Basket Cases and Breadbaskets: Sacred Rice and Agricultural Development in PostcolonialAfrica

Based on ethnographic research among rural D iola in G uinea‐ B issau, I provide a broad view of the history and interpenetration of rice in social, political, religious, and ecological domains, while chronicling the current difficulties of residents in this region who are no longer able to grow enough of it. These farmers' experiences are unfolding at a time of revitalized attention to agricultural development in A frica, particularly under the auspices of the N ew G reen R evolution for A frica. I examine the premises that constitute the resuscitated effort to address the plight of A frican farmers. I argue that the totalizing quality of rice in D iola and other rice‐cultivating societies requires a development approach that takes into account dimensions of agrarian life not encapsulated by the high‐modernist and antipolitical orientation of the N ew G reen R evolution for A frica.