March 27 marked the beginning of an end to former warring sides in a four-year Tuareg war in Mali, when some 3,000 firearms were burnt in a ceremony to exorcise the ghost of a conflict that has claimed more than 1,000 lives.
But in neighbouring Senegal, the government was forced late on April 6 to call off peace talks set for April 8 after separatists from the southern Senegalese region of Casamance announced a boycott.
At the "flames of peace" ceremony in Mali's festive Timbuktu, the town in the south of the Sahara Desert, Tuareg nomad rebels and their rivals in the Malian army, as well as the settled black population set fire to assault rifles and mortars on March 27.
The blaze lit up the sky after nightfall in the presence of the Presidents of Mali and Ghana, Alpha Oumar Konare and Jerry Rawlings, respectively, who appealed to foes in all African countries still gripped by civil war to do likewise.
But scarcely had the flames the two leaders sparked with a torch died down than representatives of the former foes stressed the fragile nature of the peace and called for concrete measures by the authorities to ensure that it lasts.
Leaders of the United Fronts and Movements of the Azawad (the name Tuaregs give to the territory they claim) and of the Ghanda Koy, "black settled people's Patriotic Movement, issued a joint statement calling for the "rightful, diligent and fair application of the national peace pact and subsequent accords, to the benefit of the peoples of the north."
The implementation of the peace pact, first signed in April 1992 and later breached, depended on the "creation of the moral, material and psychological conditions for the return of people displaced because of insecurity."
The joint statement also called for further development efforts to "bring about the real socio- economic integration of northern regions with the rest of the country" in West Africa.
"It is misery, famine and drought which pushed people in the north into this stupid reaction of war," the Foreign Relations Secretary of Ghanda Koy, Firoun Maiga, warned on March 28.
He said that newly established peace would remain fragile if the government in Bamako and Mali's foreign partners did not take appropriate measures in education, health and development.
A committed advocate of peace, Tuareg sociologist Azag Ag, stated that solid foundations had been laid, but proper centres would have to be set up rapidly for Tuareg refugees from Mauritania, Algeria and Burkina Faso.
"The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has never succeeded in bringing about the organised repatriation of refugees, whose hopes have been dashed," Ag charged in reference to staff of the UNHCR.
President Konare declared that "the peace process must be irreversible in spite of the difficulties which will arise from it."
"Peace is gaining ground each day," Konare added, and called on all parties to "favour dialogue in a spirit of tolerance. Through my own voice, Mali appeals to all her sons to return to the fold so that we can build peace and national unity together, for there can be no turnkey project for development in Mali," he added.
The end of four years of Tuareg insurgency in Mali, marked in Timbuktu by the bonfire of 3,000 weapons, immediately fuelled dreams and nostalgia of a rebirth and a new golden age for the mysterious African relic of bygone glories.
Today's 40,000 residents of Timbuktu have continued to retain a folk memory of the 15th century when their town was a rich trading city with a population topping 100,000.
They had 180 Koranic schools and dozens of big arts and crafts workshops, as well as ornate tapestries. Gold and salt wended their way north across the Sahara Desert in caravans and went south down the River Niger by boat, dispatched from a legendary and prosperous crossroads of camel and canoe.
After a lengthy drought and four bruising years of rebellion which drove people away and stifled commerce, life and business are picking up as people return and fear recedes.
Two dance halls have opened, and the three main markets and a host of shops are bulging with merchandise of all sorts. At long last it is once more possible to get hold of all 12 of the precious condiments used for the renowned almarga mafe, the sheep dish with a sauce which takes the roof off one's mouth.
Tired of waiting for the US dollars 200 million promised by aid donors last July for an ambitious economic development programme in northern Mali, Timbuktuans are banking on tourism to restore the town's vitality and fortunes.
Tourist attractions include the 14th century Djinguareiber mosque, the camps of Tuareg nomads, and the houses of the European explorers who fell under Timbuktu's spell, including Rene Caille, Heinrich Barth, Mungo Park and Alexander Gordon Laing. Their houses are to be restored.
The Ahmed Baba centre containing many works, some dating from the 14th century, is to be upgraded to university institute level.
