THE POLITICS OF MANURE - RESOURCE TENURE AND THE AGROPASTORAL ECONOMYIN SOUTHWESTERN NIGER

Disputes over manure in Southwestern Niger reveal broad strategies for natural resource control employed by farmers and herders in a transit ional agropastoral economy, where resources are scarce, some tradition al ethnic specializations are breaking down, and the dominant national political motif is devolution. Four themes emerge: (1) In agropastora l systems, manure offers entry to the general regional political ecolo gy because it links the livestock and agricultural sides of the econom y as well as the economy and the resource base. (2) Where groups vie f or a limited resource, all take strategic advantage of legitimizing cl aims, whether grounded in history, customary roles, debts owed, contra cts drawn, officials known, old law, new law, or law deemed likely in the future. (3) Conflicts between claimants are heightened where the s tate seeks to empower customary authorities bur cannot define them. (4 ) Devolving control over natural resources might best begin not by ass igning power but by defining lines of conflict and the legitimizing lo gic behind conflicting claims.