Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T19:10:46.422Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Corporate Repertoires of Control and Performances of Power in a Contested Land Deal in Senegal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 October 2021

Abstract

Farmland investments have attracted numerous entrepreneurs and companies to Africa in the past two decades. However, acquiring, retaining, and exploiting large-scale landholdings is more complicated than it seems. Investors need to persuade governments and populations of their anticipated benefits and limit dissenting voices when they emerge. Focusing on a contested land project in Senegal, Gagné develops the concept of “repertoires of control” to analyze the different performances of power that companies deploy to assert and legitimize their land claims. She argues that to survive, companies must continually adapt these performances to changes in the political environment of their host countries.

Résumé

Résumé

Les investissements dans les terres agricoles ont attiré nombre d’entrepreneurs et de compagnies en Afrique au cours des deux dernières décennies. Toutefois, acquérir, conserver et exploiter une propriété foncière à grande échelle est plus compliqué qu’il n’y paraît. À cette fin, les investisseurs doivent persuader les gouvernements et les populations de leurs bénéfices escomptés et contenir les voix dissidentes lorsqu’elles émergent. Examinant un projet foncier contesté au Sénégal, Gagné élabore le concept de « répertoires de contrôle » pour analyser les différentes performances de pouvoir que les compagnies déploient pour revendiquer des terres et clamer leur légitimité. Elle soutient que, pour survivre, les entreprises doivent continuellement adapter ces performances aux changements survenant dans l’environnement politique de leurs pays hôtes.

Resumo

Resumo

Nas últimas duas décadas, os investimentos em propriedades agrícolas têm atraído numerosos empreendedores e empresas para África. Porém, a aquisição, manutenção e exploração de terrenos de grandes dimensões é mais complicada do que parece. Os investidores têm de convencer os governos e as populações acerca dos benefícios futuros dos seus investimentos, bem como conter as vozes dissonantes sempre que estas se levantam. Partindo de um projeto agrícola que foi alvo de contestação no Senegal, Gagné desenvolve o conceito de “repertórios de controlo”, analisando as várias manifestações de poder a que as empresas recorrem para defender e legitimar as suas pretensões. A autora argumenta que, para sobreviverem, as empresas têm de manter estas manifestações de poder em constante adaptação às mudanças verificadas no ambiente político dos seus países anfitriões.

Type
Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the African Studies Association

