Desiccation and domination: Science and struggles over environment and development in colonial Guinea

This paper examines science-policy interactions associated with desiccation ism, a gloss for the drying effects of vegetation loss on climate and soils , in Guinea, West Africa. Drawing mainly on case material from the forest r egion of Guinea between 1900 and the post-Independence period after 1958, i t traces the uneven rise to dominance of desiccationism in policy and its e ffects. Desiccationism, we argue, was a colonial anxiety from the earliest, but until the 1930's scientists, administrators, and populations interacte d in configurations that limited the implementation of anti-desiccation pol icies and forced their adaptation to local resistance. By the 1950's, howev er, political and administrative changes, coupled with shifting regional an d global agendas, enabled a transformation in the relationship between scie ntific analysis and bureaucracy. Agricultural and forest policy now aligned closely with desiccationism, extending bureaucratic control and exerting p rofound - and damaging - effects on rural livelihoods. In the political cli mate leading up to independence, this colonial science-development apparatu s became a target of liberationist struggles, provoking greater heed to loc al resistance. But this proved to be only a short interlude, and post-Indep endence policies showed remarkable continuity with those in place earlier. Reflecting on recent theoretical debates, we emphasize that comprehending t hese shifts requires attention to power-knowledge and state-science relatio ns as ss well as political economy and to the actual practices, actions and relationships of administrators and populations.