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PRIMITIVE TECHNIQUES: FROM ‘CUSTOMARY’ TO ‘ARTISANAL’ MINING IN FRENCH WEST AFRICA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2018

ROBYN D'AVIGNON
ROBYN D'AVIGNON*
Affiliation:
New York University
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Abstract

Since the commodity boom of the early 2000s, the visibility of ‘artisanal’ or ‘small-scale’ mining has grown in media coverage and development policies focused on Africa. This article argues that the regulatory category of ‘artisanal’ mining in Africa originated during the colonial period as ‘customary mining’. I build this case through a regional case study of mining policies in the colonial federation of French West Africa, where a single decree accorded African subjects ‘customary rights’ to seasonally mine gold and rock salt in restricted areas. By contrast, colonial citizens, mostly Europeans, accessed stable mining titles. Customary mining rights never codified actual African mining ‘customs’, as colonial officials argued. Rather, this law marked the boundary between the technological status of French subjects and citizens. Core elements of this colonial legal framework have been incorporated into postcolonial policies governing the rights of citizens to mineral resources in Africa.

Keywords

GuineaMaliSenegalWest Africacolonial administrationlawtechnologyminingrace
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 59 , Issue 2 , July 2018 , pp. 179 - 197
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

This article is based on research funded by the Social Science Research Council, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the University of Michigan. I thank the editors and anonymous reviewers of The Journal of African History. Earlier versions of this article benefited from conversations at the University of Michigan with Gabrielle Hecht, Stuart Kirsch, Mike McGovern, Davide Orsini, Derek Peterson, Rudolph Ware III, and Nana Quarshie. My deepest gratitude is to Linda d’Avignon, Falaye Danfakha, and to the village of Togué. Author's email: robyn.davignon@nyu.edu

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23 Ritual specialists oversaw mining because gold was considered the property of land spirits. Diourakuntigi were tied to clans whose ancestors purportedly created the initial human bonds with these spirits, cemented by blood sacrifices. See R. d'Avignon, ‘Subterranean histories: making “artisanal” miners in West Africa’ (unpublished PhD thesis, University of Michigan, 2016), esp. chs. 1 and 6.

24 My analysis of South African mining laws draws heavily on Capps, G., ‘Tribal-landed property: the value of the chieftaincy in contemporary Africa’, Journal of Agrarian Change, 16:3 (2016), 452–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar (464–66).

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36 AOF's mining laws were detailed in a ‘mineral regime’ (régime minière) and implemented by decree (décret). Centre d'Archives d'Outre-Mer, Aix-en-Provence, France (hereafter COAM), AOF/XIII/2/4, ‘Régime Minière’; ANS P/464, Barrat, ‘Note sur les mines du Soudan’, 21 Oct. 1895.

37 Ibid.

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40 ANS P/468, ‘William Atherton Report, Province of Bouré’, 18 Dec. 1902.

41 ANS P/464, Barrat, ‘Note sur les mines du Soudan’, 21 Oct. 1895.

42 Archives de la Direction des Mines et de la Géologie du Sénégal, Dakar (hereafter ADMGS), Orpaillage en Guinée (OG), Letter from Bidiane, Commandant de Cercle (CdC) Siguiri, to the GGF, Siguiri, 6 Sept. 1913; ADMGS OG, ‘Procès-verbal d'une palabre tenue a Fatoya’, 27 Jan. 1914.

43 ADMGS OG, ‘Procès-verbal d'une palabre tenue a Fatoya’, 27 Jan. 1914

44 Ibid.

45 ANG 3/Q/10, ‘Rapport du contrôleur des mines àGGF’, 25 Apr. 1909.

46 ANG 3/Q/10, Letter from David, ingénieur des mines, to the GGF, Conakry, 25 Oct. 1913.

47 ADMGS OG, Eduard Julian, ‘Rapport sur l'exercice du droit coutumier et l'amélioration des exploitations aurifères indigènes’, 21 Aug. 1929.

48 ANG 3/Q/10, Letter from the GGAOF to the GGF, Conakry, 2 Dec. 1913.

49 ADMGS OG, Letter from Bidiane to the GGF, 6 Sept. 1913.

50 ‘Décret du 22 Oct. 1924, fixant le régime des mines en A.O.F.’, Journal Officiel de l'A.O.F., 6 Dec. 1924, 735. The system ‘native reserves’ was implemented federation wide by ‘decree’ (décret). Lieutenant-governors of each colony determined the location of reserves by ‘ordonnance’ (arrêté).

