Men wielding the plough: Changing patterns of production and reproduction among the Balanta of Guinea‐Bissau

Abstract

This paper is centred on the fast-track changes occurring among the Balanta of Guinea-Bissau-at present, the only ethnic group in West Africa still able to produce a mangrove swamp rice surplus with a manual plough-in their traditionally intensive farming system and their social organization, and on the consequences that these changes have had for gender relations, especially with regard to married women 0 s spatial mobility, sexual and economic independence, and access to land, labour, and capital. In doing so, the paper contributes to old debates about the relationship between means of production and gendered power dynamics in contexts where African societies based on domestic modes of production progressively embrace the market economy. The Balanta case offers a new layer of complexity to this debate due to their long-term resistance to westernization and market integration, their particular conjugal relations, and the paradoxical way in which women have been losing their traditional rights.

Moving toward the Biophysical Characterization of the Mangrove Swamp Rice Production System in Guinea Bissau: Exploring Tools to Improve Soil- and Water-Use Efficiencies

“…It was found that the Cafine-Cafal farmers could start soil preparation with a θg = 36%, while in Elalab, approximately θg = 20% was required (Figure 9). These delineations provide farmers with valuable insights into the strategic management of soil friability and ensure avoiding soil sticking to the manual plows that are commonly used in MSRPS practices [9,12,17]. This is consistent with previous studies on soil workability and friability for agricultural production, which aim to help farmers make decisions on tillage operations [41,42,45,46,48].…”

“…Among the West African countries practicing mangrove swamp rice cultivation, Guinea Bissau has the largest area occupied by this farming system [7][8][9] and the highest total production. This distinctive agro-fishing livestock farming system is based on the development of expertise (for dike and dam construction and maintenance, water management, control of soil fertility and toxicity, and selection of rice varieties) and the intensive mobilization of labor (e.g., for land clearing of mangroves, the construction of dikes and canals, soil desalination, and plowing) at certain periods of the crop cycle [8,[10][11][12][13]. Both the construction of dikes and bunds that delimit the plot and soil tillage are undertaken manually using a long iron-tipped wooden plow.…”

Between ‘forced marriage’ and ‘free choice’: social transformations and perceptions of gender and sexuality among the Balanta in Guinea-Bissau

“…I tend to disagree with their opinion, however. As I have argued in other works on these resilient rice farmers (for example, Temudo 2018), despite having very often been portrayed (even by themselves) as an example of a quasi-timeless traditional society, theirs has always been a society undergoing constant, though subtle, transformation. Like Cape Verdean youth caught between the changing tides of gender ideologies (Challinor 2017), Balanta interviewees spoke about tradition in marriage and extramarital practices in numerous and frequently contradictory ways.…”

“…Since the beginning of the anti-colonial war (1963–74), young Balanta men have increasingly challenged their elders’ authority. However, it was the combination of a prophetic movement, declining rice production, the Balanta's engagement in party politics and their adoption of a tree cash crop (cashews) that enabled a quasi-revolutionary transformation of the social organization of production and reproduction in less than two decades (Temudo 2018). Young men can now be initiated into manhood and create their own household very early in their lives, they can study and engage in private for-profit activities, and their access to young women has become relatively easy.…”

The (dis)engagement of mangrove forests and mangrove rice in academic and non-academic literature on Guinea-Bissau–a systematic review protocol

“…The existing infrastructure at this interface was severely affected by the colonial military attacks during the independence struggle [27]. The recuperation of damaged and/or abandoned mangrove rice technologies was then disincentivized by the structural readjustment of the economy beginning in 1985 [29]. This process has promoted cashew-rice exchange and further dependence on this cash crop.…”