The Socio-cultural organization of artisanal gold mining and its impacts on the local livelihood: The case of Kemogola mine site in southern-Mali. By: Ousmane Coulibaly Master of Philosophy in Visual Cultural Studies Department of Archeology and Social Anthropology Faculty of Social Science and Education- University of Tromsø The Socio-cultural organization of artisanal gold mining and its impacts on the local livelihood: The case of Kemogola mine site in southern-Mali. By: Ousmane Coulibaly Master of Philosophy in Visual Cultural Studies Department of Archeology and Social Anthropology Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education UIT The Arctic University of Norway Autumn 2017 Supervised by: Bjørn Arntsen, Associate Professor Dedication To my late father Djibril Coulibaly i Acknowledgement This work would not have been possible without the support of the hunters, the Ton-Boloma, and both landowners and the municipality Syentoula rural commune of Syentoula. I express my deep gratitude to all of them, their willingness to share information and take care of my safety in the gold mine during the whole fieldwork process. I express my gratitude to the staffs of the Department of Visual Cultural Studies of Tromso, especially my supervisor Bjørn Arntsen, for guidance by providing some fruitful suggestions and comments throughout the whole writing process. I also thank Trond Waage a lot, for his insightful comments. I would like also to thank all my classmates for their contribution and comments during different seminar sessions. I also acknowledge the Norwegian State (Lånekassen) and VCS department for their financial support. I express my special thanks and deep appreciation to my family in Mali for their financial, moral and social support during my entire study period. ii Table of Contents Dedication ................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgement ..................................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents ..................................................................................................................... iii Table of Maps and figures ..........................................................................................................v Glossary .................................................................................................................................... vi Abstract .................................................................................................................................... vii Chapter 1: Introduction ...............................................................................................................1 1. Motivation and background .................................................................................................1 2. Literature .............................................................................................................................3 Chapter 2: Presentation of the field and context .........................................................................6 2.1. Presentation of the field .......................................................................................................6 2.2. Gold mining history in Mali ................................................................................................8 Chapter 3: Methodology and Theoretical framework .................................................................9 3.1. Starting point ........................................................................................................................9 3.2. Entering the field and the negotiation processes ..................................................................9 3.3. Yacouba from brotherhood to a main informant ...............................................................10 3.4. Towards my acceptance .....................................................................................................12 3.5. Data gathering process .......................................................................................................13 3.5.1. Participant Observation through the video camera ....................................................................... 14 3.5.2. The Bloc note as a supplement tool .............................................................................................. 15 3.6. Difficulties encountered in the fieldwork ..........................................................................16 3.7. Doing anthropology at home: challenges and perspectives ...............................................19 3.8. Theoretical framework .......................................................................................................21 3.8.1. Globalization and Social organization .......................................................................................... 21 3.8.2. Norms and social control theories ................................................................................................. 23 Chapter 4: Socio-Cultural Organization of the gold mine ........................................................25 4.1. Hunters in the process of the revitalization of a traditional role in a modern social field: 25 4.2. Current role of hunters and Ton-Boloma in the gold mine ................................................27 4.2.1. Security and Rules of conduct ...................................................................................................... 27 4.2.2. Social organization of the gold mine ............................................................................................ 30 iii 4.3. The gold mine association “Ton-Boloma” ........................................................................31 4.4. Statuses/roles and Power management in the gold mine: Two case studies......................31 4.5. Landowners/traditional authorities ....................................................................................34 4.6. The municipality/modern authority ...................................................................................35 Chapter 5: Mining Activities ....................................................................................................37 5.1. Formation of working teams and Sacrifices ......................................................................37 5.1.1. Working teams and the integration of newcomers ........................................................................ 37 5.1.2. Sacrifices ....................................................................................................................................... 38 5.2. Digging pits and working underground with pick-axes .....................................................39 5.3. Social solidarity .................................................................................................................40 5.4. Washing /panning step .......................................................................................................40 5.5. Role of Blacksmiths ...........................................................................................................41 5.6. Collapsing of mines’ pits and its socio-cultural interpretation ..........................................42 Chapter 6: Motivation of people and the everyday life of miners in the gold mine .................45 6.1. Attraction of urban and rural population to artisanal gold mines: Case of four miners (Yacouba Coulibaly, Niagale Bagayogo, Youssouf Keita and Ouedrago): ..............................................45 6.2. The everyday life in the gold mine: Coping with incertitude and risk ..............................50 Chapter 7: Socio-economic impact and environmental consequences of mining on the local livelihood ..................................................................................................................................53 7.1. The local buyers and Gold trade ........................................................................................53 7.2. The impact of mining on the local livelihood ....................................................................54 7.2.1. The impact of mining of the local farming system ....................................................................... 54 7.2.2. Socio cultural impact of mining on the local lifestyle: ................................................................. 55 7.3. Environmental Consequences of mining: ..........................................................................56 Chapter 8: Conclusion..............................................................................................................58 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................61 iv Table of Maps and figures Map 1: Republic of Mali - Location of Bougouni Map 2 Cercle de Bougouni------- Location of the gold mine of Kemogola Figure 1: Interaction system in the living environment between the two villages ( Syentoula Kemogola) and the gold mine. Figure 2 : Yacouba Coulibaly Figure 3: Yacouba’s team starts with pit digging Figure 4: A gold digger feeling happy and comfortable in front of the camera. Figure 5: Group of hunters with their traditional dresses and guns Figure 6: Model of social control in the mine area showing how the hunters and the Ton-Boloma co-act to effect that. Figure 7: Yacouba Bagayogo, drawing the map of the gold mine and explaining the rules of conducts. Figure 8: Social interaction network of the gold mine of Kemogola. Figure 9: Women, washing for gold. Figure 10: The smith is making a new pick-axe Figure 11: The collapsing mine pit closed with sign of woe (tree leaves). Figure 12: Niagale Bagayogo after pulling the rope, sits down and to take some rest. Figure 13: Youngsters from Burkina Faso whose desires are to buy motorbikes. Figure 14: Youssouf Keita explaning his motivation to mining as a main job. Figure 15: Environmental damages and pollution v Glossary As I mentioned in the text, the gold mine is a multi-cultural place where people have different ethnic background and languages. The miners have created some local words for communicating with each other and give meaning to things. Some of these concepts don’t exist in the Malian national language (Bambara). Bololabi or bi: Literally it means mark a goal with a hand (like football) but in miners’ conception, Bololabi or bi: is a chance or opportunity given by the team to another team member to dig or pull the rope and test his/her luck in their mine. (This is their social solidarity system). Damatigi muso: It means the wife who is the owner of the mine pit. But it is used by the miners to say the women who pulls the rope among the working team. Furu baralaw: Literally it means in bambara the people who are cleaning the stomachs but for the miners it means the persons who re-work the former mine pits (mines already exploited and left by other diggers). Furu deni: It means small marriage but the miners used it to referrer to an illegal and temporary union between a man and a woman living in the gold mine. Kaladjan: It means a long stick; but miners used it to referrer to ‘the pick-axe’. Kaladjantigiw or chifuruw: Literally it means the diggers who work with the pick-axe but it just means “the underground diggers”. Klano: Is a person who is doing the gold mining as a main job. This concept doesn’t exist in bambara Ton-Boloma: The gold mine association vi Abstract The thesis explores the socio-cultural organization of the artisanal gold mine of Kemogola located in southern-Mali. I carried out this fieldwork during three months in the gold mine of Kemogola. Through the participant observation method with the extend use of the video camera recording and the block notes I gathered the empirical data which reflect social realities of my informants. Indeed, I observed four main layers (actors) who are engaged in the gold mine management and its social organization. The hunters represent the police; they are in charge of the mine security. Those hunters work closely with the gold mine association members so-called Ton-Boloma. Together they implement their own rules of conducts and norms related to the safety and general well-being of the mine community. Moreover, the traditional authorities (landowners) and the modern authority represented by the municipality are also involved in the system and are working with the hunters and Ton-Boloma. After pegging and distributing mine plots to miners, they take money from each mine pit. Regarding to mining activity processes, before starting, the miners form some working teams and each person has a specific role. I observed that the activity has three main steps: digging, pulling the rope and washing the mud for gold. The artisanal mining is an important activity in this local community. Today, there is a great influx of both urban and local peasant to the gold mine. During my investigation, I found that diverse and complex reasons explain their attractions to the mine. Further, the miners come from different areas from Mali and neighboring countries, with different identities, languages and cultural background and their contact with the natives of Kemogola have had an impact on the local lifestyle, producing a dynamic cultural mix and exchanges. Keys words: Socio-cultural Organization, gold mine, hunters, Ton-Boloma, landowners, municipality, rules of conduct, miners. vii