Sécurité alimentaire en Afrique subsaharienne. Une analyse socio-anthropologique du rôle des banques de céréales au Guéra (Tchad)
Over the past few decades, the fight against hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa has remained at the centre of the international community's efforts. Political stability, the absence of armed conflicts and the prevention of social and political crises are the prerequisites for the success of this initiative. But the outcome of the fight against food insecurity is also based on the political determination of the Heads of State and Government (as well as, where appropriate, leaders not having the status of heads of government) and the mobilization of civil society to promote agricultural development and to facilitate the access of vulnerable populations to food and mechanisms in the fight against hunger. The present research, product of field investigation, proposes a particular reading of food security in Saharan Africa. It identifies different food crises, but also the strategies that have been initiated by international development institutions (IMF and WB) and African state governments, and formal and informal agreements in the area of hunger and food security in Saharan Africa. Based on a theoretical approach predicated mainly on anthropology and the social construction of development in Africa, this case study proposes a socio-anthropological analysis of the role of cereal banks in the Guera region (Chad). This allows us grasp how the meaning that the people interviewed give to reality, their actions and the activities revolving around the Federation of cereal banks in the Guera region. Considered today as a rational method of cereal storage, Cereal Banks are a solution, at least in part, to food insecurity in the Guera region. They are also a means of fighting the usurious exploitation of the poor by traders in the communities where they are built. At the centre of mediation between agents of support organizations, donors, development brokers and local populations, cereal banks are a form of modern gift and update the traditional forms of gift, especially through the various activities of international development agencies (IFAD, NGO ACRA) and farmers' organizations (AURA Association, ONG Moustagbal). They are credited with having adapted – diversified – the reading, but also understanding the notion of gift in a context of social crisis, armed conflicts, fragility and impoverishment of populations. Thus, cereal banks are considered as one of the solutions aimed mainly at tackling food insecurity from much wider neoliberal bases. In their assessment of the urgency of the problems and how they are addressed, cereal banks follow – volens, nolens – the concepts and strategies initiated by donors and the representatives of development aid institutions in sub-Saharan Africa in general and Chad in particular.
socio-anthropologie malnutrition Food security Sub-Saharan Africa socio-anthropology development mediation social change hunger malnutrition cereals cereal banks traditional breadbasket Federation of cereal banks Guera region Chad