The World in the Garden: A Kaleidoscopic History of Place-making, Land, Security, and Environmentalism in a West African Urban Garden Público

Abstract

This thesis seeks to examine the world through the lens of the Gardens of Bolomakoté-Kuinima, a vast collection of urban market-vegetable gardens in Burkina Faso’s second largest city. It explores how the Gardens are entangled in some of Burkina Faso’s central tensions; land sovereignty; political power and corruption; economic autonomy and economic development; military and social stability. The first chapter explores the history of the French conquest and colonization of the Southwestern region of Burkina Faso, and the violence in which the Gardens emerged as a form of forced labor for the colonial administration. I argue that the decision of elder gardeners to expand the Gardens of Bolomakoté-Kuinima in the 1970s transformed the Gardens from a site of violence and repression into a tool for cultural and economic autonomy. The second chapter complicates this sense of autonomy by discussing Burkina Faso’s fraught history of land tenure as it relates to the Gardens. A proximity to Bobo Dioulasso’s military camp led to an attempted eviction in 2019 which threatened the existence of the Gardens. The precarity of the land on which the gardeners build their livelihoods has led to significant economic insecurity for the gardeners. Moreover, this precarity reflects a wider history of struggle over land in Africa which was exacerbated during the colonial period, and manifests in different ways across the continent. The relationship between the military, the Gardens, and both environmental and security crises is explored further in chapter three, which tackles the rising armed conflict in Burkina Faso, and explores how the historical resilience of the gardeners can shift the way we think about militarization and security. I argue that rising militaristic rhetoric around security ignores the socio-economic factors that are crucial to both exacerbating, and abating insecurity. I use the Gardens of Bolomakoté-Kuinima as a window through which to explore the history of agricultural resilience and dynamic adaptation to the convergence of social and environmental crisis in Burkina Faso. I argue that they can be used to conceptualize approaches to security which include social and economic approaches that encourage self-sufficiency and uplift communities who have proven incredible resilience to crisis.

Table of Contents

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………8

“We Live Our Lives Here”: The Construction Economic Autonomy with Colonized Seeds…...19

Dynamic Tradition on Contested Land……………………………………………………..……37

Planting Seeds in a Hurricane: Why Gardening Still Matters in the Midst of War…………..….52

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………….……70

Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………….72

About this Honors Thesis

Rights statement

• Permission granted by the author to include this thesis or dissertation in this repository. All rights reserved by the author. Please contact the author for information regarding the reproduction and use of this thesis or dissertation.

School	Emory College
Department	History
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	African Studies Agriculture, General History, African
Palabra Clave	Bolomakote Kuinima Burkina Faso Land urban garden Bobo Dioulasso market gardening Kounima agriculture Security urban farm
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Clifton Crais, Emory University
Committee Members	Susan E. Gagliardi, Emory University Mariana Candido, Emory University

Última modificación

Primary PDF

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Actions
	The World in the Garden: A Kaleidoscopic History of Place-making, Land, Security, and Environmentalism in a West African Urban Garden ()	2023-04-10 10:46:53 -0400	Press to Select an action Download

Supplemental Files

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Actions