For all the trading on nostalgia, there are hardheaded plans to bring this city of the desert sands into the 21st century by installing international telephone links and building a modern airport with a new control tower. The runway is to be lengthened to 2,500 metres.
If desertification can be stemmed, there are high hopes for a market gardening venture, provided touchy problems of land ownership can be ironed out, said local Member of Parliament Moulaye Haidara.
"Timbuktu is going to live again, and its 333 saints will keep watch day and night to ensure it stays both unique and universal," affirmed Firoun Maiga, a member of the black African movement Ghanda Koy, which fought against the Tuareg raiders.
But in neighbouring Senegal, the prospect of a prolonged 13-year separatist war in its southern province of Casamance hangs over the country as "the sword of Damocles."
On April 6, a government announcement said the ceremony to mark the opening of the talks planned for the Casamance capital of Zuiginchor on April 8 had been postponed until further notice.
The announcement followed a letter written to Senegal's Prime Minister Habib Thiam by Abbe Augustin Diamacoune, secretary general of the Democratic Forces of Casamance Movement (MFDC), which said the separatist group would not attend the talks.
Diamacoune linked the rebel boycott to the government's refusal to issue passports to MFDC leaders, permitting them to travel abroad, link up with the movement's members-in-exile and find a neutral spot for negotiations.
"Senegal is not a credible country. The MDFC will not attend your (the government's) meeting on April 8 at the Zinguinchor town hall," Diamacoune, currently being held under house arrest in Zinguinchor, the province's main town, wrote in his letter.
Diamacoune has repeatedly urged a cease-fire in the 13-year separatist war, which flared again last year, but his calls have gone unheeded and he is believed to have little influence over the rebels, led by Salif Sadio.
The Senegalese government said it deplored Diamacoune's change of heart, at a time when conditions seemed to have been met to begin negotiations.
South Africa President Addresses the Business Community
Office of the President of South Africa
1996.5.8
Bamako -
Address By President Nelson Mandela To The Business Community Of Mali, March 3, 1996.
Honoured Guest;
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great honour to be in Bamako as your guest, I thank you sincerely for the very warm welcome you have extended to me.
It is a privilege to be among the members of the business community of Mali. It symbolises the new era in which we now live:one of co-operation between two great Africa nations. Above all I welcome the opportunity to share ideas with you on how we can expand economic links between our countries in order to benefit our peoples.
We are able to discuss these matters because our South Africa has freed itself from apartheid, with the support of the people of Mali. We can now together, and in co-operation with the rest of Africa, face the challenges of Africa's renewal through development.
The entrepreneurs and traders of Africa should be in the forefront of our continent's regeneration, for the well-being of our continent is directly linked to its economic development. For this reason the South African Government is committed to working for the rapid promotion of economic ties with its fellow African States. It seeks to do so within a framework which both rewards enterprise and promotes balanced economic development. South Africa sees its destiny as inextricably linked to that of the continent.
A significant dividend resulting from South Africa's transition to democracy has been the normalisation of our relations with the countries of Africa. In the case of mali this has already meant the establishment of full diplomatic relations, a doubling of bilateral trade and the initiation of major South African investment projectsin Mali.
We hope that the business people of Mali will take advantage of the accessibility of the South African Trade Counsellor in Abidjan who frequently visits Bamako, to identify further opportunities for trade with South Africa.
We are also confident that the conclusion of an Agreement for the Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of investment between Mali and South Africa will strengthen confidence in our economic links We take pride in the fact that South Africa's presence in Mali also symbolised by gold. The Anglo-American Corporation's extensive involvement in the development of the Sadiola Hill Gold Mine will bring benefits to the peoples of both Mali and South Africa.
We encourage South African enterprise to participate in construction and development projects in other African countries, where this is done in such a way that it s also assists those countries efforts to achieve sustained development. For South Africa the Sadiola project creates trade and employment opportunities. For Mali it should bring not only jobs and exports, but also a transfer of South African mining technology and skills which will permanently increase the capacity of Malians to contribute to the wealth of the nation.
This is a particularly opportune moment for Mali's businessmen and entrepreneurs to engage their counterparts in South Africa.
The policies adopted by our government in order to create a climate for growth are beginning to bear fruit. The South African economy is healthier than it has been in many decades. The rekindling of business confidence and optimism reflect the solid foundation on which the economic upswing is based. Expansion of the manufacturing sector, substantial growth in fixed investments and large inflows of capital promise a durable recovery. They hold out the possibility of an even better performance.
Welcome as this development is, we are determined to achieve still higher levels of growth. For, we need to so if we are to make a significant impact on employment and produce more resources to uplift the living conditions of our people. To this end government has been galvanised with the challenge of formulating medium term strategy for sustained development and growth to lift us beyond our present constraints, some of which we share with most of Africa.
Amongst other things such a strategy would include expanded trade and investment relations with African countries and a resolute pursuit of regional co- operation and development integration.
It would include measures to promote investment in particular sector and areas. Investment that entrance foreign exchange earnings, build infrastructure and make our people more productive would have high priority.
To achieve these objectives on a regional and continental scale will call for a concerned pursuit of unity and co-operation. That will also give our regions and our continent a more powerful voice in the world markets than any nation would have on its own.
The challenges facing our countries in transition and the whole of Africa is magnified by the fact that we live in a time when the advanced industrial countries are consolidating themselves into powerful economic and political blocs to strengthen their bargaining positions in world markets.
South Africa is particularly sensitive to this at the moment as we seek to establish a new framework of agreement within which our trade relations with the European Union could be conducted on an equitable and mutually advantageous basis.
South Africa is also working with its Southern African partners to engage the industrial world in development of the region, and further afield on the continent. The increased levels of foreign interest in Southern Africa as a destination for investment reflect the passive potential or our region for sustained economic growth and development. Democratic systems of governance, a commitment to the peaceful resolution of conflict, disciplined use of public resources together with ambitious programmes of reconstruction are the key ingredients which are attracting this interest.
Ladies and gentlemen;
South African business, now freed from the narrow confines created by apartheid, are eagerly looking to Africa, including Mali, for opportunities for trade and investment. There is every reason why you, the economic actors of mali,l should visit South Africa and see for yourselves the many opportunities for doing business.
It would also be an opportunity to experience South African hospitality, which we enjoy extending to fellow Africans who come to see our own beautiful country.
May our partnership prosper to the benefit of our countries and the people of Africa!
U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, on his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa, urged Africans on Monday to put up a candidate from the continent to be U.N. chief.
He had flown to Bamako from Jerusalem where he pressed Israel and Palestinians to urgently produce results in newly resumed peace negotiations.
Embarking on a five-country African tour, Christopher was unusually blunt as he tried to get Africans to focus seriously on U.S. determination to replace U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros Ghali when his term ends on December 31.
"Everywhere I go, I'm going to be talking about the importance of Africa coming forward with good candidates for the U.N. secretary-generalship," he told reporters aboard his U.S. Air Force jet en route to Mali.
"It's time for Africa to come forward with some strong candidates," he added, insisting that U.S. views on the issue were firm.
"We think African candidates deserve special consideration (in the selection process) but unless some are offered up we're going to be left without some to consider," he said.
The United States announced several months ago it would veto Boutros-Ghali if his name was submitted for reappointment to the Security Council for a second five-year term.
But most governments have not entered the fray, apparently believing Washington will reverse itself after the U.S. presidential election on Nov 5.
The administration insists Boutros-Ghali, an Egyptian, must be replaced with a more reform-minded secretary-general who will retool the world body to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
But skeptics say President Clinton only took that position to disarm the arguments of his Republican challenger Bob Dole and other critics that the U.N. needs much work and change.
U.S. officials have tried repeatedly to persuade the world Clinton will not change his mind. Christopher appears to be forcing the issue by warning Africans they must put forward candidates or see the U.N. post go to some other region.
African candidates mentioned include Kofi Annan of Ghana, U.N. undersecretary-general for peacekeeping, and Salim A. Salim, chairman of the Organization of African Unity. Hamid Algabid of Niger, head of the Islamic Conference, has also announced his candidacy.
Christopher is the first U.S. secretary of state to visit sub-Saharan Africa in more than six years and the first to stop in Mali, a west African country of 9.4 million people.
