Paper short abstract:

In this paper I explore the relationship between the call to participation in contemporary decentralization policy in Mali and its relationship to history and memory making on a national and local level.

Paper long abstract:

Since the early 1990s Decentralization policy in Mali has stressed democratic participation as paramount. In this paper I show how the legitimization of its democratic dimension through the remaking of a national history highlighting rural communities' capacities to govern themselves was confronted with the contradictions arising from memory work on a local level. This is illustrated first by studying the nationwide creation of new municipal entities and then by looking at the case of participation in the making of a local convention regulating the mining of gold in a rural municipality in the south of the country.

Mali took a unique step in the implementation of decentralization by granting the right of people to choose the future municipalities they would belong to. On the ground this process was accompanied by a surge of memory production legitimating belonging and claims to leadership. The result was a proliferation of conflicts, which in some instances required mediation by administrative officials, and a number of new municipalities that exceeded the plans of policy makers. This in turn reflected a tension between the history upheld by national policy makers and its critique by academic historians.

Participation, as principle upheld by aid-donors has been declared to be paramount in local development planning. In the second part of this paper I ask how memory - work and the reproduction of local history has influenced participation in the setting up of a local convention regulating mining activity in the rural municipality of Nioumamakana.

Paper Download (768 KB)