Paper short abstract:

In this paper, we propose to analyze the discourses on aridity and the "lack of rain" in the processes of building the post-colonial Cape Verdean nation-state. How those discourses constructed through time, spaces and groups in the society have created specific meanings of Nature and Environment?

Paper long abstract:

This contribution is part of an ongoing multidisciplinary and international research project on the Cape Verde archipelago whose aim is to problematize the underway social and cultural dynamics in the face of a long and prolonged drought situation. Although based on the ethnographic method, the project mobilizes the environmental and social history. Indeed, the current water shortage situation, while alarming (the state of Cape Verde has declared a state of hydric emergency in 2020 and food emergency in 2022), is not unprecedented on the scale of a long history. From its earliest days, Cape Verdean society has had to cope with a Sahelian climate and unbridled exploitation of resources by colonial system in which the ressources management is still in some ways rooted.

In this context, we want to analyze more precisely, from an anthropological perspective and in dialogue with history, the discourses (in all their temporalities) on aridity and the "lack of rain" in the processes of building the post-colonial Cape Verdean nation-state. To this end, we will analyze colonial and post-colonial stories about the archipelago's landscapes, observing their continuities and differences. We believe that in order to understand the meaning of the constructions of nature for Cape Verdeans, it is not enough to understand the generic properties of the natural environment. It is also necessary to understand the concepts around the relationship between people and nature, each time specific to groups in the society (institutions, politics, farmers, young people, older people, emigrated people, etc.) and to particular time.