Critical Current & Key Authors: Political and economic anthropology of development (Jean-François Bayart, Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan, G. Hyden), but also works promoting endogenous philosophies and social practices (references to Ubuntu, etc.). These approaches emphasize the importance of the real practices of actors, embedded in specific social, cultural and political contexts, often at odds with imported formal models.
Central Postulate / Argument: Economic and organizational behaviors in Africa cannot be understood solely through the prism of Western instrumental rationality (maximizing efficiency, respecting formal rules). They are deeply influenced by a “moral economy” (social norms about what is fair/expected in terms of exchange, redistribution, obligations), by the importance of networks of personal relationships (family, ethnic, clientelist), and by political strategies aimed at accumulation (material and symbolic) and the management of multiple dependencies (not only on donors). The informal, the hybrid, and the relational are omnipresent.
APPLICATION / RELEVANCE FOR THE AUTONOMY OF AFRICAN NGOs: #
Informal moral economy (cf. Bayart): NGO resource management is often subject to strong social pressures for redistribution (employment of relatives, support for the wider community, various contributions). What appears as “mismanagement” or “corruption” in the eyes of donors may correspond to moral obligations or local legitimization strategies. “Double reporting” (a discourse for the donor, practices adapted locally) becomes a survival strategy in this tension between external and internal norms. Autonomy is also negotiated in this capacity to satisfy (or pretend to satisfy) multiple and contradictory logics.
Ubuntu and community financing: Beyond the potentially problematic aspects, philosophies such as Ubuntu (which values interdependence, solidarity, and community—”I am because we are”) underpin endogenous practices of resource mobilization and mutual aid (tontines, collective work/salongo, community donations, etc.). These mechanisms, based on trust and shared social norms, constitute a potential source of real autonomy from external funding and imported logic. They represent alternative, locally anchored economic models.
Key Concepts / Illustrations: Moral Economy, Informal, Politics of the Belly, Social Networks, Clientelism, Redistribution, Hybridity, Social Embeddedness. Ubuntu, Teranga (Senegal), Tontines, Solidarity Funds.
Illustration: An NGO that struggles to justify its expenses to the donor but enjoys strong local legitimacy because it “plays the game” of social obligations. Or another that bases its sustainability on a system of regular micro-contributions from members of the diaspora, mobilized via trusted networks based on a common origin. “Double reporting” as an illustration of the management of conflicting normative logics.
IMPLICATIONS / CONFRONTATION WITH DOMINANT THEORIES: #
Vs RDT/Agency/TCE: These approaches criticize the sanitized and universalist vision of organization and rationality conveyed by managerial theories. They show that resource management and the quest for autonomy are contextualized and morally charged.
They complicate the analysis of strategies (RDT) by showing that they are often hybrid, mixing formal and informal logics, and that they aim to manage multiple dependencies (not just donors).
They open the way to the identification of alternative models of autonomy, based on endogenous social logic, often neglected or even opposed by standardized approaches to development.
