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Development of the Grain Market and Merchants in Burkina Faso

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Mahir Ṣaul
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Extract

Some recent studies indicate increased interest in the origin and evolution of food markets in West Africa, a development clearly related to the current concern with the food crisis and a desire to understand the impact of past economic processes and administrative measures on today's food distribution and production. Jane I. Guyer, for example, explores the implications of colonial policy for the direction of indigenous change in the economy of central Cameroun.1 Richard Roberts traces the expansion of the Bamako grain market to the demands of the colonial state and the employers of wage-work.2 The present article is conceived in the same vein. Its purpose is to describe the growth of a similar market in Burkina Faso, from its remote colonial origins to the developments of the last 20 years which shaped its present form, and thus to contribute to the understanding of the food sector in West Africa.

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Articles
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The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , March 1986 , pp. 127 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

Page 127 note 1 Guyer, Jane I., ‘The Food Economy and French Colonial Rule in Central Cameroon’, in The Journal of African History (Cambridge), 19, 4, 1978, pp. 577–97.Google Scholar

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Page 128 note 1 Campbell, Bonnie, ‘Social Change and Class Formation in a French West African State’, in Canadian Journal of African Studies, 8, 1974, pp. 285–306.Google Scholar The concepts of class and élite have also been contrasted by Kitching, Gavin, ‘The Concept of Class and the Study of Africa’, in The African Review, (Dar es Salaam), 2, 1972, pp. 327–50.Google Scholar

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Page 133 note 2 Ibid.

Page 133 note 3 The regulations introduced pay by the hour, minimum wages, social security, all supported and monitored by active labour unions, and resulting in a smaller gap between colonial and metropolitan wages. Coquery-Vidrovitch, Catherine, ‘L'Impact des intérêts coloniaux: S.C.O.A. et C.F.A.O. dans l'ouest africain, 1910–1965’, in The Journal of African History, XVI, 4, 1975, pp. 595–621.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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Page 134 note 3 Colonial administrators parcelled out large zones which today are the business districts of Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso, by tracing wide streets and sometimes forcibly removing the previous inhibitants. Some farming areas in the vicinity of cities were closed for other reasons. For example, Dinderesso, where the farms of the people of Tounouma in Bobo-Dioulasso were situated, was declared a protected forest.

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Page 135 note 2 This was sometimes due to the establishment of government export-trade structures – for Senegal, see Amin, op. cit., and for The Gambia, see Appleby, Gordon, ‘Marketplace Development in the Gambia River Basin’, in Plattner, S. (ed.), Markets and Marketing (Lanham, 1985), pp. 79–97.Google Scholar

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Page 137 note 1 Berg, Elliot, ‘Upper Volta’, in Comité inter-états de lutte contre la sécheresse dans le Sahel, Marketing, Price Policy and Storage of Food Grains in the Sahel: a survey, Vol. 2, Country Studies (Ann Arbor, 1977), p. 10.Google Scholar

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Page 137 note 3 Somé, op. cit. pp. 177 and 199.Google Scholar

Page 138 note 1 Ibid. pp. 289–91.

Page 138 note 2 Wilcock, David D., ‘The Political Economy of Grain Marketing and Storage in the Sahel’, Ph.D. dissertation, Michigan State University, East Lansing, 1978, p. 203.Google Scholar

Page 138 note 3 One U.S. dollar was equivalent to about 400 C.F.A. francs in 1984.

Page 139 note 1 For the importance of bank credit for the emerging local business group in Senegal, see Amin, op. cit. pp. 174–9.

Page 140 note 1 Somé, op. cit. pp. 195–7.

Page 141 note 1 The merchants are not alone in this pursuit. Investment in real estate is also very popular among civil servants, and at a smaller scale among less wealthy groups in the society. Those who cannot afford villas build compounds where families or bachelors can rent rooms. The sky-rocketing prices in urban real estate, as well as the rent which becomes a profitable return in the absence of alternative avenues for investment, make this an attractive option. Indeed, owners are to be found even in the surrounding villages (such as Bare, 30 km from the city) among those who have regular incomes, such as ex-servicemen on pension. The régime headed by Captain Sankara, however, has recently changed the situation in favour of tenants, notably by the decision that rent, during the year 1985, will not be paid by citizens, but only by foreigners and organisations to the Government. The situation described here is mainly based on information relating to the period before the August 1983 revolution. The measures of the current régime may transform Burkina Faso in a radical fashion, but the short time-span makes an evaluation of the new strategy difficult.

Page 142 note 1 For a brief recapitulation of recent political developments in Burkina Faso, as well as an evaluation of the transformation brought about by the revolution of August 1983, see the special issue of Politique africaine (Paris), 20, 12 1985, including articles by Pascal Labazée, Claudette Savonnet-Guyot, Claude Dubuch, Christine Benabdesadok, Bernard Tallet, and Yves-André Fauré.Google Scholar

Page 143 note 1 See Wilcock, op. cit.

Page 144 note 1 Ouedraogo, Marie-Michèle, ‘Origine des céréales consommées à Ouagadougou et problèmes de commercialisation’, in Notes et documents voltaïques, 8, 1, 1974, pp. 16–27.Google Scholar

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Page 146 note 1 Sherman, Jacqueline, ‘Grain Markets and the Marketing Behavior of Farmers: a case study of Manga, Upper Volta’, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1984, p. 111.Google Scholar

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Page 151 note 1 Cf. a similar system called ‘waybill’ by J. O. C. Onyemelukwe who describes it for Onitsha, Nigeria. Quoted by Jones, William O., ‘Some Economic Dimensions of Agricultural Marketing Research’, in Smith, C. A. (ed.), Regional Analysis, Vol. 1, Economic Systems (New York, 1976), pp. 303–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar