Collective Work Group of Children and Married Women in Rural Mali:

IMANAKA Ryosuke

doi:10.11619/africa.2014.84_1

Since the late 1990s, the number of the collective work group called "ton" has increased in the rural areas of Southwest Mali. The change is due to the increase in the amount of cash distribution in the village, which was caused by economic liberalization. Although the ton has been since the colonial period, the groups which have increased in recent years are newly organized by children and married women respectively. In this paper, "children" is defined as unmarried persons under thirty years of age. In this paper, the historical transition of tons is explained. In addition, the characteristics of the economic activities of children's tons are compared with married women's tons. The economic activities of the two groups share the same features in that both do collective work for cash remuneration, save their wages as an group, and spend all their savings in the festivity. On the other hand, the purposes of both groups in their economic activities are different. Married women's tons seek to fulfill their members' needs in daily life, while the children's tons focus only on enjoying their activities. These differences in purpose are reflected in the differences in the organizational structure where the membership of one is fixed and the other is fluid. In spite of having such contrastive characteristics, the reason why it is possible to call the two groups by the same name "ton" is attributed to the features that the original ton had: coexistence of two contrary values, tendency to subdivide into groups, and the formation of group by individual units.

Collective Work Group of Children and Married Women in Rural Mali:

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