57471. Eye on Africa: A Scholar's Tale
- Author:
- Jesse Ribot
- Publication Date:
- 06-2005
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Wilson Center
- Abstract:
- Ribot is a senior associate at the World Resources Institute (WRI) in Washington and currently a Wilson Center fellow working on a new book on rural democracy in Africa. Several years ago, he was writing a history of forestry in French West Africa, a story of a supposed deforestation crisis from 1880-1920. The colonial government had devised odd policies to fix this nonexistent problem—policies that would not have fixed it had there been a crisis. Furthermore, the policies concentrated access to lucrative resources in the hands of a few elites. "The discourse of 'deforestation crisis' was being used to expropriate the people's resources," Ribot said. "That was the real story."
- Topic:
- Democratization, Development, and Third World
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Washington