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

Ahmed, Abubakari, Campion, Benjamin Betey, and Gasparatos, Alexandros. 2017. “Biofuel Development in Ghana: Policies of Expansion and Drivers of Failure in the Jatropha Sector.” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 70: 133–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alden Wily, Liz 2011. “‘The Law Is To Blame’: The Vulnerable Status of Common Property Rights in Sub-Saharan Africa.” Development and Change 42 (3): 733–57.10.1111/j.1467-7660.2011.01712.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
APS. 2012. “Ndiael: les populations contre la délocalisation du projet de Fanaye.” Agence de presse sénégalaise, February 3. http://www.aps.sn/articles.php?id_article=90150.Google Scholar
Bachrach, Peter, and Baratz, Morton S. 1970. Power and Poverty: Theory and Practice. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Benegiamo, Maura, and Cirillo, Davide. 2014. The Senhuile-Senethanol Investment in Ndiael, Senegal: No Land, No Future. A Community’s Struggle To Reclaim Their Land. ActionAid, October, http://www.actionaid.org/sites/files/actionaid/no_land_no_future.pdf.Google Scholar
Bombolong, Marie Lucie. 2012. “Projet Sen-Ethanol: Les populations de Ngnith se braquent.” September 9. http://www.enqueteplus.com/content/projet-sen-ethanol-les-populations-de-ngnith-se-braquent.Google Scholar
Borras, Saturnino M. Jr., and Franco, Jennifer C.. 2013. “Global Land Grabbing and Political Reactions ‘From Below’.” Third World Quarterly 34 (9): 1723–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bregliano, Jean-Claude. 2018. “Adaptation: répondre aux défis de l’environnement.” Encyclopédie de l’Environnement, https://www.encyclopedie-environnement.org/vivant/interactions-adaptation-entre-vivant-environnement/.Google Scholar
Burnod, Perrine, Gingembre, Mathilde, and Ratsialonana, Rivo Andrianirina. 2013. “Competition Over Authority and Access: International Land Deals in Madagascar.” Development and Change 44 (2): 357–79.10.1111/dech.12015CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calzolari, Isabella. 2011. “L’inchiesta di Report sulla Tampieri: per i senegalesi è furto di terre.” RavennaToday, December 19. http://www.ravennatoday.it/cronaca/puntata-report-tampieri-faenza-senegal-18-dicembre-2011.html.Google Scholar
Chung, Youjin B. 2020. “Governing a Liminal Land Deal: The Biopolitics and Necropolitics of Gender.” Antipode 52 (3): 722–41.10.1111/anti.12612CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cotula, Lorenzo. 2013. The Great African Land Grab? Agricultural Investments and the Global Food System. London; New York: Zed Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CRAFS, GRAIN, & Re:Common. 2013. Who Is Behind Senhuile-Senethanol? Barcelona: GRAIN, November. https://grain.org/e/4815.Google Scholar
Deininger, Klaus. 2011. “Challenges Posed by the New Wave of Farmland Investment.” Journal of Peasant Studies 38 (2): 217–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dejene, Melisew, and Cochrane, Logan. 2021. “The Power of Policy and the Entrenchment of Inequalities in Ethiopia: Reframing Agency in the Global Land Rush.” In The Transnational Land Rush in Africa: A Decade After the Spike, edited by Cochrane, Logan and Andrews, Nathan, 215–34. Cham: Palgrave MacMillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diagne, Mbagnick Kharachi. 2012. “Senhuile-Sénéthanol démarre avec un programme de 137 milliards de FCFA.” Le Soleil, September 3. http://fr.allafrica.com/stories/201209031295.html.Google Scholar
Diagne, Mbagnick Kharachi. 2015. “Autosuffisance en riz. SenHuile s’engage à produire près de 30.000 tonnes de paddy.” Le Soleil, April 8: 10.Google Scholar
Diop, Aïda Coumba. 2012. “Implantation de Sen-Ethanol à Ndiael - Le gouvernement sort la carotte.” Wal Fadjri, September 1. http://fr.allafrica.com/stories/201209030811.html.Google Scholar
Diop, Aïda Coumba. 2013. “Sen Huile / Sen Ethanol - Les pérégrinations d’un projet dont personne ne veut.” Walfadjiri, March 15. http://fr.allafrica.com/stories/201303151312.html?viewall=1.Google Scholar
Diop, Cheikh Lamane. 2014. “Senhuile-Senethanol-entre opposition radicale et espoirs déçus: Les éleveurs déterminés à s’y opposer.” Sud Quotidien, January 3. https://farmlandgrab.org/22986.Google Scholar
