Negotiating Development: African Farmers and Colonial Experts at the Office Du Niger, 1920-1960

An in-depth examination of the interaction between French colonial development theory and practice at the Office du Niger in what was then French Soudan (Mali).

Focusing on the Office du Niger's irrigation project in what was then French Soudan (Mali), the author analyses how and why development policies emerge, persist and change. Van Beusekom argues that Africans not only influenced farming and marketing practices, but also re-shaped French concepts of rural development, as well as transforming French colonial perceptions of Africans and African societies. Of importance to historians of colonialism in African as well as to scholars, students and policy makers working on issues of development theory and practice.

North America: Heinemann