Currently a Senior Fellow at the Africa-Europe Foundation and Professor at Lancaster University, Camilla Toulmin has worked for the last 40 years on different aspects of African development, including as Director of the International Institute for Environment and Development. She has strong links with French colleagues, having been member of the Franco-British Council, the Scientific Committee of CIRAD Montpellier, chair of the MAK’IT science council, member of the AFD Comite Technique sur le Foncier et Développement, and member Evaluation Committee French Institutes of Advanced Studies.
Night of Ideas 2025: “Taking Action”
Tue 4 Feb at 6pmJoin us for the Night of Ideas, our annual night of debate and discussion at the Institut français d’Écosse! Bringing together top thinkers, artists and political figures, the Night of Ideas is the occasion to address pressing questions facing the world today. The theme of the next edition, on 4 February 2025, is “Taking Action”.
We will have the honor of hosting a conference by Professor Camilla Toulmin, who has been following life in a small village in central Mali since 1980, to document how people manage in an uncertain environment. Her book on the changing pattern of life in the village of Dlonguebougou Land, Investment and Migration (OUP, 2020) now updated and translated into French Cultiver, Migrer, Investir (IRD, 2024), tells a story of the ups and downs faced by families in the Sahel.
- About the book Cultiver, Migrer, Investir (IRD, 2024)
This book tells the story of a mud village in central Mali, covering changes in environment, land, climate and social values over the last 40 years. A tripling in population, unpredictable rainfall, and the arrival of the Chinese have forced people into new ways of both making ends meet and building up wealth—some have done better than others. Using a combination of infographics, satellite images, interviews, and survey data, Cultiver, Migrer, Investir presents the different strategies and fortunes of individuals and their families, the search for new cash incomes, the shift of people from village to town, and the erosion of collective solidarity at household and village levels. The book paints a portrait of the uneven fortunes faced by people living in the Sahel, and seeks to get behind the headlines usually associated with this region.