Migration and Gold Panning: Collaboration between Indigenous and Non-indigenous People in Artisanal Mining in Gaoua, Burkina Faso

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Résumé

Beyond its contrasting representations, gold panning became a major rural activity in many African countries. In Burkina Faso, it gathers thousands of people from different backgrounds, along with related activities. This gold panning-led migration towards the sites has a transformative effect on the rural environment through the new forms of relationships it creates between local indigenous community members and migrants. This observation and listening to the daily life of gold panning sites suggest that Gaoua municipality, South-West Burkina Faso, is considered to be the country's leading gold-mining region. Through a qualitative study based on documentary research, semi-structured
interviews, focus groups, and direct observations, this article analyzes the issues at stake in the cohabitation between these two social categories of people. Drawing on the sociology of migration and social change, the research findings highlight the role of collaborative migration as both a strategy for migrant integration and as a means for indigenous
communities to acquire new knowledge in artisanal mining, thereby enhancing their ability to manage local mineral resources.

Mots-clés

Gold panning; Migration; Social change; Collaboration; Gaoua; Burkina Faso