Fall, Moustapha Cisse. 2017. Gestion foncière et décentralisation au Sénégal dans le contexte des acquisitions foncières à grande échelle: le cas de la commune de Ngnith dans le département de Dagana. PhD dissertation, Université Michel de Montaigne - Bordeaux III.Google Scholar
Gagné, Marie. 2019. “Resistance Against Land Grabs in Senegal: Factors of Success and Partial Failure of an Emergent Social Movement.” In The Politics of Land, edited by Bartley, Timothy, 173203. Bingley, UK: Emerald.10.1108/S0895-993520190000026012CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gagné, Marie. 2020. The Politics of Large-Scale Land Acquisitions: State Support, Community Responses, and Variations in Corporate Land Control in Senegal. PhD dissertation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.Google Scholar
Gagné, Marie. 2021. “Analysing the Constraints to Corporate Land Control: The Influence of Local Dynamics of Power on Large-Scale Land Acquisitions in Senegal.” Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne des Études Africaines doi: 10.1080/00083968.2021.1890628.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Books.Google Scholar
GRAIN. 2018. Failed Farmland Deals: A Growing Legacy of Disaster and Pain. June 6, https://grain.org/e/5958.Google Scholar
GRAIN. 2019. The Fight Against Senhuile Goes On! December 17. https://grain.org/e/6383.Google Scholar
Hall, Derek. 2011. “Land Grabs, Land Control, and Southeast Asian Crop Booms.” The Journal of Peasant Studies 38 (4): 837–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IPAR. 2012. Impact des investissements agricoles italiens dans les biocarburants au Sénégal. Dakar, http://ipar.sn/IMG/pdf/IPAR_Rapport_final_invest_Italiens_biocarburants_OK_1.pdf.Google Scholar
Kane, Abou. 2011. “Momath Bâ, directeur des opérations de Senéthanol: ‘Si le projet était arrêté, ce serait dommage pour Fanaye’.” Wal Fadjri, November 3. https://farmlandgrab.org/22111.Google Scholar
Kish, Zenia, and Fairbairn, Madeleine. 2017. “Investing for Profit, Investing for Impact: Moral Performances in Agricultural Investment Projects.” Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 50 (3):569588.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koopman, Jeanne. 2012. “Land Grabs, Government, Peasant and Civil Society Activism in The Senegal River Valley.” Review of African Political Economy 39 (134): 655–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
La Signare. 2014. “SEN HUILE: Les populations enterrent la hache de guerre.” January 29. http://www.lasignare.com/SEN-HUILE---Les-populations-enterrent-la-hache-de-guerre-article-117.html.Google Scholar
Le Soleil. 2015. “Entretien avec Monsieur Massimo Castellucci, Directeur General de Senhuile SA.” March 2: 16–17.Google Scholar
Li, Tania Murray. 2014. “What Is Land? Assembling a Resource for Global Investment.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 39 (4): 589602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liberti, Stefano. 2014. “‘We Will Not Cede Our Land to the Italians’ Tractors’: Senegalese Herders Resist a Project With Very Obscure Objectives” [translation by Re:Common]. La Stampa, March 25. http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/23325.Google Scholar
Lo, Saliou Fatma, and Fall, Samba Omar. 2013. “Projet Senhuile-Senethanol dans le département de Dagana: A Gnith, une unité de biocarburants fait renaître l’espoir.” Le Soleil, July 25. http://fr.allafrica.com/stories/201307251258.html.Google Scholar
Lukes, Steven. 2005 (1974). Power: A Radical View. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maiyo, Joshua K., and Sandra, J. T. M. Evers. 2020. “Claim-Making in Transnational Land Deals: Discourses of Legitimation and Stakeholder Relations in Central Uganda.” Geoforum 109: 125–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mbodj, Adama. 2012. “Les populations de Nguith disent oui au projet Senéthanol.” Le Soleil, August 10: 8.Google Scholar
Millar, Gearoid. 2018. “Co-opting Authority and Privatizing Force in Rural Africa: Ensuring Corporate Power over Land and People.” Rural Sociology 83 (4): 749–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moyo, Sam, Yeros, Paris, and Jha, Praveen. 2012. “Imperialism and Primitive Accumulation: Notes on the New Scramble for Africa.” Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy 1 (2): 181203.Google Scholar
Ndar Info. 2021. “RSE: la Ferme de la Téranga booste l’agriculture familiale (vidéo).” June 27. https://youtu.be/46qLkpIW0rY.Google Scholar
