Why Mami Wata matter: Local considerations for sustainable waterpower development policy in Central Africa

Abstract

This paper is based on the author's fieldwork on the incorporation of local cultural understandings in the design of rural sustainability projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It explores several narratives about Mami Wata, mythological aquatic figures widely known in West and Central Africa, and their meanings for small-scale waterpower development projects, or micro-hydros. Careful examination of such narratives represents one way in which local conceptions and understandings can inform rural development policy, especially with regard to the social distribution of the benefits such projects aim to bring. When designing policies, development agents and agencies would do well to take these mythological and spiritual dimensions of local people's reality seriously rather than dismiss them as irrelevant, or simply as non-empirical phenomena and therefore without effects. The paper concludes with some concrete suggestions for policy action, paying special attention to how researchers and policymakers can work together to integrate local understandings more effectively into rural development strategies.

Acknowledgements

My field research was supported by a National Science Foundation International Travel Grant. Additional funds were provided by a travel grant and Lawry Fellowship from the University of Wisconsin Institute for Environmental Studies. I would like to thank D. Rothenberg, F. Vavrus and H. Drewal for providing invaluable advice and critical comments on this paper. My deepest debt is to those who shared with me their stories.

Notes

1. Names of individuals and organizations, and some place names have been changed to protect anonymity.

2. T. Fulani, interview with author, near Boyangana, 1 August 1995.

3. B. Madesu, interview with author, Boyangana, 14 July 1995.

4. Ibid.

5. Fulani, interview.

6. I am grateful to an anonymous reviewer for their comments, some of which I have incorporated here, which helped to strengthen this section of the paper.

7. Elsewhere, I have argued for an approach to development built on a ‘both/and’ understanding of the individual/community relationship, common in many African societies. Rather than focus development efforts either on individuals who show promise or, at the opposite extreme, on totally community-owned and -operated projects, combine both approaches in a single system, a middle way that allows the individual and the communal to coexist. African land tenure systems and cooperative labour groups (likilemba) may in fact provide good models for achieving such a middle path. See Peterson (2000, pp. 106–117; 253–258).

8. Fulani, interview.

9. T. Dungu, focus group discussion with author, near Boyangana, 4 August 1995.