Thesis (doctoral)--Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 2004 / Includes bibliographical references (p. 241-252)

Th.--Paris 5, 1971.

This thesis argues that the ideology of Naam (principle of power) is an essential and overlooked component in explaining both the logic of state formation, as well as the institutional continuities evident within the Mossi-Mamprusi-Dagomba states system. With reference to Igor Kopytoff’s Internal African Frontier Thesis, it understands this logic as a single, continuous historical process whereby states were formed and dismantled, broken in autonomous entities and (re)created as clones of a constitutive Naam ‘model’. This model also was negatively responsible for the genesis of acephalous non-state formations, composed of frontier men and women who escaped the stifling grip of the state. Specifically, the thesis argues that the ideology of Naam was the overarching principle that not only informed the expansion of the Mossi-Mamprusi-Dagombasystem, but also enabled the construction of a Mossi identity. Naam was ‘proposed’ in some places, and ‘imposed’ in others, through rituals, family-like associations, and the integration of indigenous groups into the sphere of political rule. Naam ideology was confronted with a fundamental contradiction: the Mossi ruled (over) people but had no control over the territorial basis of their rule. This contradiction was partly resolved through the extension of the discourse of power to the realm of Tenga (the sphere of rituals and earth-custody), by uniting the Mossi divinity (Wende) to the earth divinity (Tenga) and by tapping into the possibilities of a common belief, in order to buttress state legitimacy but also to articulate ‘Mossi’ culture on the basis of a shared idiom that transcended the dichotomy Naam/Tenga. This contradiction cannot be explained with reference to the materiality of conquest alone, as most accounts of state formation, within and beyond Africa, have suggested. Yet the process was informed throughout by violence of a different kind. The deployment of Naam in the realm of rituals served to mediate the gap between power and legitimacy; but at the same time, state power as discourse and representation concealed the ontological violence inherent in the Mossi state. It also concealed the limits of discourse in making valid statements on historical experience. In the Mossi case, pânga (a form of travesty/violent version of Naam), intervenes in the disarticulation of power from kinship by isolating the Naaba (king) from all forms of loyalties. An extended analysis of the consolidation of the Mossi state in the eighteenth century demonstrates how centralisation centred on the twin conditions of the necessary separation between kinship and kingship, and the integration of the stranger-kin as mediating agent at the junction of this divorce. The thesis will contribute to a better understanding of the role of ideology in state formation and society-making in the Voltaic region and West Africa more generally.

This dissertation explores the sustainability of the pugkêenga system of household cooperation as practiced by Mossi rural producers on the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso. Consistent with the sustainable livelihoods framework, this dissertation systematically compares the assets of two different types of domestic organization found among Mossi domestic groups today: extended and nuclear households. Similar studies in contemporary West Africa and other parts of the world suggest that globalization and modernization make extended forms of household organization unsustainable and impractical in the face of changing ecologies and the penetration of capitalist modes of production. This study challenges such assertions and contends that the material and moral configurations of extended households actually enhances their sustainability in the face of environmental and social change. The Sahel region, in which the fieldwork took place, has undergone a period of prolonged desiccation. The Central Plateau is also one of the most densely populated areas within the Sahel. These factors contribute to the high rate of migration for which the Mossi and Central Plateau are well-known. This research investigates these dynamics with ethnographic fieldwork, statistical analyses, and agent based modeling. The results of these analyses demonstrate that the pugkêenga system of household cooperation enhances the household livelihood sustainability under increased climate variability, population pressure, and migration.

Dissertation--Wageningen--Agricultural university, 1999. / Bibliogr. p. 411-423.

