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Papers by Paul Richards

American Anthropologist, 2000

PLA Notes 24: Critical Reflections from Practice, 1995

RAWOO working …, 2003

RAWOO Secretariat dubious, however. The Congo had a relatively good education system in the past ... more RAWOO Secretariat dubious, however. The Congo had a relatively good education system in the past but since the 1990s it has eroded, and many of the country's good researchers are currently working in foreign institutions. Research capacities (not exhaustive): Centre Universitaire de Bukavu. The Faculty of Social and Political Sciences has some research activities on youth and conflict. Université Graben. This university is situated in Butembo and appears to have a reasonably developed research capacity and certainly an interest in conflict-related issues.

IDS Bulletin, 1994

Looking at possible research sites in eastern Sierra Leone in 1978, I one day came across a strik... more Looking at possible research sites in eastern Sierra Leone in 1978, I one day came across a striking cartoon executed in charcoal on the wooden window shutter of a mud-built house in an isolated village close to the Liberian border. It pictured a helicopter observing two village women pounding rice in a mortar. Seemingly the message was not only that 'modern' and 'traditional' are contemporaneous, but

Politique africaine, 2002

Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour Karthala. © Karthala. Tous droits réservés pour tous pa... more Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour Karthala. © Karthala. Tous droits réservés pour tous pays. La reproduction ou représentation de cet article, notamment par photocopie, n'est autorisée que dans les limites des conditions générales d'utilisation du site ou, le cas échéant, des conditions générales de la licence souscrite par votre établissement. Toute autre reproduction ou représentation, en tout ou partie, sous quelque forme et de quelque manière que ce soit, est interdite sauf accord préalable et écrit de l'éditeur, en dehors des cas prévus par la législation en vigueur en France. Il est précisé que son stockage dans une base de données est également interdit.

PLoS ONE, 2013

This study offers evidence of the robustness of farmer rice varieties (Oryza glaberrima and O. sa... more This study offers evidence of the robustness of farmer rice varieties (Oryza glaberrima and O. sativa) in West Africa. Our experiments in five West African countries showed that farmer varieties were tolerant of sub-optimal conditions, but employed a range of strategies to cope with stress. Varieties belonging to the species Oryza glaberrima-solely the product of farmer agency-were the most successful in adapting to a range of adverse conditions. Some of the farmer selections from within the indica and japonica subspecies of O. sativa also performed well in a range of conditions, but other farmer selections from within these two subspecies were mainly limited to more specific niches. The results contradict the rather common belief that farmer varieties are only of local value. Farmer varieties should be considered by breeding programmes and used (alongside improved varieties) in dissemination projects for rural food security.

International Journal of Biological and Chemical Sciences, 2012

Four on-farm experiments in central Benin examined whether land-use succession and fertilizer tre... more Four on-farm experiments in central Benin examined whether land-use succession and fertilizer treatments for prior cotton would sustain subsequent maize crop yields and achieve balanced plant nutrition. Treatments consisted of three prior land use successions, i.e. before planting maize (egusi melon-cotton-cottonmaize, cotton-maize-cotton-maize and cassava-maize-cotton-maize) including for each, four replications of three fertilizer treatments: recommended practice [150 kg ha-1 of 14-23-14 (NPK) plus 5S-1B, applied 25 days after sowing and 50 kg ha-1 of urea on 40 days after sowing], NPK-SB mixed with urea (the recommended amount of NPK-SB and urea are mixed then applied 40 days after sowing) and reduced NPK-SB dose (recommended practice, but the amount of NPK-SB is reduced to 100 kg ha-1). Prior cotton and subsequent maize yields and nutrient uptake were not significantly affected by fertilizer treatments. Furthermore, fertilizer treatments had no significant effect on soil chemical properties before planting the subsequent maize crop. Land use types had significant effect on cotton yields, soil chemical properties, subsequent maize yields and nutrient uptake. The lowest yield and nutrient uptake were registered in the cotton-maize-cotton-maize land use succession and the highest in the egusi melon-cotton-cotton-maize succession. For sustainable soil fertility management, adoption of adequate crop succession system and recommended fertilizer application practice are suggested.

Afrique contemporaine, 2005

Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour De Boeck Supérieur. © De Boeck Supérieur. Tous droits r... more Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour De Boeck Supérieur. © De Boeck Supérieur. Tous droits réservés pour tous pays. La reproduction ou représentation de cet article, notamment par photocopie, n'est autorisée que dans les limites des conditions générales d'utilisation du site ou, le cas échéant, des conditions générales de la licence souscrite par votre établissement. Toute autre reproduction ou représentation, en tout ou partie, sous quelque forme et de quelque manière que ce soit, est interdite sauf accord préalable et écrit de l'éditeur, en dehors des cas prévus par la législation en vigueur en France. Il est précisé que son stockage dans une base de données est également interdit.

