992) ‘Fashion, anti-fashion, and heteroglossia in urban Senegal’, American Ethnologist 19 (1): 19–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Irvine, J. T. (1974) ‘Caste and communication in a Wolof village’. PhD thesis, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Klein, M. A. (2005) ‘The concept of honour and the persistence of servility in the Western Sudan’, Cahiers d’Études Africaines 179–180 (3): 831–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Cour Grandmaison, C. (1971) ‘Stratégies matrimoniales des femmes dakaroises’, Cahiers ORSTOM, Série Sciences Humaines 8 (2): 201–20.Google Scholar
Le Cour Grandmaison, C. (1972) ‘Femmes dakaroises. Rôles traditionnels féminins et urbanisation’, Annales de l'Université d'Abidjan Série F (4): 1–254.Google Scholar
Long, N. (1968) Social Change and the Individual: a study of the social and religious responses to innovation in a Zambian community. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
MacGaffey, J. (1991) The Real Economy of Zaire: the contribution of smuggling and other unofficial activities to national wealth. London: James Currey.Google Scholar
Mbodj, M. (1993) ‘The state of the groundnut economy: a 30-year crisis’ in Diop, M. C. (ed.), Senegal: essays in statecraft. Dakar: CODESRIA.Google Scholar
Moulard-Kouka, S. (2008) ‘“Senegal: Yewuleen!” Analyse anthropologique du rap à Dakar: liminarité, contestation et culture populaire’. PhD thesis, Université de Bordeaux 2.Google Scholar
Mustafa, H. N. (1998) ‘Practicing beauty: Crisis, value and the challenge of self-mastery in Dakar, 1970–1994’. PhD thesis, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Ndiaye, M. (1998) L’éthique ceddo et la société d'accaparement. Ou les conduites culturelles des sénégalais d'aujourd'hui. Tome 2. Les móodu móodu ou l’éthos du développement au Sénégal. Dakar: Presses Universitaires de Dakar.Google Scholar
Niang, A. (2006) ‘Bboys: hip-hop culture in Dakar, Senegal’ in Nilan, P. and Feixa, C. (eds), Global Youths? Hybrid identities, plural worlds. London and New York NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Nyamnjoh, F. B. (2005) ‘Fishing in troubled waters: “disquettes” and “thiofs” in Dakar’, Africa 75 (3): 295–324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rowlands, M. (1996) ‘The consumption of an African modernity’ in Arnoldi, M. J., Geary, C. M. and Hardin, K. L. (eds), African Material Culture. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Samson, F. (2009) ‘Islam, protest, and citizen mobilization: new Sufi movements’, 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
Sarr, C., Kane, O. and Diop, A. (2004) Emergence de nouveaux acteurs locaux et recomposition des territoires urbains. Appropriation de la centralité des villes par les moodu moodu. Dakar, Saint-Louis, New York. Dakar: Programme de Recherche Urbaine pour le Développement (PRUD).Google Scholar
Shipton, P. (1989) Bitter Money: cultural economy and some African meanings of forbidden commodities. Washington DC: American Anthropological Association.Google Scholar
Shipton, P. (1995) ‘How Gambians save: culture and economic strategy at an ethnic crossroads’ in Guyer, J. (ed.), Money Matters: instability, values and social payments in the modern history of West African communities. London: James Currey.Google Scholar
Tall, S. M. (2008) ‘La migration internationale sénégalaise: des recrutements de main-d’œuvre aux pirogues’ in Diop, M.-C. (ed.), Le Sénégal des migrations. Mobilités, identités et sociétés. Paris: Karthala.Google Scholar
Tall, S. M. and Tandian, A. (2010) Regards sur la migration irrégulière des Sénégalais: vouloir faire fortune en Europe avec des pirogues de fortune. CARIM-AS Notes d'analyse et de synthèse 50. San Domenico di Fiesole, Italy: Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, Institut Universitaire Européen.Google Scholar
Taussig, M. T. (1980) The Devil and Commodity Fetishism in South America. Chapel Hill NC: University of North Carolina Press.Google 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
Thoré, L. (1964) ‘Mariage et divorce dans la banlieue de Dakar’, Cahiers d’Études Africaines 4 (16): 479–551.CrossRefGoogle Scholar