The per capita income is about $300 but U.S. officials say economic reforms have begun to pay off in increased growth.
U.S.-Mali bilateral ties have been good since Mali gained independence in 1960 but strengthened after the first democratically elected civilian government was installed in 1992.
A meeting is planned with private voluntary organizations and Malian parlimentarians.
Christopher told reporters the Mali stop underscored his desire to focus on Africa "success stories" and flatly rejected suggestions that the United States, which has cut back foreign aid significantly in recent years, has disengaged from Africa.
Christopher holds talks on Tuesday with Malian President Alpha Oumar Konare. In addition to Mali, he will visit Ethiopia, Tanzania, South Africa and Angola, returning to Washington on October 15.
U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher ventured 12 miles outside this poor and dusty African capital to a village where his coming was a major event.
Women dressed in stunningly colourful dresses and matching turbans danced frenetically to the beat of primitive drums and xylophones as most of the 2,000 villagers turned out to greet him Tuesday.
The Malian government had spent days grading the rutted, rust-red clay road that leads to Samaya so that the chief American diplomat, who travelled by van instead of his usual limousine, would have a smoother ride to see a Peace Corps project.
One newspaper proclaimed "Bienvenue Warren" (welcome Warren) while the Bamako TV news led with his words and picture.
The local excitement generated by the first trip ever of a U.S. secretary of state to Mali underscores how eagerly some Africans embrace the United States and the aid -- political and financial -- that the world's remaining superpower can bestow.
But some experts contend Washington is disengaging from the continent. They cite the fact that U.S. development aid to Africa has decreased by 25 percent. This is the first trip to Africa by a U.S. secretary of state in six years, compared to nearly two dozen trips by Christopher alone to the Mideast.
The disastrous U.S. engagement in Somalia in 1993, when the body of an American soldier was dragged through the streets of Mogadishu, has cooled the appetite for direct intervention.
U.S. troops were deployed there to help overcome a famine but ended up in a failed effort to chase down a warlord and rebuild a functioning society.
Liberia is the closest thing to a colony the United States has had in Africa, but Washington appears to have washed its hands of the country in the face of an endless civil war.
Some analysts also see the new U.S. initiative to create an all-African force to respond to humanitarian crises in sub-Sahara as evidence the United States is further weaning itself from the continent, much like it is weaning many poor Americans from the welfare system in effect for decades.
With the Cold War over, Africa is no longer an East-West battleground.
Christopher rejects the charge of disengagement and insists visiting Africa is something he has long wanted to do.
"The secretary of state always has a lot of pressure on his time and I'm afraid so often the urgent takes the place of the important," he told reporters travelling on with him to Ethiopia, Tanzania, South Africa and Angola.
The Israel-Palestinian crisis nearly forced him to scuttle the Africa trip, which had been in the planning for two months. But he found a way "to combine this time the urgent and the important" by visiting Israel and Gaza before coming to Africa.
Mali is as poor a country as can be found in Africa. Even used underwear is sold in a tin-roofed shop along a bustling commercial strip. Per capita income is $300 annually, over half the population is under 16 and the literacy rate is 19 percent.
But even though Mali faces daunting economic and environmental challenges, the United States sees the country as proof Africa is not hopeless. Enlightened leaders here have made economic reforms and traded dictatorship for democracy.
This is what Christopher aimed to highlight on his trip, as he avoided trouble spots like Liberia and Nigeria, whose human rights record has been criticised in the West.
Unlike in other African countries, U.S. aid to Mali has nearly doubled in five years to $30 million and Mali hosts the largest Peace Corps program on the continent.
In the village, Christopher pumped water from a new system Peace Corps volunteers helped build to ensure clean water and he planted a mango tree, part of a Peace Corps effort to replace forests devastated by the need for firewood. Some day, the secretary told the villagers, he hopes to return when the tree bears fruit and "see the results of your labor."
