1st Edition
Water and Land in the Sahel Mapping the Flow
INTRODUCTION
Perspectives on water and land in the Sahel: facing polycrisis
Andrea Pase, Angela Kronenburg García, Mariasole Pepa, Federico Gianoli, Marina Bertoncin and Carla Braga
Chapter 1 - Setting the scene
Unfulfilled futures. One hundred years of large-scale irrigation projects in the Sahel
Andrea Pase, Marina Bertoncin and Mariasole Pepa
PART I: Contextual issues
CHAPTER 2
Environmental crisis narratives in the Sahel and the solutions they call for: The case of Lake
Chad
Jeroen Warner, Andrea Pase and Angela Kronenburg García
CHAPTER 3
Layered crises: climate change, water insecurity and irrigation in the Sahel
Martina Angela Caretta, Mariasole Pepa and Edmond Totin
CHAPTER 4
The “glocal” nature of jihadist insurgencies? Conflict, space, land, and resources in the Sahel
Edoardo Baldaro
PART II: Cartographic sketches of the Sahel
CHAPTER 5
Defining the Sahel. B-ordering an area study
Andrea Pase, Federico Gianoli, Ludovica Crocitto, Luca De Felice, Michel Cherlet, Marina Bertoncin, Angela Kronenburg García, Mariasole Pepa and Carla Braga
CHAPTER 6
Land degradation and the Convergence of Evidence in the Sahel
Federico Gianoli, Mélanie Weynants and Andreas Brink
CHAPTER 7
Troubled waters
Luca De Felice, Federico Gianoli and Andrea Pase
CHAPTER 8
Shapes of the water: the rectangle and the circle. A tentative survey on irrigation in the Sahel
Ludovica Crocitto, Federico Gianoli and Andrea Pase
CHAPTER 9
The breath and the cage. Re-imagining the Sahel through mapping
Andrea Pase and Federico Gianoli
Interlude
The Sahel in historical atlases (1493–1789)
Chiara Gallanti and Chiara Forner
PART III: Complicated muddles of water and land
CHAPTER 10
Sudan: a 'picture' of irrigation spaces before April 15th 2023
Mariasole Pepa, Andrea Pase, Marina Bertoncin, Eltaib Ganawa, Abdelrahman Eltahir A. Musa and Mohammed Hamed
CHAPTER 11
Traces of irrigation: Some recent developments in the Chadian region
Andrea Pase, Aboukar Mahamat, Dobah Marsala, Marina Bertoncin and Mariasole Pepa
CHAPTER 12
The production of land insecurity and conflict in the Sourou valley (Burkina Faso)
Moumouni Ouande, Lassane Yameogo and Francesco Staro
PART IV: Connections, rights and conflicts
CHAPTER 13
Land and water rights in the Niger Inner Delta: between negotiation and conflict
Luca Pes and Ibrahima Poudiougou
CHAPTER 14
Ségou(s), the Niger and the other side of the river: how water tells the city in the Sahel
Elvira Pietrobon
CHAPTER 15
Changing patterns of resource conflicts in the Logone floodplains (Cameroon/Chad).
Between actors’ practices and development narratives
Aboukar Mahamat, Dobah Marsala and Francesco Staro
PART V: Towards a fluid research agenda
CHAPTER 16
COVID-19, polycrisis and metamorphosis: A reflection on doing collaborative research in, on and with the Sahel
Angela Kronenburg García, Mariasole Pepa, Andrea Pase, Dobah Marsala, Moumouni Ouande, Aboukar Mahamat, Ahmed Abdelwahid Abdelrahim and Francesco Staro
Ways of being-knowing and doing with water and land in Africa
Carla Braga, Evelien de Hoop, Angela Kronenburg García, Esther Miedema, Andrea Pase and Mariasole Pepa
Biography
Andrea Pase is a full professor of geography at the University of Padua. In the Sahel, his research interests concern territorial processes linked to water seen both as common resource and as the basis for the modernization of agriculture.
Angela Kronenburg García holds postdoctoral fellowships at UCLouvain (F.R.S.-FNRS) and the University of Padua. She is also affiliated with the University Eduardo Mondlane. As an anthropologist, she conducts research on the intersection of religious and land-tenure change, and on pastoralism, milk and social change in Kenya as well as on energy transition, anticipation and graphite.
Mariasole Pepa is a postdoc researcher at the University of Padua and an affiliate researcher at CEDEJ-Khartoum. She is interested in the transformation in the Sahel through the lenses of water and land as well as exploring alternative methodologies to research approaches, ethics, and practices.
Federico Gianoli is a geographer specialized in GIS and Geoinformatics, focusing on open-source data in spatial analysis. As a consultant for the Joint Research Centre (JRC-EC), he conducts research on land degradation and productivity dynamics. He’s also pursuing a PhD on these topics at the University of Seville, Spain.
Marina Bertoncin is an honorary professor of geography at the University of Padua. In Sahelo-Sudanese Africa her research interests concern the geography of the hydraulic territorialisation with a focus on the role of the irrigation projects for the local development (Lake Chad basin, Nile, Niger and Senegal River regions).
Carla Braga is associate professor of Anthropology at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of University Eduardo Mondlane in Mozambique. Her research interests cover decolonial readings of knowledge production about Africa, onto-epistemic dimensions of the current planetary crisis, nature governance and health.
"This is a brave book that collaboratively experiments with methods to look at land and water as essential resources during occurring and past crises. Operating with the notion of 'polycrisis' it criticizes using 'crisis' as spectacle; instead, the authors carefully apply long-term cartography and local experience to reflect on ways of dealing with insecurities caused by climate change, pandemics, famine and war, but also political decision making and international prescriptions. Thorough research and an eye and ear for the complexities around these essential topics make this book an essential read for everyone who wants to deepen their understanding of geographic, social and cultural ways of dealing with changes in the Sahel Region."
Andrea Behrends, Professor of Anthropology, University of Leipzig, Germany.
"Based on solid, in-depth, multi-year field research and a fruitful interdisciplinary dialogue between anthropology, geography and other social sciences, as well as between European and Sahelian researchers, this book offers an up-to-date re-reading of the Sahel and the ecological, economic and social dynamics and tensions that run through it, offering critical cartographic, interpretations and innovative keys to keep the focus on a territory in which we seem to have lost our compass and need to find our way back into a post-colonial pluriverse. A reSahelient read, to find new routes between water and land."
Egidio Dansero, Professor of Political and Economic Geography, University of Turin, Italy.
"An ambitious and original book on the multiple crises of the Sahel, examined from the perspective of the water-land relationship and from a wide range of perspectives: from ecological rhythms to development, from the long-term to current health and security issues, from social representations to public modernisation policies. Drawing on 30 years of research and mixed methods (field surveys, remote sensing, GIS), the 17 chapters, ranging from general overviews to localised case studies, weave the complexity of the material into the unity of Sahelian issues. An impressive achievement."
Géraud Magrin, Professor of Geography, University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France.
"Water is an extremely important topic, looking at drylands and particularly the Sahel. This book is a must-read for those who are interested in the backgrounds to the polycrisis in the Sahel and in drylands in general. Based on decade-long engagement with the region, it provides us with in-depth insights from a variety of disciplinary perspectives on the role of water and its connections with the daily lives of the Sahelians, political economy and conflict. It shows that our ‘solutions’ failed and that we need to refresh our look at the region and critically examine our narratives and prejudices about this amazingly complex world."
Han van Dijk, Professor, Sociology of Development and Change Group, Wageningen University, The Netherlands.
