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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Conflict management across the Senegalese and Guinean border – the case of cattle theft
| Panel |
54. Guinea-Bissau: there must be a solution - djitu ten ke ten
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| Paper ID | 671 |
| Author(s) |
Giesing, Cornelia
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | Along the border areas of Senegal and Guinea-Bissau the frequency of plundering and cattle theft is correlated to the ups and downs of the political and military crisis haunting the area since several decades. Although threatening the very survival of the concerned families, the thieves, who may be soldiers, rebels, members of armed gangs or even village youths are not officially identified. The passive attitude of the victims might be related to their belief that no legal instance above the village level is willing or able to defend their interests.
It seems that the only solution is developing structures of self-assistance, supported by a large number of local communities, the decentralized instances of the government and different NGOs. In that context, local instances and specific instruments for conflict management are sought for, supposed to be accepted as legitimate and efficient by a majority of local actors.
In this paper I wish to present cases from the region between Southern Senegal and Northern Guinea-Bissau, throwing light on diverging interests and attitudes concerning the socially very complex phenomenon of cattle theft (for instance from the perspectives of the different users of the natural resources land and water, the war parties and civics, the generations, the ethnic groups, the neighbouring states, the national print media). The second part of the paper shall concentrate on actual practices and perspectives of trans border cooperation between Senegalese and Guinean initiatives.
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