約60のNGOを傘下に擁するマリの組織「African Coalition for Debt and Development（負債問題と開発のためのアフリカ同盟）」のBarry Aminata Toure議長は、「会議は、農民や、新自由主義の犠牲になっている住民ためのもの」と、反G8の意義を強調した。
だが、その時、ふと数年前に読んだ『For God, Country and Coca-Cola: The Unauthorized History of the Great American Soft Drink and the Company That Makes It』（Mark Pendergrast著、Scribner社、1993年4月発行、イタリア版はPIEMME社より発行）という分厚い本の背表紙が頭に浮かんだ。
ボルヴィックの"水"をテーマとしたソーシャル・キャンペーン、「１Ｌ for 10Ｌ」プログラム（2007/10/12）
ナチュラルミネラルウォーター“Volvic（以下ボルヴィック）”の商品を通じて７月２日（月）から９月30日（日）まで全国的に展開されたソーシャル・キャンペーン、「１L for 10L（ワンリッター フォーテンリッター）」プログラム。同社が有するCM枠の約半分をこのプログラムのために使用するなど、その大々的なコミュニケーション手法により、「アフリカに清潔で安全な水を」というメッセージは多くの人々に届き、大きな反響を呼んだ。今回は、このプログラムを成功に導いた理由を探るべく、ダノンウォーターズオブジャパン代表取締役社長のリチャード・ホール氏と、同プログラムのリーダーであるキリンMCダノンウォーターズマーケティング部部長の吉沢直大氏にお話を伺った。
１Ｌ for 10Ｌプログラムのしくみ
このプログラムは、ダノングループがボルヴィックブランドを通じて支援するグローバルプログラムで、2005年にドイツでスタートし、2006年にフランスでも展開され、2007年に日本での実施に至った。「１Ｌ for 10Ｌ」とは、文字どおり“ボルヴィック出荷量１Ｌごとに10Ｌの清潔で安全な水がアフリカに供給される”ということを意味している。
水問題に対する人々の関心を高めることについては、様々な工夫によって成功へと導いている。まずは事業とキャンペーン・テーマの合致であり、水を扱うボルヴィックが水問題への支援に取り組むという分かりやすさ、さらに「１Ｌ for 10Ｌ」という分かりやすいメッセージによって、消費者に受け入れられやすいプログラムとなった。次にプログラムへの参加のしやすさに対する工夫であり、今回日本では、水の需要が高まる夏の間（７月〜９月）の３ヶ月間にプログラム対象期間を設定したことで、より多くの人が通常の購入行動によって参加できるしくみを実現した。これらに加えて、効果的な告知活動が徹底して実施され、同社が有するテレビCM枠の約半分をこのプログラムのために利用し、Web上のプログラムサイトでは、設定された目標“マリ共和国に10年間で延べ約７億リットルの清潔で安全な水を”に対して、毎週金曜日に「現在○○リットル」の表示が更新されるなど、臨場感のある演出もなされた。
先日、全世界のダノングループ子会社の社長が集まってアイデアを出し合うワークショップに出席してきたというホール社長。ダノングループ傘下の会社が全て同じ軸で、社会や環境に対する企業の責任を事業運営の中核に据えてビジネスを行うために、「ダノンウェイ」はとても重要であると語る。「１Ｌ for 10Ｌ」プログラムが誕生し、そのグローバル展開が実現したのは、「ダノンウェイ」が効果的に作用し、グループ全体、社員一人ひとりにダノンとしての CSRが浸透しているからこそである。プログラムの誕生は、ダノングループのドイツ支社本社の広報担当マネージャーを中心にした社員同士のディスカッションの中からであり、日本展開については、部長吉沢氏を始めとするマーケティング部の社員たちからの働きかけによって実現した。そのグローバル展開は、ダノンウェイによってベスト・プラクティスを学ぶことが、グループにふさわしい、よりよいCSR活動を社員が自発的に広げていこうとする行動に結びついたからである。ダノングループの特徴としてホール社長に挙げていただいた、「ボトムアップ型」の企業風土と、グループ企業との水平な「ネットワーキング」が、この事例からも伝わってくる。
マリは、豊かな暮らしを夢見て欧州への移住を希望するアフリカ人にとって、有数の中継点となっている。この「移民情報管理センター（Centre for Migration Information and Management, CIGEM）」は、移民希望者にアドバイスを与えるだけではなく、本国に帰還した移民の復帰支援もする。オルトフー氏は開設に当たり「欧州への不法移民が減るだけではなく、合法的な入国を目指す人々を援助できると期待する」と語った。
西アフリカから欧州への不法移民は、年間で数万人に上る。
マリでは全人口の三分の一にあたる約400万人が海外に居住しており、移民からの送金額はマリのGDPの約10％を占める。大半はコートジボワールやセネガルにいるが、約20万人が欧州に移住している。なかでも旧宗主国のフランスに12万人が住むが、うち合法的な移民は4万5000人程度で、その大半が低賃金労働で生計をたてている。(c)AFP/Serge Daniel
【7月27日 AFP】ニコラ・サルコジ（Nicolas Sarkozy）仏大統領は26日、国際テロ組織アルカイダ（Al-Qaeda）系の「イスラム・マグレブ諸国のアルカイダ組織（Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb、AQIM）」に誘拐されていた仏人男性ミシェル・ジェルマノ（Michel Germaneau）氏（78）が殺害されたことを確認した。
SOUMOUNI, Mali ― The half-dozen strangers who descended on this remote West African village brought its hand-to-mouth farmers alarming news: their humble fields, tilled from one generation to the next, were now controlled by Libya’s leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, and the farmers would all have to leave.
“They told us this would be the last rainy season for us to cultivate our fields; after that, they will level all the houses and take the land,” said Mama Keita, 73, the leader of this village veiled behind dense, thorny scrubland. “We were told that Qaddafi owns this land.”