Ndiongue, Cheikh. 2012. “Souleymane Dème Directeur d’Exploitation de Sen Ethanol: ‘Les gens s’opposent à ce projet car ils sont contre le développement du Sénégal’.” Le Quotidien, November 7. https://farmlandgrab.org/21883.Google Scholar
Nettali. 2013. “Après la noyade de trois de leurs enfants: Les populations de Gnith s’en prennent encore au projet Senhuile.” Nettali.net, June 7. http://www.nettali.net/spip.php?article30783.Google Scholar
Nolte, Kerstin. 2020. “Doomed To Fail? Why Some Land-Based Investment Projects Fail.” Applied Geography 122:102268 doi: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2020.102268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nolte, Kerstin, and Väth, Susanne Johanna. 2015. “Interplay of Land Governance and Large-Scale Agricultural Investment: Evidence From Ghana and Kenya.” The Journal of Modern African Studies 53 (1): 6992.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peluso, Nancy Lee. 1992. Rich Forests, Poor People: Resource Control and Resistance in Java. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peluso, Nancy Lee, and Lund, Christian. 2011. “New Frontiers of Land Control: Introduction.” Journal of Peasant Studies 38 (4): 667–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poteete, Amy R., and Ribot, Jesse C.. 2011. “Repertoires of Domination: Decentralization as Process in Botswana and Senegal.” World Development 39 (3): 439–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prause, Louisa. 2019. “Success and Failure of Protest Actors’ Framing Strategies in Conflicts Over Land and Mining in Senegal.” Canadian Journal of Development Studies / Revue canadienne d’études du développement 40 (3): 387403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
République du Sénégal. Protocole d’accord entre Senhuile-SA et le Collectif des villages riverains du projet. Région de Saint-Louis, January 2014.Google Scholar
Ribier, Vincent, and Gabas, Jean-Jacques. 2016. “De nouveaux instruments financiers pour le développement agricole en Afrique de l’Ouest?Techniques Financières et Développement 3 (124): 5365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodriguez, Michaël. 2014. “Des villages piétinés par l’agrobusiness.” Courant d’Idées, April 13. http://www.courant-d-idees.com/article_752.htm.Google Scholar
Salverda, Tijo. 2018. “Facing Criticism: An Analysis of (Land-Based) Corporate Responses to the Large-Scale Land Acquisition Countermovement.” The Journal of Peasant Studies 46 (5): 118.Google Scholar
Schlimmer, Sina. 2019. “Negotiating Land Policies to Territorialise State Power: The Political Outcomes of Land Deals in Tanzania.” Revue internationale des études du développement 2 (238): 3359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seck, Mamadou. 2013. “Gora Seck, Président du Conseil d’administration de Sen/Huile - Sen/Ethanol ‘Comment Macky et Abdoul Mbaye nous ont permis de relancer le projet’.” GFM, March 29. http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/21884.Google Scholar
Stella, Emanuela. 2014. “In Senegal, a Clash on Land Leased From the Government” [translated from Italian into English by Re:Common]. La Repubblica, March 7. https://www.farmlandgrab.org/post/print/23261.Google Scholar
Sylla, Fara. 2012. “Projet Sen-Ethanol: Les populations de Gnith et environs adhèrent pour 137 milliards.” Enquête+, September 2. http://www.enqueteplus.com/content/projet-sen-ethanol-les-populations-de-gnith-et-environs-adh%C3%A8rent-pour-137-milliards.Google Scholar
Synergie Environnement. 2013. Etude d’impact environnemental et social. Projet Agro-industriel de production de graines de tournesol dans la zone périphérique de la réserve spéciale d’avifaune du Ndiael par SENHUILE SA.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles. 2006. Regimes and Repertoires. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tilly, Charles. 2008. Contentious Performances. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Welker, Marina. 2014. Enacting the Corporation: An American Mining Firm in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Wolford, Wendy, Borras, Saturnino M. Jr, Hall, Ruth, Scoones, Ian, and White, Ben. 2013. “Governing Global Land Deals: The Role of the State in the Rush for Land.” Development and Change 44 (2): 189210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar