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Environmental Decline and Ecological Response in the Upper Senegal Valley, West Africa, from the Late Nineteenth Century to World War I

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Andrew F. Clark
Andrew F. Clark
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Wilmington
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Extract

The upper Senegal valley of West Africa, like other areas of Africa, experienced a period of acute environmental decline and intense ecological response by residents from the late nineteenth century until World War I. French colonial strategies caused considerable disruption and dislocation, benefitting in many ways the colonial agenda which sought to regulate labor flows. African responses to the widening crisis, including movement within the region, migration to the peanut basin and the coast, and enlistment in the war effort, often served colonial interests while sometimes directly exacerbating the environmental degradation, necessitating constant ecological adaptation. This study of an early period of intense and well-documented physical decline, and the various strategies developed by West Africans to survive and overcome obstacles, can shed light on current environmental policy debates and issues.

Type
Ecology, Experienced and Imagined
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , July 1995 , pp. 197 - 218
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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References

1 An earlier version of this paper was presented to the African Studies Association meeting in Boston, MA, in December 1993. The author is grateful to David Robinson, Mohammed Mbodj and Roberta Ann Dunbar for comments. A revised version was presented to the History Department Research Forum at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in April 1994. The author thanks the participants for their comments and suggestions.

2 Watts, M., Silent Violence: Food, Famine and Peasantry in Northern Nigeria (Berkeley, 1983)Google Scholar; Kjekshus, H., Ecology Control in Economic Development in East African History (London, 1977)Google Scholar; Giblin, J., ‘Famine and social change during the transition to colonial rule in northeastern Tanzania, 1880–1896’Google Scholar, African Economic History, and ‘Trypanosomiasis control in African history: an evaded issue?’, J. Afr. Hist., XXXI (1990), 59–80Google Scholar; Maddox, G., ‘Mtunya: famine in central Tanzania, 1917–20’, J. Afr. Hist., XXXI (1990), 181–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar; McCracken, J., ‘Colonialism, capitalism and the ecological crisis in Malawi: a reassessment’, in Anderson, D. and Grove, R. (eds.), Conservation in Africa: People, Policies and Practice (Cambridge and New York, 1987), 63–77Google Scholar; Vail, L., ‘Ecology and history: the example of eastern Zambia’, J. Southern Afr. Studies, III (1976), 138–59Google Scholar; and Waller, R., ‘Tsetse fly in western Narok, Kenya’, J. Afr. Hist., XXXI (1990), 81–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 For a treatment of relevant issues in pre-colonial Senegambia, see Curtin, Philip, Economic Change in Precolonial Africa: Senegambia in the Era of the Slave Trade (Madison, 1975).Google Scholar For some preliminary findings on ecology and environment in the upper Senegal during the colonial period, see Clark, Andrew, ‘Economy and society in the upper Senegal valley (West Africa), 1850–1920’ (Ph.D. thesis, Michigan State University, 1990), esp. chs. 6 and 7.Google Scholar Food shortages in the immediate area of Bakel, Senegal, are treated by Chastanet, M., ‘Les crises de subsistances dans les villages soninke du cercle de Bakel, de 1858 à 1945’, Cah. Ét. Afr., XXIII (1983), 5–36.Google Scholar An excellent study of similar issues in colonial and post-colonial Nigeria is Michael Watts, Silent Violence. See also Nicholson, Sharon, ‘The methodology of historical climate reconstruction and its application to Africa’, J. Afr. Hist., XX (1979), 31–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For independent Senegal, see Colvin, Lucie et al. (eds.), The Uprooted of the Western Sahel: Migrants' Quest for Cash in the Senegambia (New York, 1981).Google Scholar A good geographical study of Senegal is Chamard, P. C., Le Sénégal: géographie (Dakar, 1973).Google Scholar For West Africa in general, see Church, R. J. H., West Africa: A Study of the Environment and Man's Use of It (London, 1957).Google Scholar

4 See, for example, Comité d'Information Sahel, Qui se nourrit de la famine en Afrique? (Paris, 1974)Google Scholar; Copans, J. (ed.), Sécheresse et famine du Sahel (Paris, 1975)Google Scholar, and ‘Droughts, famines and the evolution of Senegal (1966–1978)’, Mass Emergencies, IV (1979), 87–93Google Scholar; Franke, R. and Chasin, B., Seeds of Famine (New York, 1980)Google Scholar; Glantz, M. (ed.), The Politics of Disaster: The Case of the Sahelian Drought (New York, 1976).Google Scholar

