During 2004, in the South-West of Burkina Faso, several thousands of gold miners have moved to the Lobi land, to take place nearby the small town of Kampti. The mining camps settlement has generated important socio-economic changes. In the past, the Lobi were well-known because of their male warrior behaviour. Since the recent coming of gold miners, local inhabitants are questioning, among other things, their conceptions of sexual identities. The “gold rush” is still hanging-on and ambiguous. The economic contribution of the small-scale mining sector goes with “risk behaviour” and an increasing monetisation of social relationships. Furthermore, the establishment of migrant communities makes manifold shifts in kinship and conjugal logics, gender relations and sexual norms. From past to present, from a virility ideal to another, this paper deals with masculinity production by uncovering the way from the “blood revengeful ” pattern to the contemporary “gold miner ”.
Keywords
- Burkina Faso
- Lobi
- gold
- small-scale mining
- migration
- gender
- masculinity
- conspicuous consumption
- virility