Sahel Visions: Planned Settlement and River Blindness Control in Burkina Faso

Sahel Visions
Planned Settlement and River Blindness Control in Burkina Faso
Della E. McMillan
223 pp. / 6.0 x 9.0 / 1995
Paper (978-0-8165-1489-2) [s]

Series
- Arizona Studies in Human Ecology

Related Interest
- Anthropology

When an international health initiative succeeded in wiping out river blindness in Burkina Faso, it allowed the settlement of the sparsely populated Volta Valley by the Mossi people--a

The freeing of much valuable agricultural land from the shadow of river blindness opened the way for settlement schemes. . . . It is highly recommended to those involved in Third World economic development.

—Journal of Community Health

. . . great value to professionals and students alike.

—Choice

development plan by which the Burkinabe government sought to relieve population pressure, establish communities, and increase cotton production. Anthropologist Della McMillan followed this visionary plan over twelve years as people relocated communities, founded farms, dealt with officials, entered the market, and in some instances moved on. Her study examines the question of how development occurs or fails to occur and offers unusual insight into how visions of progress--held by developers, settlers, and even researchers--originate and are revised.

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