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Paper short abstract:

This paper traces different temporalities in the Sine-Saloum Delta, Senegal, their relation to movement and place and how frictions and resonances between them effect, manifest themselves in and get mediated by the practice of mollusc gleaning.

Paper long abstract:

The Sine-Saloum Delta can be understood as a meshwork of interlocked temporalities, (re)configured by humans and non-humans and again mediating movement and place. To inquire this meshwork, I follow the gleaning of mollusc, a millennia-old, yet recently commercialised, predominantly female practice. It takes place in the dry season during mbissa, the week long period when the tides' low points occur during the day. More than a 'natural' rhythm, mbissa is a co-product of tides and human's striving for catch in the situation of a dwindling ecosystem and accelerating commercialisation. And so today, although fuzzy around its endings and beginnings, mbissa sets the pace and (in)forms not only the days of the gleaners but also their relationships with buyers, creditors, authorities, spirits and relatives. It only gets suspended for feasts or mourning periods, and more recently, for moratoriums around the rainy season that should prevent overexploitation. These moratoriums are tied to the solar- rather than the lunar/islamic calendar and build on the harmonisation of rules across the many islands, yet are challenged by the historically grounded centralisation of state power and the sociocultural diversity of the delta dwellers as well as the increasingly irregular rains that shift, cut short or prolong the rainy season. Gleaning is thus a knot in the meshwork of different temporalities and as my paper will work out, has the ability to create both resonance and friction within human-human as well as human-non-human relations, movements and practices.