Labour commodification, differentiation, and marginalization of the peasantry in Sella Limba (Sierra Leone) from 1950 to the present

In Sierra Leone, migration to diamond fields and the development of cash crops have contributed to the increasing integration of the peasantry in the national and global economy. Based on the study of a small northern chiefdom, Sella Limba, we describe how the labour commodification have led to the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of agrarian change 2018-10, Vol.18 (4), p.787-805
Main Authors: Palliere, Augustin, Paul, Jean‐Luc, Cochet, Hubert
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural development
Agricultural economics
Agriculture
Cash crops
child fosterage
Commodification
Crops
Diamonds
Differentiation
Economics
Farmers
Geography
Global economy
Humanities and Social Sciences
Imports
Labor migration
Labor productivity
labour commodification
labour productivity
Marginality
Migration
Peasants
Productivity
Sierra Leone
Social relations
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Summary:In Sierra Leone, migration to diamond fields and the development of cash crops have contributed to the increasing integration of the peasantry in the national and global economy. Based on the study of a small northern chiefdom, Sella Limba, we describe how the labour commodification have led to the perversion of “traditional” social relations based on anteriority, and to the break‐up of large domestic groups into smaller, more precarious ones. At the same time, manual agriculture has been marginalized by massive cheap rice imports and remained very low in capital intensity. In this context, we show how low labour productivity curtails opportunities for long‐term social and economic differentiation. Farmers combine “modern” and “traditional” social relations, developing hybrid accumulation strategies that are sometimes close to mere survival.
ISSN:1471-0358
1471-0366
DOI:10.1111/joac.12248