Agroecological Farmer Movements and Advocacy Coalitions in Sub-Saharan Africa: Between De-Politicization and Re-Politicization

Agroecology has become an ideological basis to defend social justice and environmental sustainability in food systems and has spread across the world including into sub-Saharan Africa. In this chapter, we discuss the opportunities and challenges faced by an African agroecological farmers’ movement from a labour environmentalist perspective, based on a set of interviews with the main actors promoting agroecology in Senegal, the main repertories of collective action of the movement are discussed. We analyse the emancipatory potential of these repertories and discuss processes that lead to their potential depoliticization and repoliticization, namely the removal versus revival of politically contentious issues. We argue that despite the extraordinary dynamism of agroecology advocacy coalitions in the country, their dependence on international donors and the historic weakness of farmer unions lead them to focus on technical demonstrations and limit the political and financial autonomy of grassroots farmer organizations. A recent focus on territorial approaches, alternative food networks and the development of platforms at national level might nevertheless open up new opportunities for societal transformations.