Organisation du monde rural au Burkina-Faso : l'exemple du Sahel

Abstract

Organization of the Rural World in Burkina Faso : the Example of the Sahel.- The existing village organization forms in the Sahel reveal that the notion of village communities encompasses a diversity of situations, out of which arise three different tendancies as regards the motivations of peasants to create these communal structures. In the first, the people of a village are grouped round a precise activity ; the second corresponds to structures «prefabricated» by the technical services of the government and have no relation to any program of activity ; the third seems to have been put into place in order to benefit from certain advantages to which the peasant organizations are entitled. In all cases, the acknowledgement of these structures by the training services truly reflects neither the degree of mobilization and deep committment of the populations, nor the concern for responsibility on the part of rural collectivities and the increase of local political power.