Paper short abstract:

Drawing on an ethnography, I will analyze the trajectory of a NGO of sex workers in Mali. I will examine the national political and social context and the transnational dynamics and highlight the contradictions and tensions created by the interplay of stigma and extraversion.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation deals with Danayaso ("house of trust" in bamana), the only NGO of sex workers in Mali. With a membership based on self-identification of the members as "prostitutes", Danayaso advocates for the improvement of their living conditions and the recognition of their rights since its creation in the mid 1990s. Performing activities in sexual health, legal and social support, capacity building and income generation, the organization is dependent upon funding from western donors since it was founded. I will replace the trajectory of Danayaso within the national context marked by the democratization process since 1991, the mushrooming of "civil society" organizations that followed, and the growing internationalization of social movements in Mali and Africa in general in the 1990s. I will particularly focus on the dynamics of extraversion (i.e. dependency as political action - Bayart) in order to underline crucial trends that shape the Malian political and social space: the division of labor between state and donors for the government of social margins; the space provided by extraversion and particularly by the intensification of transnational advocacy for the empowerment of stigmatized and subordinate groups; the highly differentiated involvement of NGOs in national, continental, and global arenas. I will finally highlight the contradictions and tensions created by the interplay of stigma and extraversion in a context where "human rights" as well as "prostitution" are predominantly considered as imported issues from the "West". This paper draws on a doctoral research and is based on a one-year fieldwork ethnography.