Dina, domination, and resistance: indigenous institutions, local politics, and resource governance in Madagascar

Abstract

This paper examines how Malagasy dina—local-level codes considered ‘customary law’ in Madagascar—have been enrolled in competing projects of territorial production. In doing so, it engages with conversations regarding the mobilization of indigenous forms—here manifested in the guise of ‘authentic’ institutions—to stake claims and govern behavior on extractive frontiers. Drawing on ethnographic evidence from Betsiaka, a rural commune in Madagascar’s far north, I show how a gold mining-specific dina has figured in local leaders’ struggles against state-corporate interventions; in external actors’ strategies of domination; and in intracommunity contests between factions seeking wealth and power in the diggings.