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From tidal swamp to inland valley: on the social organization of wet rice cultivation among the Diola of Senegal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Olga F. Linares
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Extract

Students of West African rice agriculture (cf. Dresch 1949, Mohr 1969) often distinguish between the Upper Guinea coast, where wet rice has been grown for centuries in permanent swamp fields recovered from the mangrove, and a more extensive area further inland, where the predominant form has been dry or mountain rice grown by shifting agriculturalists (fig. 1). The Diola of Senegal (Pélissier 1966, Linares 1970), the Balanta of Guinea Bissau (Espírito Santo 1949), and the Baga of coastal Guinea (Paulme 1957), belong to the first category. They transplant rice in inundated fields that are desalinated, diked, ridged and irrigated. In contrast, the Mande-speaking peoples of Sierra Leone and Liberia are mostly ‘upland’ farmers. They broadcast rice on rain-fed fields that are rotated and fallowed.

Résumé

Des bas-fonds du littoral aux vallées de l'intérieur: l'organisation sociale de la riziculture inondée chez les Diolas du Sénégal

Voici une étude comparative sur l'organisation sociale liée à la riziculture en terrains inondés, entre trois villages Diolas, représentant chacun une région écologiquement différente, situés en Basse Casamance, au Sénégal. Bien que leur éloignement respectif ne dépasse pas 80 kms., ces villages diffèrent nettement sur le plan social et politique, celui du droit foncier et de la division par sexe du travail. L'importance relative de l'lslam et des idéologies qui insistent sur des rapports asymétriques de rang et de statut est plus prononcée parmi les Diola influencés par les Mandingues, que parmi les groupes Diolas, plus isolés, des zones cotiêres.

Les différences de rapports de production entre les riziculteurs Diolas des marécages du littoral et les groupes islamisés de l'intérieur se retrouvent aussi dans le contraste que l'on constate entre quelques groupes “paîens” et groupes de la côte guinéenne parlant Mandé. Les riziculteurs Diolas ainsi que leurs voisins de Guinée-Bissau et de Guinée (Conakry) se-distinguent par une forme de gouvernement acéphale et des structures sociales égalitaires. Bien que trés divers, ces groupes de langue Mandé, cultivant presque tous le riz de colline et pratiquant la jachère, sont organisés en lignages fondés sur l'ancêtre et hiérarchisés; ils conservent également une forme d'autorité “centralisée” représentée par le chef du village, du lignage ou de la famille, ce premier étant considéré comme le “propriétaire de la terre”. Les effectifs des families paysannes sont généralement augmentés grâce au recrutement d'autres membres qui se trouvent en situation de dépendance vis-à-vis du chef de la maisonnée et forment une main d'oeuvre “captive”. Il s'y ajoute l'appoint constitué par une autre main d'oeuvre disponible par l'entremise de groupements de travailleurs agricoles réunis en compagnies.

Par ailleurs chez les groupes Diolas “paîens”, chaque individus est “propriétaire” des terres et dispose de facto de l'usufruit et peut donner ou mettre en gage des champs de riz cultivés en permanence. Bien que les tâches agricoles soient la prérogative des couples ou familles domestiques, on fait aussi appel à des groupes d'entraide plus larges, en fonction des besoins et par le jeu multiple des liens cognatiques, d'affinité ou d'amitié.

Les distinctions entre les groupes égalitaires pratiquant une riziculture inondée “intensive”, permanente (c'est-à-dire les Diolas, les Balantes et les Bagas), et les riziculteurs de langue Mandé, plus “hiérarchisés” et pratiquant une culture “extensive” sur les hauteurs, résident davantage dans l'organisation culturelle qui régit l'ensemble des rapports sociaux et des modes de production que dans certains facteurs technologiques, démographiques, ou économiques.

Type
Rice and Yams in West Africa
Information
Africa , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , April 1981 , pp. 557 - 595
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1981

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