Social Development Papers, 2004

In the rural areas, the division between ruling lineages and dependent lineages, and migrant str... more In the rural areas, the division between ruling lineages and dependent lineages, and migrant strangers is perpetuated through the control lineage that elders exercise over marriage systems, and over the labor of young men. This is a strong push factor in the decision of ...

PLOS ONE, 2020

BackgroundThe 2013–15 Ebola epidemic in West Africa was the largest so far recorded, and mainly a... more BackgroundThe 2013–15 Ebola epidemic in West Africa was the largest so far recorded, and mainly affected three adjacent countries, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The worst affected country (in terms of confirmed cases) was Sierra Leone. The present paper looks at the epidemic in Sierra Leone. The epidemic in this country was a concatenation of local outbreaks. These local outbreaks are not well characterized through analysis using standard numerical techniques. In part, this reflects difficulties in record collection at the height of the epidemic. This paper offers a different approach, based on application of field-based techniques of social investigation that provide a richer understanding of the epidemic.MethodsIn a post-epidemic study (2016–18) of two districts (Bo and Moyamba) we use ethnographic data to reconstruct local infection pathways from evidence provided by affected communities, cross-referenced to records of the epidemic retained by the National Ebola Response Comm...

Journal of Global History, 2020

This case study focuses on two epidemic diseases in Sierra Leone. Ebola in 2014–15 drew internati... more This case study focuses on two epidemic diseases in Sierra Leone. Ebola in 2014–15 drew international response, but was contained within the Upper West African region. COVID-19 reached Sierra Leone in April 2020 as part of a global pandemic. Local social knowledge has been an important factor in shaping responses to both diseases. In the case of Ebola, infection was concentrated in families, and responders needed a good knowledge of family interactional dynamics. COVID-19 is a more public disease. Responders have to assess risk factors in workplaces, markets, and places of worship. Comparing and contrasting the two cases also draws attention to different aspects of the historical context. Ebola response indexes Sierra Leone’s history as a humanitarian project associated with the abolition of the slave trade. The pandemic challenge of COVID-19 draws attention to Sierra Leone’s nodal position within a global diaspora rooted in Atlantic slavery and emancipation. Responders are forced t...

The Journal of Modern African Studies

Ebola Virus Disease struck Sierra Leone in May 2014. An international response was instrumental i... more Ebola Virus Disease struck Sierra Leone in May 2014. An international response was instrumental in ending the epidemic by December 2015 and has been extensively documented. Less attention has been paid to local responses. Here, we focus on a case in which there was no infection despite high infection in neighbouring areas. This brings into focus the role of customary public authority in implementing successful controls. We pay particular attention to the activities of a chiefdom Ebola Task force committee chaired by the Paramount Chief. Meetings were characterised by protocol and ceremony, but ‘face time’ served to reinforce, in ritual terms, important messages about quarantine and social distancing. The committee's pronouncements had illocutionary force. Local volunteers translated this ceremonial message into practical action to block imported cases. The analysis of ceremonial competence, we conclude, opens a window into how public authority addresses developmental shocks in A...

Journal of Agrarian Change, 2021

Africa, 2021

Demonization is a widespread aspect of political discourse. We are familiar with the demonization... more Demonization is a widespread aspect of political discourse. We are familiar with the demonization of Brussels bureaucrats as a tool for pursuing the British exit from the European Union, and we take stories about the compulsory straightening of bananas with a pinch of salt, however frustrating it might be that some disaffected voters choose to accept these canards as true. But somehow, stories about the demonic in Africa have been accorded much greater ontological respect, not only by colonial powers keen to boost their own legitimacy through claims to a civilizing mission, but also by anthropologists anxious to understand their informants’ imaginative concerns, perhaps without fully appreciating the political craft or guile with which these discourses are invested. In seeking to void the charge of delusion, an empathetic reading of demonization risks missing the strategic significance of mythic interventions intended to extract political advantage. This article examines an instance...

In this paper we examine the strategies being employed by post-conflict countries in Africa to ac... more In this paper we examine the strategies being employed by post-conflict countries in Africa to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. We argue that to attain these goals, these countries will need to alter the way they undertake development planning. Rather than design strategies to achieve best outcomes with limited resources, reaching the MDGs will require that governments identify what resources are needed in order to meet the agreed ambitious objectives. In post conflict circumstances, as evident in Liberia and Sierra Leone (the two countries we examine), three particular challenges to achieving the goals stand out: a history of economic reversals, extremely weak institutional capacity, and popular distrust of government. We argue that rather than treat these features as a limiting factor on development, they should be integrated within development strategies, by including them among the needs to be met as part of an MDG strategy and by adopting strategies that draw on consid...

