Présentation

Conférence-débat organisée par l’IMAF : From Slavery to Aid. Politics, Labour, and Ecology in the Nigerien Sahel, 1800-2000

Présentation de l’ouvrage de Benedetta Rossi, paru aux éditions Cambridge University Press, 2015

Horaires

16h à 19h

Intervenants

Avec les interventions de :

• Frederick Cooper (NYU)
• Henri Médard (Université de Provence AMU)
• Ghislaine Lydon (UCLA)

Les interventions seront suivies d’un débat avec la salle.

Résumé

From Slavery to Aid engages two major themes in African historiography, the slow death of slavery and the evolution of international development, and reveals their interrelation in the social history of the region of Ader in the Nigerien Sahel. Benedetta Rossi traces the historical transformations that turned a society where slavery was a fundamental institution into one governed by the goals and methods of ‘aid’. Over an impressive sweep of time - from the pre-colonial power of the Caliphate of Sokoto to the aid-driven governments of the present - this study explores the problem that has remained the central conundrum throughout Ader’s history : how workers could meet subsistence needs and employers fulfil recruitment requirements in an area where natural resources are constantly exposed to the climatic hazards characteristic of the edge of the Sahara.