ECAS 2013

During the last two decades, the persistence of the poverty and the dramatic increase of inequalities question the social durability of the development, especially the one of African rural societies. Many factors have reinforced their marginalization: globalization, multi-polarization of the world, urbanization, increase pressure on local resources, liberalization of agricultural chains, "desagrarianization", and their consequences on rural livelihoods. Furthermore, forms of disconnection and disintegration of social solidarities have increased the inequalities between social groups and between individuals.

To-day, youth are the majority group. Facing dramatically the various blockages of rural societies, they are subjected to huge competition between themselves too. Mobility between rural space of origin and various business centers, towns or cities, on short or long distance, in order to benefit from the globalization mainly through petty business, is the only way to survive or to start accumulating. Access to mobility is quite unequal as is the capacity of families and individuals to develop socio-economical activities in various places at the same time and to activate a field of movements which allows them getting various resources.

According to the fact that the one who has the capacity to move is the same who has been endowed with multiple resources: social capital (connection to networks, good social position,…), human (education, qualification, family environment), financial, material (land, …) etc., this paper will investigate the factors of inequalities between the youth and their capacities to move between rural and urban areas and will analyze the consequences on the rural-urban dichotomy.

Depuis le triomphe des idéologies libérales en Afrique tropicale, la demande citadine en vivres connait une explosion sans précédent, car l'approvisionnement des villes en produits importés est devenu plus difficile. On assista alors à une sorte de basculement quasi généralisé vers la consommation de productions agricoles locales qui sont devenues aussi marchandes que les anciennes cultures de rente. Cette complémentarité croissante contribue à une réorganisation des espaces qu'on peut observer dans la périphérie des villes, mais aussi dans des espaces plus éloignés des centres de consommation. L'extension spectaculaire du vivrier marchand a profondément modifié les terroirs agricoles mais aussi la société dans son ensemble, car les couches sociales défavorisées comme les femmes et les jeunes ont profité de l'occasion pour renégocier leurs places dans la société. L'intensification des échanges entre la ville et la campagne a conforté la position de la campagne par rapport à la ville, d'où un réajustement de leurs relations.

India and some African countries (mainly in Eastern and South Africa) have long-term connections due to the British colonization. An Indian "diaspora" (around 2 million people) developed in Africa as descendant of "indentured people" (farm workers under contract) or of "free passengers" (traders). Businessmen of Indian origin are mainly located in towns (main urban centers) but an important part of the population is leaving in rural areas and small and medium towns. They have been playing an important role in the rural-urban linkages as traders (supplying rural areas).

Recently, new Indian actors are investing in Africa. A public policy of development has been implementing for a decade, with the multiplication of commercial agreements (mineral resources) and the implementation of investments in fields like education or health. Private investors and entrepreneurs are also very active in direct investments, in the development of joint ventures on in land grabbing. India groups like Tata or Bharti Airtel are main actors of transport and communication development in Africa, spreading from traditional partners countries to other ones (French speaking Africa).

New issues are at stake such as the relationships between the "diaspora" and new actors and the economic and social impacts of these changes on Africa territories.

The paper aims to discuss the role of Indian actors, "old" and "new" ones, in the development of Africa rural-urban linkages, at different scales.

Around the African metropolises, farming takes specific forms connected to the closeness of the city. The aim of this communication is to investigate the relations between farming and metropolization around Abidjan, metropolis of 5 million inhabitants.

An autochthonous agriculture exists for a long time. It unevenly resisted and evolved. New forms of agriculture appear.

But are these new forms of farming only connected to the growth of the city, which influences the cost of the land and the development of an urban market? Or are they in connection with the new functions of a metropolis opened on the whole world?

It seems that the evolution of farming around Abidjan is more in connection with the simple urban growth than with phenomena of metropolization as we can find them around other world big cities (as Shanghai or Cape Town for example). This situation seems to be connected with the weak role of the Ivory Coast capital at the world level. It is what we will try to demonstrate in this communication, on basis of field works realized in the 2010s.

Stimuli of livelihood transformation in Africa. The cases of Bamileke (Western Cameroon) and Maasai (Tanzania)

by

Joseph Lukumay (PHD, Université Toulouse le Mirail, France) and Jérémy Pasini (PHD, Université Toulouse le Mirail, France)

This paper will explore the relationship between policies, infrastructures, social and geographical characteristics and ICT's (particularly, mobile phones) in Livelihood transformation and rural-urban linkages specifically for Bamileke (Cameroon) and Maasai (Tanzania). This study is justified by the fact that both tribes are rural communities which different approach to livelihoods (Maasai are traditionally pastoralist, whereas the Bamileke country has always been dominated by agriculture). Moreover, both depended on mobility as a livelihoods strategy. On the Maasai side, rural-rural mobility was the fashion in search for pastures for the cattle. Circulatory migrations between urban and rural areas are now incorporated in their livelihoods strategies. On the Bamileke side, there were pushed out of their territories to work for the colonials. Recently, they exhibit voluntary circulatory migration between urban and rural areas depending on the prevailing conditions. The study aims at answering the question: "What matters the most in influencing livelihoods changes in the context of the two ethnic groups?"

Since the 1990's, in the south- west of Madagascar, rural mobilty and exchanges are increased with the development of new rural/urban links. Many factors contributed to this change : the growth ofToliara the capital region and the opening of the countryside. Furthemore, new forms of agriculture appear with the best accessibility of the urban markets. Indo-pakistani shopkeepers setting up in town have stimulated productions for export and the autochtonous agriculture also contribute to urban needs. However, we can note an increase pressure on local ressources, especially wood : deforestation affects all rural areas around the region capital, and economics migrants (climatics refugees from the South affected by the drought) strongly contributed to the actual wood trade.

Our contribution will focus on analysing the building of the renewal links, the new dynamics between Toliara's city and rural areas in the context of globalization.

Since the 1980's, starting from Kenyan, then spreading to neighboring countries, the rose industry has tremendously risen in East Africa which now supplies one third of the European and Russian markets.

Originally, it was set up by Western companies in their search to escape high energy prices in post 1973 oil-shock Europe. Build upon foreign capital and know how, it targets equatorial highlands where it relies mainly on access to cheap land (whatever the origin is: whether colonial or postcolonial), exploitation of cheap salaries and quiet man power and free environmental services such as water, light and sun energy. It also relies on tax arrangements and exemption. One condition for such investments to be profitable is the proximity of a reliable international airport. With time, beside foreign investors, local investors have appeared.

As a geographical result, the industry as a whole has built a hybrid structure: agriculturally oriented, morphologically and sociologically "rurban" and directly berthed to international metropolis with a smooth cool-chain. This type of structure seems quite new for Sub Saharan Africa.

The paper will focus on describing the fabric of such new localized productive systems based on Eastern Africa examples. It fits with the panel's topic in that it aims at analyzing the new rural-urban links in Africa.