La mondialisation et la libéralisation des économies des pays pauvres influencent les systèmes nationaux de traitement des problèmes sociaux. Dans le cas du Burkina Faso, le désengagement de l'État de certaines fonctions agricoles s'est accompagné d'une responsabilisation accrue des organisations paysannes (OP) pour le développement. Or, nombreuses sont les OP opportunistes ou qui tournent à vide. Toutefois plusieurs OP arrivent à des niveaux de structuration et de contribution fort remarquables, témoignant ainsi de leur fonctionnalité et de leur capacité de contribuer au développement du pays. L'objectif principal de cette recherche consiste à identifier les phénomènes favorables à l'émergence et au développement d'OP au plateau mossi, La recherche privilégie l'approche qualitative et exploratoire. Elle s'appuie sur cinq monographies d'OP de la province du Yatenga (Burkina Faso), des entrevues informelles avec des paysans, des entretiens semi structurés avec 10 responsables d'organismes publics et privés de promotion coopérative, et une observation. Les phénomènes explicatifs de l'émergence sont : - Les conditions de privation : les privations (de ressources productives, d'aliments, de revenus, de soins de santé, d'infrastructures éducatives et sociales) traduisent des besoins régressifs ou aspirationnels, individuels et collectifs. - L'existence d'opportunités: les opportunités (les politiques de promotion d'OP, la présence des ONG, l'enseignement social des Églises catholique et protestante et la culture de travail collectif des Mossi) incitent les paysans et paysannes à créer des OP à partir de leurs associations traditionnelles actives. - La construction de schèmes collectifs d'interprétation: elle comprend un diagnostic des privations en tant que problèmes sociaux et un pronostic en faveur des OP. - La mise en place de mécanismes de mobilisation et de création d'OP : elle est constituée d'une part de la formation des potentiels de mobilisation et d'autre part de la formation de réseaux de recrutement et de mobilisation des membres. - La reconnaissance des OP: il s'agit l'adhésion de la communauté villageoise au projet et la reconnaissance juridique qui traduit la reconnaissance des OP par les autorités administratives. En ce qui concerne le développement d'OP, il est expliqué par : - Les réalisations: celles-ci montrent l'apport des OP dans la lutte contre les privations. - Les opportunités politiques: elles comprennent le désengagement de l'État, la politique nationale de promotion coopérative et les programmes spécifiques du chef de l'État. - Le calcul rationnel: celui-ci permet aux paysans de justifier les coûts de l'engagement avec les bénéfices retirés. - L'usage de stratégies paysannes: elles consistent à adapter les missions des OP aux attentes des membres, de s'affilier à un réseau d'OP et à diversifier les activités. - L'accès aux ressources: elles peuvent être humaines (leader, engagement des membres et personne ressource) et matérielles (du fait de la production de l'organisation). / The globalization and the liberalization of economies in poor countries influence national Systems in solving social problems. In the case of Burkina Faso, the withdrawal of state from certain agricultural responsibilities is followed by a growing responsibility of peasant organizations (PO) in the fight against deprivations and for development. However, there is a great number of PO which are opportunists or stays neutral. However several PO are being structured and their contribution is remarkable, and indication of their functioning and their capacity to contribute to the development of country. The main objective of this research consists to identify the phenomena which are favourable to the emergence and the development of PO in Mossi area. This research privileged a qualitative and explorative approach. It is drawn from monographies of five PO in Yatenga province (Burkina Faso), informal interviews with peasants, semi structured discussion with ten leaders from public and private organizations of cooperative promotion and observation. Emergence of PO is explained by: - Conditions of deprivations (of productive resources, food, revenue, healthcare, education and social infrastructures) indicate decremental or aspirational and individual or collective needs. - Existence of opportunities (politics of PO promotion, presence of Non governmental organizations, Social education of Catholic and Protestant churches and the collective work culture of Mossi) has incitative impact on PO emergence. - Framing: involves a diagnosis of deprivations as social problems and prognosis for the benefit of PO as main mean for fighting them. - Establishing of mobilization and creation mechanisms: It constituted partly by shaping of potential of mobilization and partly by shaping network for recruitment and member's mobilization. - Acknowledgement of the PO: social acknowledgement expresses the support of village community to PO project while juridical acknowledgement expresses their legal acknowledgement. This acknowledgment is illustrated by an official document (consent). Development of the PO is explained by: - Realization of PO: showing their contributions in fighting against deprivations - Political opportunities like the withdrawal of state, national policy for the cooperative promotion and specific programmes of head of State. - Peasant rationality: enables farmers to justify the costs (of engagement) with deducted benefits. - The use of peasant strategies: this consists in adapting the missions of PO to the expectations of members, to join PO network and to diversify activities. Access to resources: are human (leaders, engagement of members and resource person) and matériel.

