Paper short abstract:

Based on a recent survey, this proposal aims to document land transactions in eight areas representatives of the new peri-urban parcelling operations. It examines the sales prices and variations in metropolitan peripheries, which have doubled the urbanised surface of Bamako in the last two decades.

Paper long abstract:

According to previous analyses in Bamako, land markets mainly affect the urban periphery, the already established city experiencing fewer transactions and being more affected by the critical issue of securing properties. However, the sources of information on these transactions are scarce. The Land register gives an idea about the titling process' impact on the land value collected by the country's political and economic elites, but no mention of their preliminary acquisitions price. The influence of this property registration on other legitimacies of sale and subdivision, more numerous, is hardly informed in terms of the cost for ordinary access to land and the ongoing speculative resales. Online advertisements of plots and houses for sale concern only a few candidates and rarely indicate bases of negotiation.

Looking at a representative sample of peri-urban settlements in a large spectrum of formal to informal parcelling operations, we analyse the sales reported by 287 informants surveyed in 2022. We first characterise the sellers, buyers and intermediaries involved recently in eight sectors and their rural environment. Some 672 transactions are more precisely described, 594 allowing a comparative inventory of prices and surfaces. For a broader discussion, we investigate the factors driving these variations per meter square related to the land location, source of information and sale, use of the parcels sold and parties involved in these transactions.

Paper short abstract:

The municipality of Diamniadio, 35 km from Dakar in Senegal, is the focus of state urbanisation and social housing projects. These projects focus on rural areas in the process of urban conversion, and block village and families subdivision strategies aimed at maintaining control over urbanisation.

Paper long abstract:

In urban peripheries, the expansion of the city into rural areas is the result of a composite set of private and state housing and infrastructure projects, resulting in a mosaic of urbanisation, both 'from above' and 'from below'. Although they may concern different areas, these different urbanisation projects are often in competition for the control of the areas to be converted. In Senegal, the municipality of Diamniadio, 35 km from Dakar, has experienced a demographic explosion and has been the focus of state and private industrial and housing projects since the 2000s. This communication will draw on two case studies, one on an ambitious state project for a new town and the other on a social housing project carried out by a private company within the framework of a public programme. We will show that these two projects clash with village or families subdivision strategies, which aim to anticipate their absorption into the city while retaining control over the urbanisation process and the rent from land conversion. Consequently, the land dispossessions induced by these projects do not so much concern partly abandoned agricultural land, but rather subdivided land or land for construction, which is much more valuable.

Paper short abstract:

A travers une recherche mixte basée sur la documentation, l’interview et le questionnaire, cette réflexion montre que sur le marché foncier urbain, le prix des parcelles est déterminé en fonction de sa position géographique, des liens et connaissances du milieu et le statut social de l’acheteur

Paper long abstract:

Le dynamisme de l’économie dans les villes africaines a amené les populations à mettre sur le marché tous les biens et possessions dont elles disposent y compris le foncier. Pourtant jadis bien inaliénable et empreint de normes socioculturelles, la terre s’échange et se vend aujourd’hui tout comme les autres biens sur le marché. Mais contrairement aux autres biens où la fixation du prix répond à la loi de l’offre et de la demande, celle de la terre reste singulier et obéit à diverses logiques pour sa détermination. Avec une population de près de 20000 habitants, la petite ville de Tohoun au Togo n’échappe pas aux conditions variées de fixation du prix des terrains. Cet article se propose donc de comprendre les mécanismes sociaux de fixation des prix des parcelles et ce, à travers diverses techniques de recherche. Il s’agit de la documentation, du guide d’entretien adressé à 21 personnes ressources et l’enquête par questionnaire conduite auprès de 48 ménages. Des théories de l’approche par les méthodes de prix hédoniques (MPH) de S. Rosen et la théorie sur le marché foncier, reflet des représentations collectives de Maurice Halbwachs ont été mobilisées pour confronter les résultats. Les résultats ont montré que les prix des parcelles varient pour plusieurs motifs : la position géographique de la parcelle, l’information sur les ventes antécédentes dans le quartier, les liens de parenté, le réseau d’amitié d’appartenance, la connaissance du milieu, le statut social des acteurs impliqués

Paper short abstract:

Dispersed rural densification transforms Sub-Saharan African landscapes with a building boom in rural areas. It can cause land unsuitable for farming, pressure on infrastructure and land conflicts. We will examine the drivers and impacts of this process on livelihoods, lifestyles, and the area.

Paper long abstract:

Africa is currently the fastest urbanizing continent in the world and this trend is expected to continue in the coming decades. This urbanization process impacts all aspects of a place, from altering natural or natural or agricultural landscapes to urban and peri-urban ones. At the same time this process comes with changes in people’s livelihoods and lifestyles.

One unique, but underexposed facet of urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa, is the process of dispersed rural densification. This form of uncontrolled development that occurs in fertile rural areas and that is characterized by rapid population growth, an increase of plot-based development of buildings without an integrative spatial plan, and land-subdivision. This process of rural densification leads to small plots that are unsuitable for (subsistence) farming, put pressure on weak infrastructure, and induce increased land conflicts.

In my presentation I will delve deeper into the topic of dispersed rural densification, using empirical evidence from Kisii county, Western Kenya. Join me as I unravel the spatial patterns, drivers, actors, and consequences of this form of urbanization that is specific to various areas in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Paper short abstract:

This paper proposes to discuss the residential dynamics observed in the newly inhabited areas of the Tivaouane Peulh - Bambilor (Dakar, Senegal). Belonging to the Niayes area, known for its farms, it is part of a new facet marked by the conversion of space in which we study the manufacture of "home"

Paper long abstract:

For years, the Dakar periphery has been experiencing a new facet engendered by the conversion of space. Once an agricultural area developed by family farms in the villages, invested from the 80s by urban investors called sunday gardeners (Diagne 1991) this space has long contributed to the supply of market gardening products to the urban center. However, with the urbanization of the Dakar region, a centrifugal dynamic is taking place with a redistribution of the population from the center and its close suburbs to the periphery. In addition, the projects initiated by the State (urban pole) have contributed greatly to the development of this part of the region. Added to this are real estate developers and holders of customary rights in the area who are part of a logic of competition to profit from land rent. It should be noted that with the rush of various actors, villagers anticipate the requisition of customary lands (Bertrand et Bon 2022) by private parties benefiting from allocations of central powers or by the state itself. This situation increases the land market, the majority of whose buyers are the populations of the urban center.

We propose to discuss the residential dynamics observed in the newly inhabited areas of the Tivaouane Peulh – Bambilor gradient. From a mixed approach, we wish to describe the different actors carrying these dynamics, the modes of acquisition of goods (bare land or built house), their sources of financing for a factory of "home" in the outskirts of Dakar.