VIOLENCE AND REGULATION IN THE DARFUR-CHAD BORDERLAND<i>c</i>. 1909–56: POLICING A COLONIAL BOUNDARY

Vaughan, Chris

doi:10.1017/s0021853713000285

Cited by 15 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“… 3 While this work has done much to destabilize strict binaries between domination and resistance, they should not, as argued by Vaughan (2013), be taken to suggest an ephemeral or limited influence of the state and its borders on its subjects’ lives. The case of South-Western Niger strongly supports Vaughan's argument.…”

mentioning

confidence: 85%

“…The first is the long-standing scholarship within the region that recognizes the limited power of the colonial state and thus treats the relationship between the colonial state and its subjects as a negotiated one. The work of Sara Berry figures prominently here (Berry 1992; 1993), as do works that point specifically to the limits of the colonial state to constrain, monitor and regulate the movement of people, goods and livestock (see, for example, Bierschenk 1992; Clauzel 1992; Painter 1994; Chalfin 2001; Dedering 2006; Vaughan 2013). 3 In the case of South-Western Niger, such ‘negotiations’ were not necessarily face to face but instead involved significant levels of attention to and monitoring of the actions of each party by the other, and a succession of subsequent reactions over time.…”

Section: Borderlands and The Negotiation Of State Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The artificiality of these borders, both socially and ecologically, is not in question (Thom 1971; Miles 1994). Recent writings treat borders not as fixed lines on maps but as broader spaces inhabited by people who move within and across them (see Raeymaekers 2009; Mechlinski 2010; Doevenspeck 2011; Vaughan 2013; Cormack 2016). In this way, borderlands are social spaces that are produced and enacted by (often rural) residents.…”

Section: Borderlands and The Negotiation Of State Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Livestock mobility and the territorial state: South-Western Niger (1890–1920)

Turner¹

2017

Africa

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Colonial rule in West Africa initiated the incorporation of mobile people, particularly pastoralists, into Western territorial states. This article reports on the early period of French colonial rule of the area that is now South-Western Niger – a strategically important area with respect to territorial competition among the French colonies of Dahomey and Soudan (later the colonies of Senegambia and Niger) as well as the British colony of Nigeria. Building from the study of contemporary patterns of livestock mobility and their logics, archival and secondary literatures are used to develop an understanding of dominant herd mobility patterns at the time (transhumance for grazing and trekking to distant markets); the importance of livestock as a source of tax revenue; colonial anxieties about the loss of livestock from within their borders; and efforts of colonial administrators to reduce the potential loss of livestock from their territories. This case illustrates the limitations of the territorial state model where the state lacks sufficient power over mobile subjects utilizing a sparse and fluctuating resource base. The actions of French administrators and Fulɓe pastoralists worked as a form of ‘hands-off’ negotiation, with each group monitoring and reacting to the actions of the other. Due to the limitations of colonial state control, the existence of boundaries elicited greater monitoring of livestock movements by colonial administrators but also increased the leverage held by mobile pastoralists as the French sought to increase the attractiveness of their territory to the principal managers of its wealth (livestock). The proximity of borders to the study area complicated the task of French colonial administrators, who necessarily became increasingly focused on monitoring the movements of their subjects (labour and capital) to avoid their possible escape as they moved within the borderlands of what is now South-Western Niger. The limits of colonial power to monitor and control these movements led administrators to initiate policies favouring pastoralists.

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confidence: 85%