Building political relations
Cooperation, segmentation and government in Bancoumana (Mali)

Luca Pes

This book addresses the question of building political relations in Bancoumana, a rural municipality in Mali, from an ethnographic perspective that demonstrates how government is mediated through dynamic processes of social grouping and building of cooperative relations in everyday social life. This perspective, based on informed fieldwork, is used to challenge depictions of law and government in Africa, more generally, in terms of ‘failed state’ analysis, or through an assessment of the success or failure of institutional reforms associated with Western notions of democracy. By addressing the ‘grey’ area between state, law and society through an examination of the power of enduring traditions to adapt to changing conditions in Malian society, Pes makes a contribution to the anthropological tradition of studying law, anthropology and the state in Africa.