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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 July 2022
This paper aims to show the relevance that institutions governing common-pool resources (CPRs) play in peasant resilience. It outlines nine variables for resilience taken from socio-economic and ecological anthropological theories focusing on subsistence and minimax strategies and used for the comparative historical analysis of African case studies. These include drylands (Morocco, Ghana), semi-arid areas (Sierra Leone, Malawi, Tanzania) and wetlands (Cameroon, Kenya, Zambia). The variables could be found under pre-colonial common property but were no longer operating during colonial and postcolonial institutional change from common to state property and privatisation via land grabbing, leading to commons and resilience grabbing.
Cet article vise à démontrer le rôle majeur que jouent les institutions régissant l'ensemble des ressources offertes par les biens communaux dans la résilience paysanne. Sont présentées neuf variables de résilience tirées de travaux proposant diverses théories, d'une part en socio économie et d'autre part en anthropologie écologique, axées sur les stratégies de subsistance et de ‘mini-max'. Ces variables sont mises en œuvre, en anthropologie sociale, pour procéder à l'analyse historique comparative d'études de cas en Afrique. Il s'agit aussi bien de zones arides (Maroc, Ghana), de zones semi-arides (Sierra Leone, Malawi, Tanzanie) que de zones humides (Cameroun, Kenya, Zambie). Ces variables existaient au sein des coutumes gérant les biens communaux à l'époque précoloniale, mais elles ne furent plus d'usage ensuite, ni pendant la période coloniale, ni en période post-coloniale. La décolonisation entraîna un changement institutionnel, avec la nationalisation des biens communaux, devenus propriété de l'État, suivie de leur privatisation via l'accaparement des terres correspondantes, conduisant à l’accaparement de la résilience paysanne.
Dieser Beitrag versucht zu zeigen, dass Institutionen zur Lenkung gemeinsamer Ressourcen eine bedeutende Rolle für bäuerliche Widerstandkraft spielen. Er skizziert neun Variablen der Widerstandskraft, die sozioökonomischen und ökologischen Theorien, in deren Zentrum Subsistenz- und Minimax-Strategien stehen, entnommen sind und für die vergleichende historische Analyse afrikanischer Fallstudien nutzbar gemacht werden. Dazu zählen u. a. Trockengebiete (Marokko, Ghana), halbtrockene Gebiete (Sierra Leone, Malawi, Tansania) und Feuchtgebiete (Kamerun, Kenia, Sambia). Diese Variablen ließen sich für präkoloniales Gemeineigentum finden, waren aber während der kolonialen und postkolonialen institutionellen Veränderungen, die mit dem Übergang von gemeindlichem zu staatlichem Bodeneigentum und der Privatisierung durch Landnahme einher gingen, nicht mehr wirksam, was zu gemeindlicher und widerständiger Aneignung führte.
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