5 See Clark, , ‘Economy and society’, ‘Internal migrations and population movements in the upper Senegal valley, 1890–1920’, Can. J. Afr. Studies (forthcoming 1995)Google Scholar, and ‘Slavery and its demise in the upper Senegal valley, 1890–1920’, Slavery and Abolition, XV (1994), 51–71.Google Scholar

6 The most important written documents from the period are contained in the Archives Nationales du Sénégal (Dakar: hereafter, ANS), and the Archives Nationales du Mali (Bamako; hereafter, ANM). Within the ANS files, see especially 2G: ‘Rapports politiques et rapports d'ensemble, 1900–1915’. Some additional correspondence can be found in the Archives Nationales de la France, Section d'Outre-Mer (Aix-en-Provence; hereafter ANF/SOM). Oral sources include the Clark Collection (I) in Senegal and Mali, 1986–88; Clark Collection (II) in Senegal (Bundu), 1991. See also Clark, , ‘Oral sources for the socio-economic history of the upper Senegal valley’, Raconteur: A Journal of World History, 1 (1991).Google Scholar

7 Some of the key published secondary works on the region include Curtin, Economic Change; Bathily, Abdoulaye, Les portes de l'or: Le royaume de Galam (Sénégal) de l'ère musulmane au temps des négriers (VIIIe–XVIIIe siècle) (Paris, 1989)Google Scholar; Cissoko, Sékéné-Mody, Contribution à l'histoire politique du Khasso dans le Haut-Sénégal des origines à 1854 (Paris, 1986)Google Scholar; and Gomez, Michael, Pragmatism in the Age of Jihad: The Precolonial State of Bundu (Cambridge, 1992).Google Scholar

8 On the ecology of the Senegal River valley in general, see the early chapters of Curtin, Economic Change. Also Pélissier, Paul, Les paysans du Sénégal: les civilisations agraires du Cayor à la Casamance (Saint-Yrieux, 1966).Google Scholar On the upper Senegal valley in particular, see Bradley, P. et al. , The Guidimaka Region of Mauritania (London, 1977)Google Scholar, and Chastanet, , ‘Les crises de subsistance’.Google Scholar On the Soudan, see Meniaud, Jacques, Haut-Sénégal-Niger: géographie économique (Paris, 1912).Google Scholar

9 These figures are based on those forwarded by Pelissier, , Les paysans du Sénégal, 8–9Google Scholar; Curtin, , Economic ChangeGoogle Scholar; Cavazzani, Ada, La region di Kayes (Mali) (Rome, 1985)Google Scholar; Bradley, , The Guidimaka RegionGoogle Scholar; and Chastanet, , ‘Les crises de subsistance’.Google Scholar

10 This discussion of drought is based on Rasmusson, E., ‘Global climate change and variability: effects on drought and desertification in Africa’, in Glantz, M. (ed.), Drought and Hunger in Africa (Cambridge, 1987), 3–22.Google Scholar

11 On Fulbe transhumant pastoralism, see Stenning, Derrick, Savanna Nomads (London, 1959)Google Scholar, and ‘Transhumance, migratory drift and migration: patterns of pastoral nomadism of the Fulani’, in , S. and Ottenberg, P. (eds.), Cultures and Societies of Africa (New York, 1960).Google Scholar See also Dupire, Marguerite, Organisation sociale des Peul (Paris, 1970).Google Scholar On pastoralism in Senegal, see Ba, C., Les Peuls du Sénégal (Dakar, 1986).Google Scholar For the Soudan, see Pierre, C. and Monteil, C., L'élevage au Soudan (Paris, 1905).Google Scholar

12 Archives include ANS 1G 41, ANM 1D 74, 121 and 223. Published works on the hydrology of the Senegal River and its tributaries include Barry, Boubacar, ‘Le destin des hommes du fleuve Sénégal du xvème au xxème siècle’, Historiens-géographes du Sénégal, 11 (1987)Google Scholar, and Braouezec, J. E., ‘L'hydrographie du Sénégal et nos relations avec les populations riveraines’, Revue maritime et coloniale, 1–11 (1861).Google Scholar

13 In the archives see ANS H (Santé) for Senegal; and ANM 1H (Santé) for Soudan (Mali). On the disease environment of Senegal, see Menes, R., Syncrisis: The Dynamics of Health, vol. 19: Senegal (Washington DC, 1976).Google Scholar For an example of the impact of the disease on French colonial policy, see Cohen, W., ‘Malaria and French imperialism’, J. Afr. Hist., XXIV (1983), 23–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14 On al-Hajj Umar Tal, see Robinson, D., The Holy War of Umar Tal: The Western Sudan in the Mid-Nineteenth Century (Oxford, 1985).Google Scholar For the impact of the Umarian jihad on the upper Senegal region, see Clark, , ‘Economy and society’, esp. chs. 4 and 5.Google Scholar

