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Researcher(s):
Julia Revier
ENVS course(s): 400 Initiated: September 2016 Completed: May 2017 Go to project site
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My project focuses on the french postcolonial legacy in Senegal which focuses on how French (and later European Union) international trade policy influenced the markets of groundnuts and millet in Senegal. I specifically chose these two crops as they represent an export commodity (groundnuts) and domestically consumed crop (millet) and they are two of the top three agricultural products in Senegal (Gray 2002). My motivations for this study lay in postcolonial legacies, how they play out in the modern international arena, and whose interests are being served in international policy. My study is temporally situated from 1930 to today, in order to include both the colonial era of Senegal and through independence. To conduct my study I am collecting data from the FAO and World Bank on several agricultural industry indicators including: production levels, export levels, yield, area harvested as well as compiling a timeline of major french and EU international trade policies spanning the time period mentioned. These will be compiled into tables and graphs to pull out relevant correlations between international policy and industry. This study is situated in Dependency theory, a sub theory of World Systems theory and explores ideas of colonial dependence, centralized international power, and exploitative relationships between the Global North and the Global South.
My questions I hope to answer (or partially answer) are:
Guiding/Framing questions: Who benefits from historical and modern international trade policies? To what extent are postcolonial interests/legacies still being served in the world trade arena?
Focused (researchable) questions: How have French influence and policies since the colonial period effected the industries of groundnuts and millet in Senegal? Are export-based agricultural industries or domestic ones promoted in a post-colonial trade arena?
Works Cited:
Gray, James K. 2002. “The Groundnut Market in Senegal: Examination of Price and Policy Changes.” Blacksburg: Virginia Polytechnic Institute. https://theses.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-06282002-165514/unrestricted/JKGray_PhD.pdf.