Article révisé par les pairs
| Résumé : | Descent-based hierarchies shape the lives of members of 20 ethnic groups across West Africa and the Sahel. Yet, except for work on human rights violations against people of slave descent, little research investigates the experiences of other groups within these hierarchies, or the influence of descent-based identities on wider development issues. Hence, this paper examines the intersecting influences of descent-based identity and gender on education and employment among the Haalpulaar’en in the Futa Tooro, northern Senegal, focusing on women of the dominant group, the Muslim clerics or tooroɓe. On one hand, their families’ privileged access to capital enabled their trajectories. However, patriarchal notions of honour and respectability, including expectations to marry young, limited their educational careers. Restrictive definitions of ‘noble’ work also reduced their employment options. Analysis of the occupation of hair-braiding unpacks how beliefs in supernatural forces underpinned these ideals and how women negotiated and sometimes challenged these norms. |