15 Hanson, John, ‘Islam, migration and the political economy of meaning: Fergo Nioro from the Senegal River valley, 1862–1890’, J. Afr. Hist., XXXV (1994), 37–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

16 ANS 13G 195: Bakel; ANM 1E 134: Kayes; ANM 1E 140: Medine. See also Roberts, R., Warriors, Merchants, and Slaves (Stanford, 1987), 144–5Google Scholar; and Kanya-Forstner, A., The Conquest of the Western Sudan (Cambridge, 1969).Google Scholar

17 See Clark, , ‘Economy and society’.Google Scholar

18 Chierno Djibril Sow at Niaoulé M'Baeygou (Bundu), 9. 08 1987.Google Scholar

19 Yiya Bathily at Kidira (Gajaaga), 26 April 1988.

20 Mamadou Boye Sow at Bidiancoto (Bundu), 27 08 1987.Google Scholar

21 On the 1905–6 growing season, see ANS 2G 5 (29) and ANS 2G 6 (34) for Bakel; ANS 2G 5 (11) and ANS 2G 6 (6) for Kayes–Medine.

22 ANM 1E 44: Kayes, 1906 and 1907; ANS 2G 6 (34): Bakel, 1906 and 1907. On refugee slaves, see Clark, , ‘Slavery and its demise’.Google Scholar

23 ANS 15G 124: ‘Kayes: Inondation, 1906’. Also ANM 1D 298, 299 and 300. Oral sources from Kayes include Mahamdou Soumaré, 11 April 1988, and Sow, Chierno Issa, 13 04 1988.Google Scholar

24 See Clark, , ‘Internal migrations and population movements’.Google Scholar

25 Archives include ANS H: ‘Santé’ for areas in the colony of Senegal and ANM 1H: ‘Santé’ for areas in the colony of Soudan français and its variously named successors.

26 ANS K25, 1906; ANS 15G 170, 1905. See also Clark, , ‘Slavery and its demise’.Google Scholar

27 ANS 2G from the relevant cercles for 1906–14. Interviews include Mamadou Boye Sow at Bidiancoto (Bundu), 27 Aug. 1987; Chierno Ahmadou Sow (Bundu), 8 Aug. 1987; Chierno Djibril Sow at Niaoulé M'Baeygou (Bundu), 9 Aug. 1987; and Chierno Bokar Sow at Gudinseyni (Bundu), 28 Sept. 1987.

28 ANS 2G, 1905–6: Cercles of Bakel, Kayes, Medine, Bafulabe, and Satadugu.

29 Archives on Kayes and vicinity include ANS 2G 11 (10), 1911; 12 (12), 1912; and 2G 13 (12), 1913. On Bakel, see ANS 2G 11 (37), 1911; 2G 12 (56), 1912; and 2G 13 (49), 1913. For Kayes-Medine in the early 1900s, see Delafosse, Maurice, Haut-Sénégal-Niger (Paris, 1912), vol. i.Google Scholar On grain imports, see Roberts, Richard, ‘The emergence of a grain market in Bamako’, Canadian J. Afr. Studies, XIV (1980).Google Scholar

30 ANM 1E 45, 1912; ANS 2G 12: 12, 1912; and 2G 12: 56, 1912.

31 See the census figures in ANM 5D: ‘Recensements, 1899–1914’. For Bakel, see ANS 2G 6 (34); 2G 10 (37); and 2G 13 (49). For Kayes, see ANM 5D 29 and 67. See also Clark, , ‘Economy and society’Google Scholar, and ‘Internal migrations and population movements’.

32 The deteriorating situation in Kayes can be traced through the monthly reports contained in ANM 1E 45; ‘Rapport politiques’, April to December, 1914. For Kayes, see ANS 2G 13 (12), 1913, and 2G 14 (8), 1914. For Bakel, see ANS 2G 13 (49), 1913, and 2G 14 (44), 1914. For the cercle of Kedugu, see ANS 2G 13 (50), 1913, and 2G 14 (45), 1914. For Niani-Wuli, see ANS 2G 14 (47), 1914. Interviews in Bakel with Harouna Alio Konté, 21 April 1988, Musa Diakhité, 20 April 1988, and Salif Tidiane Sy, 20 April 1988. For Kayes, see Diallo, Yiya, 12 04 1988.Google Scholar For Medine, see Gueye, Dema Issa, 13 04 1988Google Scholar and Kanté, Abdurahmane, 15 04 1988.Google Scholar For other areas of West Africa, see Baier, S., An Economic History of Central Niger (Oxford, 1980)Google Scholar; and Fugelstad, F., A History of Niger, 1800–1950 (Oxford, 1985).Google Scholar

33 The deteriorating food situation in the area can be traced in the monthly reports contained in ANS 2G 14 (44), 1914, Cercle de Bakel. In addition to the oral citations from Bakel and Kayes in the previous note, see Saliou Diallo at Turé-Kunda (Bundu), 3 10 1987Google Scholar; and Ibrahima Bokar Sy at Senudebu (Bundu), 3 11 1987.Google Scholar

34 Sadia Hamady Camara at Sadiola (Bambuk), 10 11 1987.Google Scholar

35 ANS 2G 14, 1914: 8, Haut–Sénégal–Niger; 44, Bakel; 45, Kedugu; and 47, Niani-Ouli. Interviews include Sadia Hamady Camara at Sadiola (Bambuk), 10 Nov. 1987; Sirare Ba at Bidiancoto (Bundu), 15 08 1987Google Scholar; Ousmane Ban at Lailakon (Bundu), 10 10 1987Google Scholar; Diko Diallo at Samé Sory Diko (Bundu), 4 10 1987Google Scholar; Yiya Bathily at Kidira (Gajaaga), 25 04 1988Google Scholar; Yero Cissé at Selibaby (Gidimaka), 26 03 1988Google Scholar; and Samba Gadja Diallo at Medine (Khasso), 12 04 1988.Google Scholar

36 See Clark, , ‘Slavery and its demise’.Google Scholar

37 The literature on the tsetse fly in Africa is extensive. See, for example, Ford, J., The Role of the Trypanosomiases in Africa Ecology: A Study of the Tsetse Fly Problem (Oxford, 1971)Google Scholar; Giblin, , ‘Trypanosomiasis control in African history’Google Scholar; Mulligan, H. W. (ed.), The African Trypanosomiases (London, 1970)Google Scholar; and Waller, , ‘Tsetse fly in western Narok, Kenya’.Google Scholar

38 ANM 1E 45: ‘Rapport politique, June 1914’.

39 ANM 1E 45: ‘Rapports politiques et rapports de tournées, Cercle de Kayes, 1914’; ANM 1Q 63: ‘Rapports commerciaux, Kayes, 1914’; ANS 2G 14 (8), 1914; ANS 2G 14 (44), 1914; ANM 1E 17, ‘Bafulabé, 1914’, and ANM 1E 69: ‘Satadagu, 1914’.

40 ANS 2G 14, 1914: passim.

41 ANS 2G 14, 1914: 8, Haut–Sénégal–Niger; 2G 14 (1914): 45, Kedugu.

42 This is most evident in ANS 2G 13, 1913: 49, Bakel, Oct. monthly report. See also 2G 13, 1913: 50, Kedugu, Oct. and Nov. monthly reports.

43 See especially the reports in ANS 2G 14, 1914.

44 ANS 2G 12, 1912; 2G 13, 1913; and 2G 14, 1914.

45 ANM 1E 45, 1914–18, Kayes; ANS 2G 14, 1914: 8, and 44, Bakel;. ANS 4D 59, 1915. Secondary sources include Michel, Marc, L'appel à l'Afrique: contributions et réactions à l'effort de guerre en A.O.F., 1914–1919 (Paris, 1982), esp. 479–81Google Scholar, and ‘Les recrutements de tiralleurs sénégalais en A.O.F. pendant la première guerre mondial: essai de bilan statistique’, Revue française d'histoire d'outre-mer, LX (1973), 648–50Google Scholar; Echenberg, Myron, Colonial Conscripts: The Tirailleurs Sénégalais in French West Africa, 1857–1960 (Portsmouth, NH, 1991)Google Scholar, ‘Paying the blood tax: military conscription in French West Africa, 1914–1929’, Can. J. Afr. Studies, IX (1975)Google Scholar, and ‘Les migrations militaires en Afrique occidentale française, 1900–1945’, Can. J. Afr. Studies, XIV (1980).Google Scholar

46 For an extended analysis of internal population movements and migrations in the upper Senegal valley from during the war years, see Clark, ‘Internal migrations and population movements’.

47 Interviews with Maudo Sirare Ba at Bidiancoto, 10 May 1988; Bubkar Issa Kante at Kanioube Mayo (Bundu), 22 Sept. 1987. Archives from 1914 include ANS 2G 14 (44); ANS 2G 14 (8); ANS 4D 59; and ANM 1E 45.