51 ADMGS OG, Bardin, ‘Etude sur la viabilité des exploitations modelés’, 14 Nov. 1931.

52 Robequain, ‘Problèmes de l’économie rurale en A.O.F.’, 143.

53 ADMGS OG, Letter from the Minister of Colonies, Travaux Publiques, to the GGAOF, 7 Aug. 1932.

54 ADMGS OG, Julian, ‘Rapport sur l'exercice’, 21 Aug. 1929.

55 ADMGS OG, J. Malavoy, ‘Note sur l'amélioration de l'orpaillage indigène’, 24 Mar. 1931.

56 Ibid.

57 ADMGS OG, Julian ‘Rapport sur l'exercice’, 21 Aug. 1929.

58 ADMGS OG, Aubert, Inspecteur des Affaires Administratives, ‘Rapport sur la situation du commerce de l'or et sur l'exploitation des mines d'or de Siguiri par les indigènes’, 29 May 1934.

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60 ADMGS OG, Nickles, ‘Observation sur l'or dans le Houre-Kaba et le Fitaba’, Labé, 2 June 1939.

61 ADMGS OG, Goloubinow, ‘Prospection aurifère en Guinée’, 9 Aug. 1935.

62 ADMGS OG, Letter from GGF to the General Inspection of Public Works, 4 July 1934.

63 ANG 3/Q/10, Letter from Pierre Legoux to Fernand Blondel, Ingenieur en Chef des Mines, 29 Feb. 1934.

64 Robequain, ‘Problèmes de l’économie’, 146.

65 ANG 3/Q/10, Arnaud, Directeur des Mines de l'AOF, ‘Rapport sur l'organisation administrative, technique, et coopérative d'orpaillage’, Dakar, 11 Sept. 1944.

66 Ibid. ‘Secondary’ refers to deposits derived from the weathering of primary deposits.

67 Ibid.

68 Béréte began his political career in Guinea's Chamber of Commerce and later served as the President of the Territorial Assembly of Guinea from 1954–6.

69 ANG 3/Q/23, Letter from Union du Mandé to the GGF, Conakry, 18 Mar. 1947. Mamba Sano served in the French National Assembly from 1946–58.

70 ANG 3/Q/23, Blouin, ingénieur au Bureau Minier de la France d'Outre-Mer (hereafter BMFOM), ‘Mission orpaillage de Siguiri’ to Massoulard, CdC, Siguiri, 22 June 1950.

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72 Ibid.

73 ANG 3/Q/23, Letter from Framoi Bérété, President de la Commission Permanente, to the GGAOF and the President of BMFOM, 23 May 1950.

74 Ibid.

75 For a discussion of debates by African politicians in Sierra Leone's Legislative Council over mining rights, see Greenhalgh, West African Diamonds, 135–6.

76 Chanock, , ‘Paradigms, policies, and property: a review of the customary law of land tenure’, in Mann, and Roberts, (eds.), Law in Colonial Africa, 61–84Google Scholar; Berry, No Condition is Permanent.

77 ANG 3/Q/23, Letter from Roland Pre, GGF, to the GGAOF, Conakry, 25 Apr. 1950.

78 ‘Décret n° 54-1110 du 13 novembre 1954 portant réforme du régime des substances minérales dans les territoires d'outre-mer, au Togo et au Cameroun’, Journal Officiel de la République Française (hereafter JORF), 14:11 (1954), 10713–18Google Scholar.

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83 The World Bank's strategy for pro-market mining reform in Africa is outlined in World Bank, Strategy for African Mining (Washington, DC, 1992)Google Scholar. See also Campbell, B., ‘Revisiting the reform process of African mining regimes’, Canadian Journal of Development Studies, 30:1–2 (2010), 197–217CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

84 On the complex relationship between farming and artisanal mining in West African contexts, see Banchirigah, S. M. and Hilson, G., ‘De-agrarianization, re-agrarianization and local economic development: re-orienting livelihoods in African artisanal mining communities’, Policy Sciences, 43:2 (2010), 157–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

85 Mali did not revise its code until the 1990s. Portant Code Minier de la République de Guinée, Ordonnance 076, 21-3-1986; Code Minier de la République du Sénégal, Loi N 88, 6-8-1988, Décret n 89-907, 5-8-1989; République du Mali, Portant Code Minier, Ordonnance 99–032, 19-9-1999.

86 See fns 2–6, 10, 11, 84.

87 Banchirigah and Hilson, ‘De-agrarianization, re-agrarianization’, 166; Luning, ‘Processing promises’.