Social Memory of Short-term and Long-term Variability in the Sahelian Climate

Abstract

The 170,000 km2 interior floodplain of the Middle Niger (Mali) is a tight mosaic of alluvial and desert microenvironments. The interannual to intermillennial climate change profiles of this fluvial anomaly thrust deep into the Sahel and southern Sahara are masterpieces of abrupt phase shifts and unpredictability. Response has been of two kinds. The Office du Niger was France’s largest colonial-period development project--and a failure of massive proportions. An older tradition of Social Memory allowed for the integration of increasingly- specialized producers and artisans in a generalized economy. High ethnic and corporate diversity grew into one of the world’s most original, purely indigenous urban civilizations.

Parent Publication

• Monitoring Science and Technology Symposium: Unifying Knowledge for Sustainability in the Western Hemisphere

Citation

McIntosh, Roderick J. 2006. Social Memory of Short-term and Long-term Variability in the Sahelian Climate. In: Aguirre-Bravo, C.; Pellicane, Patrick J.; Burns, Denver P.; and Draggan, Sidney, Eds. 2006. Monitoring Science and Technology Symposium: Unifying Knowledge for Sustainability in the Western Hemisphere Proceedings RMRS-P-42CD. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 518-520