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As part of an ongoing process of socioeconomic transformation, commodity production is steadily becoming more common throughout rural Africa. However, research from a wide range of social and geographic settings indicates that factors such as ethnicity, class, age, and gender often play important roles in shaping specific patterns of participation in market production. This paper explores the relationship between gender and commodity production in central Mali. Drawing on the findings of a 14-month ethnographic study (1992-1994), I describe production dynamics in a rural Bamana farming community, paying particular attention to the organization of commercial activities. I use the gender relations of production framework to highlight the differential participation of men and women in commercial gardening activities. I argue that dominant Bamana social and cultural patterns lead to a gender-biased system of access to commercially viable productive resources, and I discuss the implications of these findings in terms of men's and women's economic standing and relative social power in their home communities and domestic groups. By providing a detailed study of gender relations in this setting, I aim to improve our understanding of the gendered nature of agricultural production in this region and our understanding of differential response to commercial agricultural opportunities in rural Africa at large.
Key words: commercialization, horticulture, intensification, livelihood, Bamana, Mali
By necessity, by choice, or most often through a complex combination of the two, generations of African farmers have steadily increased their participation in market-oriented production activities (Austen 1987; Berry 1993; Hart, 1982; Meillassoux 1971). At this stage, the vast majority of African farmers undertake some form of commercial activity to generate income for expenses such as taxes, the purchase of food or consumer products, or the fulfillment of financial obligations related to marriages or funerals. However, while the expansion of commercial agriculture in Africa has been steady, it has not been uniform in either spatial or social terms (Berry 1993; Binns 1994). Some parts of the continent have seen dramatic increases in commercial agricultural production, while others have experienced relatively little growth in this domain. In some areas commercialization has focused on export-oriented industrial crops, while in others it has concentrated on domestic foodstuffs. Likewise, participation in the expanding agricultural commodity production environment has developed unevenly across the African...