Sustainability

This paper explores the role of decentralised community-based care systems in achieving sustainab... more This paper explores the role of decentralised community-based care systems in achieving sustainable healthcare in resource-poor areas. Based on case studies from Sierra Leone, Madagascar, Uganda and Ethiopia, the paper argues that a community-based system of healthcare is more effective in the prevention, early diagnosis, and primary care in response to the zoonotic and infectious diseases associated with extreme weather events as well as their direct health impacts. Community-based systems of care have a more holistic view of the determinants of health and can integrate responses to health challenges, social wellbeing, ecological and economic viability. The case studies profiled in this paper reveal the importance of expanding notions of health to encompass the whole environment (physical and social, across time and space) in which people live, including the explicit recognition of ecological interests and their interconnections with health. While much work still needs to be done i...

PLOS ONE

The paper considers local responses to the introduction of an Ebola Treatment Centre in eastern S... more The paper considers local responses to the introduction of an Ebola Treatment Centre in eastern Sierra Leone during the West African epidemic of 2014-15. Our study used qualitative methods consisting of focus groups and interviews, to gather responses from patients, members of the families of survivors and deceased victims of the disease, social liaison workers from the centre, and members of the general public. The data indicate that scepticism and resistance were widespread at the outset, but that misconceptions were replaced, in the minds of those directly affected by the disease, by more positive later assessments. Social workers, and social contacts of families with workers in the centre, helped reshape these perceptions, but a major factor was direct experience of the disease. This is apparent in the positive endorsements by survivors and families who had members taken to the facility. Even relatives of deceased victims agreed that the case-handling centre was valuable. However, we also present evidence of continuing scepticism in the minds of members of the general public, who continue to suspect that Ebola was a crisis manufactured for external benefit. Our conclusions stress the importance of better connectivity between communities and Ebola facilities to facilitate experiential learning. There is also a need to address the wider cognitive shock caused by a well-funded Ebola health initiative arriving in communities with a long history of inadequate health care. Restoring trust in medicine requires Ebola Virus Disease to be re-contextualized within a broader framework of concern for the health of all citizens.

American Anthropologist, 2000

PLA Notes 24: Critical Reflections from Practice, 1995

RAWOO working …, 2003

IDS Bulletin, 1994

Politique africaine, 2002

PLoS ONE, 2013

International Journal of Biological and Chemical Sciences, 2012

Afrique contemporaine, 2005

Social Development Papers, 2004

PLOS ONE, 2020

Journal of Global History, 2020

The Journal of Modern African Studies

Journal of Agrarian Change, 2021

Africa, 2021

Sustainability

PLOS ONE

Agroforestry Systems, vol. 68, 167-179

Although there has been increasing research on the adoption of agroforestry technologies over the... more Although there has been increasing research on the adoption of agroforestry technologies over the last decade, few such studies have assessed uptake over a long period and many are based on a single snaphot in time. Furthermore, most of these studies have mainly looked at non-adopters and adopters: only recently have social scientists considered testers. A further category of users neglected in adoption studies has been re-adopters of technologies. Studying this group provides an interesting and more nuanced understanding of adoption and re-adoption. Methodologically, most adoption studies use quantitative methods and fail to link their findings to wider socioeconomic , political and institutional settings. This paper presents a study of the dynamics of improved tree fallow use by farmers in Siaya and Vihiga districts of western Kenya over a period of eight years. It uses both qualitative and quantitative data to critically discuss the motivations of adopters, testers/rejecters and re-adopters. The results show that the process of adoption is highly dynamic and variable with farmers planting improved fallows and discontinuing or re-adopting them due to a whole range of factors, of which soil fertility improvement is just one. These factors included incentives from projects, the tying of adoption to credit programmes, prestige, participation in seminars/tours and the availability of a seed market from projects promoting improved fallows. Farmers planting improved fallows for such reasons may be termed 'pseudo-adopters'. There were significant differences in adoption between the two districts, with more farmers in Siaya planting improved fallows than in Vihiga. A majority of farmers in Vihiga (53%) who were given seed never planted improved fallows, even though they had been exposed to the technology. Some 40% of farmers in Siaya and 38% in Vihiga planted improved fallows but later rejected them. This has some important implications for research and development. For improved fallow technologies to be attractive to farmers, they must provide other tangible economic benefits besides soil fertility improvement. This presents a challenge to researchers who must better attune themselves to the needs and demands of farmers if they wish to see their research findings widely adopted.