Across Africa and the developing world, a new global land rush is gobbling up large expanses of arable land. Despite their ageless traditions, stunned villagers are discovering that African governments typically own their land and have been leasing it, often at bargain prices, to private investors and foreign governments for decades to come.
Organizations like the United Nations and the World Bank say the practice, if done equitably, could help feed the growing global population by introducing large-scale commercial farming to places without it.
But others condemn the deals as neocolonial land grabs that destroy villages, uproot tens of thousands of farmers and create a volatile mass of landless poor. Making matters worse, they contend, much of the food is bound for wealthier nations.
“The food security of the country concerned must be first and foremost in everybody’s mind,” said Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general, now working on the issue of African agriculture. “Otherwise it is straightforward exploitation and it won’t work. We have seen a scramble for Africa before. I don’t think we want to see a second scramble of that kind.”
A World Bank study released in September tallied farmland deals covering at least 110 million acres ― the size of California and West Virginia combined ― announced during the first 11 months of 2009 alone. More than 70 percent of those deals were for land in Africa, with Sudan, Mozambique and Ethiopia among those nations transferring millions of acres to investors.
Before 2008, the global average for such deals was less than 10 million acres per year, the report said. But the food crisis that spring, which set off riots in at least a dozen countries, prompted the spree. The prospect of future scarcity attracted both wealthy governments lacking the arable land needed to feed their own people and hedge funds drawn to a dwindling commodity.
“You see interest in land acquisition continuing at a very high level,” said Klaus Deininger, the World Bank economist who wrote the report, taking many figures from a Web site run by Grain, an advocacy organization, because governments would not reveal the agreements. “Clearly, this is not over.”
The report, while generally supportive of the investments, detailed mixed results. Foreign aid for agriculture has dwindled from about 20 percent of all aid in 1980 to about 5 percent now, creating a need for other investment to bolster production.
But many investments appear to be pure speculation that leaves land fallow, the report found. Farmers have been displaced without compensation, land has been leased well below value, those evicted end up encroaching on parkland and the new ventures have created far fewer jobs than promised, it said.
The breathtaking scope of some deals galvanizes opponents. In Madagascar, a deal that would have handed over almost half the country’s arable land to a South Korean conglomerate helped crystallize opposition to an already unpopular president and contributed to his overthrow in 2009.
People have been pushed off land in countries like Ethiopia, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Zambia. It is not even uncommon for investors to arrive on land that was supposedly empty. In Mozambique, one investment company discovered an entire village with its own post office on what had been described as vacant land, said Olivier De Schutter, the United Nations food rapporteur.
In Mali, about three million acres along the Niger River and its inland delta are controlled by a state-run trust called the Office du Niger. In nearly 80 years, only 200,000 acres of the land have been irrigated, so the government considers new investors a boon.
“Even if you gave the population there the land, they do not have the means to develop it, nor does the state,” said Abou Sow, the executive director of Office du Niger.
He listed countries whose governments or private sectors have already made investments or expressed interest: China and South Africa in sugar cane; Libya and Saudi Arabia in rice; and Canada, Belgium, France, South Korea, India, the Netherlands and multinational organizations like the West African Development Bank.
In all, Mr. Sow said about 60 deals covered at least 600,000 acres in Mali, although some organizations said more than 1.5 million acres had been committed. He argued that the bulk of the investors were Malians growing food for the domestic market. But he acknowledged that outside investors like the Libyans, who are leasing 250,000 acres here, are expected to ship their rice, beef and other agricultural products home.
“What advantage would they gain by investing in Mali if they could not even take their own production?” Mr. Sow said.
As with many of the deals, the money Mali might earn from the leases remains murky. The agreement signed with the Libyans grants them the land for at least 50 years simply in exchange for developing it.
“The Libyans want to produce rice for Libyans, not for Malians,” said Mamadou Goita, the director of a nonprofit research organization in Mali. He and other opponents contend that the government is privatizing a scarce national resource without improving the domestic food supply, and that politics, not economics, are driving events because Mali wants to improve ties with Libya and others.
The huge tracts granted to private investors are many years from production. But officials noted that Libya already spent more than $50 million building a 24-mile canal and road, constructed by a Chinese company, benefiting local villages.
Every farmer affected, Mr. Sow added, including as many as 20,000 affected by the Libyan project, will receive compensation. “If they lose a single tree, we will pay them the value of that tree,” he said.
But anger and distrust run high. In a rally last month, hundreds of farmers demanded that the government halt such deals until they get a voice. Several said that they had been beaten and jailed by soldiers, but that they were ready to die to keep their land.
“The famine will start very soon,” shouted Ibrahima Coulibaly, the head of the coordinating committee for farmer organizations in Mali. “If people do not stand up for their rights, they will lose everything!”
“Ante!” members of the crowd shouted in Bamanankan, the local language. “We refuse!”
Kassoum Denon, the regional head for the Office du Niger, accused the Malian opponents of being paid by Western groups that are ideologically opposed to large-scale farming.
“We are responsible for developing Mali,” he said. “If the civil society does not agree with the way we are doing it, they can go jump in a lake.”
The looming problem, experts noted, is that Mali remains an agrarian society. Kicking farmers off the land with no alternative livelihood risks flooding the capital, Bamako, with unemployed, rootless people who could become a political problem.
“The land is a natural resource that 70 percent of the population uses to survive,” said Kalfa Sanogo, an economist at the United Nations Development Program in Mali. “You cannot just push 70 percent of the population off the land, nor can you say they can just become agriculture workers.” In a different approach, a $224 million American project will help about 800 Malian farmers each acquire title to 12 acres of newly cleared land, protecting them against being kicked off.
Jon C. Anderson, the project director, argued that no country has developed economically with a large percentage of its population on farms. Small farmers with titles will either succeed or have to sell the land to finance another life, he said, though critics have said villagers will still be displaced.
“We want a revolutionized relationship between the farmer and the state, one where the farmer is more in charge,” Mr. Anderson said.
Soumouni sits about 20 miles from the nearest road, with wandering cattle herders in their distinctive pointed straw hats offering directions like, “Bear right at the termite mound with the hole in it.”
Sekou Traore, 69, a village elder, was dumbfounded when government officials said last year that Libya now controlled his land and began measuring the fields. He had always considered it his own, passed down from grandfather to father to son.
“All we want before they break our houses and take our fields is for them to show us the new houses where we will live, and the new fields where we will work,” he said at the rally last month.
“We are all so afraid,” he said of the village’s 2,229 residents. “We will be the victims of this situation, we are sure of that.”
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: December 22, 2010
An earlier version of this article misspelled the given name of Kalfa Sanogo, an economist at the United Nations Development Program in Mali.