Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


Hemmig dissertation final draft.pdf (1.54 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

What Development? Poverty and the Struggle to Survive in the Fuuta Tooro Region of Southern Mauritania

Hemmig, Christopher T.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1429830570

Abstract Details

2015, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures.
Like much of Subsaharan Africa, development has been an ever-present aspect to postcolonial life for the Halpulaar populations of the Fuuta Tooro region of southern Mauritania. With the collapse of locally historical modes of production by which the population formerly sustained itself, Fuuta communities recognize the need for change and adaptation to the different political, economic, social, and ecological circumstances in which they find themselves. Development has taken on a particular urgency as people look for effective strategies to adjust to new realities while maintaining their sense of cultural identity. Unfortunately, the initiatives, projects, and partnerships that have come to fruition through development have not been enough to bring improvements to the quality of life in the region. Fuuta communities find their capacity to develop hindered by three macro challenges: climate change, their marginalized status within the Mauritanian national community, and the region's unfavorable integration into the global economy by which the local markets act as backwaters that accumulate the detritus of global trade. Any headway that communities can make against any of these challenges tends to be swallowed up by the forces associated with the other challenges. The upshot is that Fuuta residents feel that life is getting worse instead of better, and there is a sense that their communities do not have a viable future. While they feel frustrated and abandoned by their own government and the international community, they cannot give up trying to survive and improve the quality of their lives. Fuuta communities remain ready to engage in partnerships through development, with the hope that partners be more willing to listen to the perspectives and expertise that local communities have accumulated through a half-century of development efforts. From their point of view, the institutional infrastructure of development needs to integrate itself with the grassroots to provide better support to local production, economic activity, and social services as communities struggle to overcome the challenges they face. To Fuuta communities, such an integration would embody their notion of communitarian solidarity (jokkere en¿am), which was the primary historical basis for the survival and flourishing of Halpulaar society in the difficult environment of the region. For the time being, development practices do not align with this ideal, while the international development community operates at a substantial remove from Fuuta populations. This work recommends that development organizations and scholars seriously engage the cultural dimension of local communities to better address the survival and livelihood concerns that arise from persistent underdevelopment.
Sabra Webber (Advisor)
Morgan Liu (Committee Member)
Katey Borland (Committee Member)
367 p.
Cultural Anthropology; Near Eastern Studies; North African Studies; Sub Saharan Africa Studies
development; Mauritania; grassroots development; solidarity; climate change; marginality; Halpulaar; agency; dependency; victimhood; cultural resiliency; poverty; underdevelopment; Fuuta Tooro

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Hemmig, C. T. (2015). What Development? Poverty and the Struggle to Survive in the Fuuta Tooro Region of Southern Mauritania [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1429830570

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Hemmig, Christopher. What Development? Poverty and the Struggle to Survive in the Fuuta Tooro Region of Southern Mauritania. 2015. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1429830570.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Hemmig, Christopher. "What Development? Poverty and the Struggle to Survive in the Fuuta Tooro Region of Southern Mauritania." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1429830570

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1429830570
2,458
© 2015, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.