Rebekah Hoeks: “I’ll See You at the Salon”: The Social Spaces of Women in Urban Burkina Faso

Mittwochskolloquium Ethnologie

MA project presentation by Rebekah Hoeks, Anthropology, University of Basel

Abstract

In the city of Bobo-Dioulasso in Western Burkina Faso, the so-called tontine has become a popular phenomenon which takes many different forms. In recent years in particular, one form of the tontine has been dominated by women. These groups come together each week and participate in a money merry-go-round, where each meeting a different member takes home the pot to which everyone has contributed until the exact amount invested has been reimbursed to each woman. Two such women’s groups have been formed since the beginning of 2018 in the old neighbourhood Kôkô. They take place on the same street just off one of the main roads of the city, one in a private courtyard and the other in a hair salon. Since the beginning of 2019, the tontines have faced many challenges including mobilising enough women for a substantial sum to be handed out each week, the active participation of members, as well as outside prejudice. The groups have seen a few format changes over the past year, but continue inspite of this. During the meetings, men rarely set foot in both places, which creates an exclusive space for women to exchange ideas and money. In addition, the salon is an everday public space for the women of the neighbourhood, where they often pass by during the day for a few minutes or even hours to discuss recent events, work, family and other gossip. But it is through the tontine that the women get together in larger groups and are able to participate in a form of financial saving and insurance not offered to them otherwise. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in intervals between January 2019 and February 2020, this MA thesis highlights the tontine and salon as a social space for women, its role in the construction of identity, changing self-perceptions, and creating possibilities for informal financial and social security in an urban setting of Burkina Faso.

Veranstaltung übernehmen als iCal