L'administration sénégalaise, les confréries religieuses et les paysanneries*

by Momar Coumba Diop & Mamadou Diouf

Abstract

In Senegal, the rural area is the place par excellence where the various forms of legitimacy such as the shifts in the policy of the integration of the peasantry find expression. Although there are numerous rural institutions geared towards the reproduction of the political system through the establishment of a rigorous managerial system of the rural area, the cooperative movement was the preferred vehicle which defined the role of the peasantry in the construction of a national state. Following the colonial legacy, the marabouts play a significant role in the mobiliza- tion of the rural people through their participation in the various institutions. These joint rural interventions by the state and the marabouts were based on patronage and characterized by corruption, squandering and over staffing. Presently, a new agricultural policy, geared towards the reorientation of rural development has been launched. Its objective is to reduce state intervention to the role of a catalyst and facilitator of the private sector. Which group constitutes the private sector in the rural areas? Since independence, most peasants have been living in dire poverty. As of now, there is no sign whatsoever that this tendency will be reversed in the short term.