The Political Economy of Natron in Borkou (Chad)

Abstract

Natron is mined by hand in open-air mines throughout the Chadian Sahara. In the main mine in Borkou, it is taxed by a local “traditional chief” as well as by a government representative. The way this fiscal arrangement came about historically shows how “traditional chiefs” and “the state” need each other in order to claim a particular and particularly restricted kind of sovereignty in the region. This is true of the Chadian state more generally, marked by a doubling up of “official” and “traditional” administrative hierarchies, and a close but rarely simple articulation of the local and the national level.