Depuis plus de cent ans, les Mossi du Burkina Faso évoluent avec les migrations de travail. Entre les travaux forcés de l’ère coloniale et les flux migratoires actuels, la migration est devenue une institution centrale chez les Mossi. Elle s’est imposée comme une solution aux bouleversements engendrés par de l’économie de marché, la dégradation de leur environnement et les tensions internes. Il s’est développé un système normatif qui soutient et qui perpétue ces comportements migratoires. Cette intégration institutionnelle a cependant engendré un affaiblissement de la gérontocratie et du patriarcat ce qui a déséquilibré l’organisation sociale « traditionnelle ». À partir de la méthode de l’anthropologie du changement social, ce mémoire propose une étude locale et diachronique des transformations générées par le processus migratoire. Il explique comment la migration s’est institutionnalisée, quelles sont les conséquences sur les rapports de pouvoir et quels sont les innovations, les résistances et les métissages qui en découlent. Ainsi, les migrations de travail devaient être une réponse à la crise socioéconomique vécue par les Mossi, mais par son institutionnalisation, elles sont également apparues être l’une des principales causes de cette crise. / For the past hundred years, the Mossi of Burkina Faso have evolved with labor migration. Between the force labor of the colonial era and the current migratory currents, labor migration has become a veritable institution for the Mossi. It has imposed itself as the de-facto solution to the cultural disruption of a market economy, the degradation of their environment and their internal tensions. An entire system of norms has evolved from this phenomenon and continues to encourage and perpetuate this behavior. This integration into their lifestyle has had the side effect of diminishing the gerontocracy and patriarchal nature of their society, resulting in instability with their traditional social organization. Based on the anthropological method of social change, this dissertation proposes a local and diachronic study of the transformations caused by the labor migration process. It explains how the migration has institutionalized itself, what the consequences are on the power structure and what innovations; resistances and cultural mediations have been created. As such, the labor migrations that were intended to be the response to the Mossi society’s social and economic crisis have become, through its institutionalization, the prime cause of this very crisis.

Depuis plus de cent ans, les Mossi du Burkina Faso évoluent avec les migrations de travail. Entre les travaux forcés de l’ère coloniale et les flux migratoires actuels, la migration est devenue une institution centrale chez les Mossi. Elle s’est imposée comme une solution aux bouleversements engendrés par de l’économie de marché, la dégradation de leur environnement et les tensions internes. Il s’est développé un système normatif qui soutient et qui perpétue ces comportements migratoires. Cette intégration institutionnelle a cependant engendré un affaiblissement de la gérontocratie et du patriarcat ce qui a déséquilibré l’organisation sociale « traditionnelle ». À partir de la méthode de l’anthropologie du changement social, ce mémoire propose une étude locale et diachronique des transformations générées par le processus migratoire. Il explique comment la migration s’est institutionnalisée, quelles sont les conséquences sur les rapports de pouvoir et quels sont les innovations, les résistances et les métissages qui en découlent. Ainsi, les migrations de travail devaient être une réponse à la crise socioéconomique vécue par les Mossi, mais par son institutionnalisation, elles sont également apparues être l’une des principales causes de cette crise. / For the past hundred years, the Mossi of Burkina Faso have evolved with labor migration. Between the force labor of the colonial era and the current migratory currents, labor migration has become a veritable institution for the Mossi. It has imposed itself as the de-facto solution to the cultural disruption of a market economy, the degradation of their environment and their internal tensions. An entire system of norms has evolved from this phenomenon and continues to encourage and perpetuate this behavior. This integration into their lifestyle has had the side effect of diminishing the gerontocracy and patriarchal nature of their society, resulting in instability with their traditional social organization. Based on the anthropological method of social change, this dissertation proposes a local and diachronic study of the transformations caused by the labor migration process. It explains how the migration has institutionalized itself, what the consequences are on the power structure and what innovations; resistances and cultural mediations have been created. As such, the labor migrations that were intended to be the response to the Mossi society’s social and economic crisis have become, through its institutionalization, the prime cause of this very crisis.

