Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T04:29:28.287Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Who's for work? The management of labour in the process of accumulation in three Adja villages, Benin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Jan H. B. den Ouden
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the rural Adja region of south-west Bénin there is a labour problem. People who want to expand their businesses need cheap and reliable labour, but such labour is difficult to find and to manage. The sort of ‘big men’ known as alo-su amè dji—those mainly interested in investing in and dominating people—would like to keep up the appearance of being a ‘big man’ with many people under their control, but they cannot avoid the modern temptation of aspiring to personal wealth. Their style of management is to use mainly domestic labour, yet they face problems as the young begin to distrust the intentions of their household heads: the latter are suspected of looking after their own interests, while their followers doubt whether they will get a fair share of the assets when there are so many of them in a large family. Furthermore, sons and dependants find a long, very low-paid ‘apprenticeship’ increasingly unacceptable.

There is growing awareness of the difficulties of working with domestic labour and of the splintering effect of redistributing assets between a great many people. A small but growing number want accumulation for themselves and a limited number of descendants. This new style is associated with the sort of accumulators called eho wu amè, people who try to maximise financial gain. They work with much less family than hired labour (and prefer a much lower rate of polygyny). But hired labour at economic rates is not easy to find and there are organisational problems.

Résumé

Dans la région rurale du sud-ouest Bénin il y a un problème de main d'oeuvre: ceux qui veulent étendre leurs entreprises ont besoin d'une main d'oeuvre sûre, loyale et bon marché, ce qui est difficile à trouver et à gérer. Le genre de ‘big men’ que l'on présente ici comme alo-sum amè dji, des hommes qui s'intéressent surtout à investir dans les gens et à les dominer, voudraient avoir et garder l'apparence de ‘big man’ en contrôlant beaucoup de gens, mais ne peuvent éviter les tentations des temps modernes et ils aspirent à un accroissement de leur richesse personnelle. Dans leur façon de faire, ils veulent surtout utiliser la main d'oeuvre domestique et sont de plus en plus confrontés à des problèmes, car les jeunes gens sont de plus en plus sceptiques quant aux intentions des chefs de leurs ménages: ces accumulateurs sont soupçonnés de n'etre intéressés que par leur propre bien-être, et leurs dépendants doutent qu'il y ait un partage équitable entre les nombreux membres des grandes families dans le processus de la redistribution. De toutes façons,fils et autres dépendants sont de plus en plus réticents a demeurer dans un ‘apprentissage’ de longue durée, période au cours de laquelle beaucoup d'entre eux considérent leur niveau de vie trop bas.

Nous constatons une prise de conscience de plus en plus croissante non seulement des difficultés à travailler avec de la main d'oeuvre domestique, mais également de l'effet dispersant d'une redistribution entre un grand nombre de gens. Une minorité, mais probablement croissante, de gens veulent de l'accumulation, non seulement pour eux-mêmes mais aussi pour un nombre restreint de descendants.

Type
Finding workers, calculating profit
Information
Africa , Volume 65 , Issue 1 , January 1995 , pp. 1 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barker, J. 1989. Rural Communities under Stress: peasants, farmers and the state in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Berry, S. S. 1985. Fathers Work for their Sons: accumulation, mobility and class formation in an extended Yoruba community. Berkeley, Cal.: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Cheater, A. P. 1984. Idioms of Accumulation: rural development and class formation among freeholders in Zimbabwe. Gweru: Mambo Press.Google Scholar
Fanou, J. A. 1992. ‘Stratégies d'accumulation en milieu rural au Bénin, le plateau Adja’. Thèse de doctorat, Université des Sciences et Techniques de Lille, Institut de Sociologie.Google Scholar
Hart, K. 1975. ‘Swindler or public benefactor? The entrepreneur in his community’, in Goody, J. (ed.), Changing Social Structure in Ghana, pp. 1–35. London: International African Institute.Google Scholar
Hart, K. 1982. The Political Economy of West African Agriculture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hüsken, F. 1989. ‘Cycles of commercialization and accumulation in a central Javanese village’, in Hart, G., Turton, A. and White, B. (eds.), Agrarian Transformations, Local Processes and the State in Southeast Asia, pp. 303–31. Berkeley, Cal.: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Kennedy, P. 1988-1990. African Capitalism: the struggle for ascendancy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Long, N. 1986. ‘Commoditization: thesis and antithesis’, in Long, N., van der Ploeg, J. D., C. Curtin and L. Box, The Commoditization Debate: labour process, strategy and social network, pp. 8–23. Papers of the Department of Sociology 17. Wageningen: Agricultural University.Google Scholar
Long, N. 1989. Encounters at the Interface: a perspective on social discontinuities in rural development. Wageningse Sociologische Studien, Wageningen: Agricultural University, PUDOC.Google Scholar
Long, N. 1992. ‘From Paradigm lost to Paradigm regained? The case for an actor-oriented sociology of development’, in , N. and Long, A. (eds.), Battlefields of Knowledge: the interlocking of theory and practice in social research and development, pp. 16–43. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ouden, J. H. B. den. 1986. ‘IIs ont déjà à Manger? Différenciation des droits de contrôle sur la terre dans un village Adja du plateau Dogbo-Tota, Province du Mono, Bénin’. Bénin: Université nationale, FSA, and Wageningen: Agricultural University.Google Scholar
, Ouden 1987. ‘In search of personal mobility: changing interpersonal relations in two Bamiléké chiefdoms, Cameroon’, Africa, 57 (1), 3–27.Google Scholar
, Ouden 1989. ‘A Three Generation Perspective: its importance for ethnographic research i n development studies: case studies from Cameroon and Bénin’, American Anthropological Association, Washington 1989. Wageningen: Agricultural University.Google Scholar
, Ouden 1990. ‘Ma Richesse est dans mes terres: différenciation socio-économique et stratégies, d'accumulation dans un village ‘riche’ du plateau Dogbo-Tota, Province du Mono, Bénin’. Bénin: Université Nationale FSA, and Wageningen: Agricultural University.Google Scholar
, Ouden 1991. ‘Nous faisons le commerce: analyse anthropologique des entrepreneurs et des entreprises dans un village Adja, Bénin’. Bénin: Université Nationale FSA, and Wageningen: Agricultural University.Google Scholar
Ploeg, J. D. van der. 1991. ‘Autarky and technical change in rice production in Guinea-Bissau: on the importance of commoditisation and decommoditisation as interrelated processes’, in Haswell, M. and Hunt, D. (eds.), Rural Households in Emerging Societies: technology and change in sub-Saharan Africa, pp. 93–113. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Swindell, K. 1985. Farm Labour. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar