Contested spaces, new opportunities: displacement, return and the rural economy in Casamance, Senegal

Abstract

IntroductionCasamance is the southwesternmost part of Senegal, largely separated from the rest of the country by The Gambia to the north and bordering Guinea-Bissau to the south. As the scene of West Africa's longestrunning civil conflict, now some 30 years old, Casamance provides a case of displacement economies on a relatively small scale but of long duration. The focus here is on human displacement, understood as the enforced physical dislocation of people, the dynamics of their return and resettlement, and the economic, political and social effects related to these processes. Much of the long-term human displacement in the conflict has occurred in the relatively narrow band of territory between the south bank of the Casamance River and northern border districts of Guinea-Bissau. Following flight and protracted exile from this border area in the 1990s, however, the 2000s and beyond have mostly seen people return, driven by economic and social desperation coupled with generally improved (though still at times volatile) security conditions, and supported by international aid for reconstruction.Building on field research conducted over twelve years, the chapter considers the emergent economic and political landscape of the border area. It shows how this landscape is the result of layers of displacement over two decades, situated within a deeper historical context of migration. From a theoretical perspective, it seeks to understand these dynamics through the concept of 'relational space', formulated in human geography and beginning to be used, if not always explicitly, in studies of displacement. Displacement and Relational SpaceSpace matters, and at the smallest scale; but from a theoretical perspective, it is sometimes all too apparent that different disciplines talk about space in different ways. The analysis presented here takes from human geography the notion of 'relational space' in the sense of David Harvey (2005) and Doreen Massey (2005). This is space constituting and constitutive of social relationships. As Harvey explains, '[p]rocesses do not occur in space but define their own spatial frame. The concept of space is embedded in or internal to process' (2005: 273; emphasis in original). While proponents of relational space (as analytical tool) admit that it is difficult to work with, and impossible to 'map' in any Cartesian or absolute sense, they argue that it is, as social reality, the space in which all people actually operate. Massey (2005: 9) describes this … space as the product of interrelations; as constituted through interactions, from the immensity of the global to the intimately tiny… space as always under construction. Precisely because space on this reading is a product of relations-between, relations which are necessarily embedded material practices which have to be carried out, it is always in the process of being made… Perhaps we could imagine space as a simultaneity of stories-so-far. This highlights two further points about how the concept of relational space works in real contexts. The...

Displacement in Casamance, Senegal: lessons (hopefully) learned, 2000–2019

“…The population in return areas is itself hard to disaggregate. Even in one village it may comprise a mixture of returnees and stayees -those who stayed put throughout, despite conflict and insecurity (Evans 2014). These issues are compounded by the long duration of the conflict and associated exile, which has engendered considerable demographic change among the displaced.…”

“…In line with regional trends, Senegal has declining but still high birth rates (UNFPA (2020) gives a figure of 4.7 births per woman for 2017) and its displaced populations are no different in this respect. Anecdotally there also seems to have been a mortality crisis among the elderly displaced, with various informants claiming that the stresses of upheaval and exile have led to many premature deaths of older people (Evans 2014). Among the displaced therefore a demographic shift appears to have occurred, with returnee populations typically larger and more youthful than those who originally fled (Evans 2009(Evans , 2014.…”

“…Anecdotally there also seems to have been a mortality crisis among the elderly displaced, with various informants claiming that the stresses of upheaval and exile have led to many premature deaths of older people (Evans 2014). Among the displaced therefore a demographic shift appears to have occurred, with returnee populations typically larger and more youthful than those who originally fled (Evans 2009(Evans , 2014.…”

“…In terms of displacement, the duration of the Casamance conflict to date has seen the situation move broadly from one where tens of thousands of people were uprooted to one where the majority of the displaced have now returned home. The author has conducted fieldwork in Casamance since 2000, starting with his doctoral fieldwork on war economies, rural livelihoods and displacement (Evans 2003a(Evans , 2003b(Evans , 2005(Evans , 2007. Subsequent research focused on the MFDC (Evans 2004), return of the displaced (Evans 2009), cross-border relations with The Gambia (Evans and Ray 2013;Perfect and Evans 2013) and the remaking of the geographies of southern border areas of Casamance amid return and reconstruction (Evans 2014).…”

“…The author has conducted fieldwork in Casamance since 2000, starting with his doctoral fieldwork on war economies, rural livelihoods and displacement (Evans 2003a(Evans , 2003b(Evans , 2005(Evans , 2007. Subsequent research focused on the MFDC (Evans 2004), return of the displaced (Evans 2009), cross-border relations with The Gambia (Evans and Ray 2013;Perfect and Evans 2013) and the remaking of the geographies of southern border areas of Casamance amid return and reconstruction (Evans 2014). His most recent, ongoing research examines development interventions to support paddy rice cultivation in a context of social and environmental change (Evans 2017).…”