Notre thèse porte sur les institutions royales des Mossi de l'actuel Burkina Faso. Elle analyse les dynamiques politiques, sociales, religieuses et culturelles qui expliquent leur pérennité. Notre recherche couvre une période allant de la fin du XVe siècle, moment où apparaissent les premières formes d'organisation étatique dans le Bassin de la Volta Blanche, à 1991, date de l'instauration de l'actuelle IVe République. Notre travail vise à rendre compte de l'imagination politique dont on fait preuve les sociétés mossi et leurs chefs : les naaba. Nous entendons déconstruire le concept de « tradition » trop facilement employé pour caractériser les formes d'organisation socio-politique africaines. Au contraire, l'histoire des Mossi révèle des dynamiques qui ont conduit à la formation puis à l'affirmation de l'idée d'État dans cette partie de l’Afrique. Nous analysons ainsi tour à tour la création des États mossi de la fin du XVe siècle à la fin du XIXe siècle, puis les processus d’hybridation politique et social qui ont été favorisés par la présence coloniale française. Les naaba, de leur côté, ont opéré un « tri » dans les formes de modernité induites par cette dernière. Enfin, nous rendons compte de la formation de l’État-nation qui, mené par les nouvelles élites africaines à partir de 1958, a été engagée soit en réaction contre les chefferies « traditionnelles », soit avec leur concours, mais sans que jamais leur statut ne soit officiellement défini au sein de la République. / Our thesis focuses on the royal mossi institutions of the current Burkina Faso. It analyzes the political, social, religious and cultural changes wich explain their preservation. Our research covers a period wich begin from the late 15th century, when the first forms of state organization was born in the White Volta Basin, to the birth of the current 4th Republic in 1991. Our work aims to report the political imagination of Mossi people and its rulers : the naaba. This study is an opportunity to deconstruct a concept of "tradition" too easily used to characterize the social and political organizations in Africa. On the contrary, the history of the Mossi reveals some dynamics that led to the formation of the idea of state in this part of Africa. We analyze the creation and the strengthening of the royal states from the late 15th century to the late 19th century, then the political hybridization process induced by french colonization. We show that naaba were able to make a selection in the forms of 'modernity' imposed by the colonial rule. A final section focuses on the formation of the nation-state from 1945 to 1991. We show how the new African elite tried to build a community of citizens, sometimes by tackling head on the Mossi chiefs – often considered by them as a dangerous opposition force –, sometimes by trying to reconcile them in order to facilitate the administration of the territory and the mobilization of the people from the political center. However, politicans in power could not resolve the issue of their official status within the Republic.

Abstract The focus of this thesis is early attachment among institutionalized infant orphans. Previous research has pointed towards attachment problems in dysfunctional institutions, but did not take a comparative approach to understanding attachment. The present research was conducted in an orphanage in Kaya, a little town located in the Center North Region of Burkina Faso, Africa. The 22 children at the institution were aged four months to five years and were mostly from the Mossi ethnicity. Using mixed psychological and anthropological methods such as behaviors checklist, attachment questionnaires, and participant observation, this research indicates that orphans do not display evident features of unsecure attachment such as avoidant, resistant, or disorganized attachment: 79% of the children would seek proximity with caregivers, 93% would make visual contact, and 79% would often explore their environment. However, a significant number of children in the orphanage showed disinhibited reactive attachment: 36% of the children would seek contact with a stranger; only 21% would be anxious to see a stranger. Using a cross-cultural approach, the study questions the classification of disinhibited reactive attachment as a problematic ailment and suggest that the behavior might not be seen negatively, but can have positive outcome in the transition process from the orphanage to the adoptive family. The research also examines the factors related to orphanhood that can have consequences on the future of children and consecutively on their chances to form secure attachment. The research underlines many other difficulties between caregivers and orphans such as the lack of training, the young age of the caregivers, and the reluctance to get attached to the children in order to avoid difficult separations. This study emphasizes the complexity of the early attachment process of institutionalized orphans.