Land Reclamation Project

Pilot Study

Land Use & Stewardship: A Land Reclamation and Reconciliation Project

By Fas Lebbie

Introduction

My pilot study aims to investigate a deeper level of insight regarding the impacts of extractive mining amongst Sierra Leone’s Kono people. Specifically, I focus on artisanal diamond mining in Kono, Sierra Leone, and the social, economic, and ecological impacts of this activity.

Land Ownership & Stewardship

This study will be a place-based exploration, tackling the commodification of land that has allowed for the exploitation of Kono people and their natural resources. It will investigate how Kono people mitigate their resultant lack of access to land and how they create alternative livelihoods to artisanal mining?

In Situ Utilization

My investigation will probe current practices of In situ utilization in Kono, Sierra Leone. In situ utilization is the idea that localities can sustain themselves purely from the resources available “in place”. These projects aim to displace the need for diamond mining by offering alternative livelihoods. An example is the reclamation projects which convert abandoned mines in Kono into productive farmland, and an investigation into them will unearth the progress made in bringing land away from commodification and into community stewardship.

Entrepresearch

I will employ entrepresearch while investigating the issue of land & stewardship among the localities. Entrepresearch is an action-based research method I created inspired by Frederick Van Amstel’s “Prospective Design.” Van Amstel proposes that instead of seeking to design alternative presents, we should seek to create alternative presents. He bases this on the idea that while individual situations exist within wider systems, they are also entities within themselves that can be resolved independently.^[1] Entrepresearch therefore emerges from “Prospective Design” as a combination of academic design with entrepreneurial action to develop alternative presents by delivering solutions with an immediate impact tailored to the local context. While acknowledging that these solutions are nested within wider systems, entrepresearch aims to resolve individual pain points with an immediacy not yet possible in Transition Design.

^[1] Frederick van Amstel (2021)  “Designing Relations In Prospective Design,” Frederick Van Amstel, https://fredvanamstel.com/talks/designing-relations-in-prospective-design, [last accessed 02/08/2022]

Landscape

The extraction of diamonds in the Kono region of Sierra Leone has left the landscape pockmarked by abandoned mining pits that collect contaminated water and waste. They expose communities to health and safety risks from groundwater contamination, water-borne diseases, and drowning.^[2]

Figure 1 : Stagnant water and removal of vegetation shows the environmental damage of this mine.^[4]

^[2] “A Story Of Restoration And Reconciliation – RESOLVE”. RESOLVE, 2021, https://www.resolve.ngo/blog/A-Story-of-Restoration-and-Reconciliation.htm.
^[3] “Sierra Leone’s Diamond Industry must be Reformed” (2019) African Business, https://african.business/2019/05/economy/sierra-leones-diamond-industry/
[accessed 02/08/2021].
^[4] Cooper Inveen (2019) “Sierra Leone Community’s Suit against Diamond Miner shows Activist Trend,” Reuters, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-leone-diamonds-idUSKCN1UW0QZ, [accessed 02/08/2022]

Figure 2: Miners at Work. ^[6]

Objectives

My pilot study aims to achieve two main objectives.

1. Unearth how the Kono people have actively challenged ownership structures and unearth opportunities to provoke further land stewardship. 
2. Partnering with Resolve in the Land reclamation & reconciliation project. Resolve is a West African NGO that aims to empower SMEs that can create alternative livelihoods to mining, and mitigate the ecological destruction that it causes.[1] Working alongside them will serve as a testing ground for my “entrepresearch” method. Engaging with participants will allow me to develop it as a research method. A three-phased approach will underlie the stress-testing of entrepresearch.
   1. Develop design experiments through the land reclamation of abandoned mines through community engagement workshops. Land reclamation is the transferring of lands degraded by mining into productive sites. Resolve favor transforming abandoned mines for agricultural and fish farming purposes.
   2. Working with participants and deploying liberatory research methods to engage in the project will “probe the potency” of entrepresearch modes of engagement.
   3. Access the results of the study and determine what worked and what failed. Repeat the successes while dissecting the failures to identify design methods and concepts that need to be in place to make relevant additions to the theory.

^[5] USAID (2010)  “Property Rights And Resource Governance Country Profile: Sierra Leone”. Resource Equity, 2021, https://resourceequity.org/record/1332-property-rights-and-resource-governance-country-profile-sierraleone/.
^[6] Cecilia Jamasmie (2018) “De Beers Launches Sierra Leone Based Pilot to Remove ‘Conflict Diamonds’ from the Market,” Mining.com, https://www.mining.com/de-beers-launches-sierra-leone-based-pilot-remove-conflict-diamonds-market/ [accessed 02/08/2022.]

Background

As shown by Resolve, reclaiming the lands of abandoned mining pits and converting them for agricultural usage offers possible solutions to the problem of extractive and unregulated mining in Kono.  Reclamation of lands through agriculture creates alternative livelihoods and comes with a host of ecological benefits. Reclamation is already popular with Sierra Leonean communities. According to a study by Prince T. Mabey, 43% of Sierra Leonean communities in mined areas suggest reclamation as a means to mitigate the damage wrought by mining.^[8]

Figure 3 : Community rice farming on reclaimed site in Kono

Land reclamation projects in Sierra Leone in 2006, organized by USAID-Tiffany & Co. partnership, found that converting abandoned mines for agricultural uses could effectively mitigate land-based conflicts and was most effective if the land was productive immediately, giving no incentive for the land to be re-mined. Their findings were based on investigations in Kono and Kenema Districts.^[9]

Figure 4 : Land reclama^[10]

^[8] Mabey, p. 12.
^[9]  “Reclaiming the Land After Mining: Improving Environmental Management and Mitigating Land-Use Conflicts in Alluvial Diamond Fields in Sierra Leone,” Foundation for Environmental Security & Sustainability, 2007, https://www.loe.org/images/content/080201/Reclaiming.pdf, [accessed 02/08/2022]
^[10] “Land Reclamation Project,” Resolve, https://www.resolve.ngo/land_reclamation_project.htm, [02/14/2022].

Positionality

I will be conducting this pilot study in my hometown, returning to the Kono region with a complicated positionality of being somewhere between outsider and insider. Kono is an eastern district of Sierra Leone with a population of 500,000. It is known for its diamond wealth and its uniquely horrific experience in the civil war.

I was only four years old when the civil war exiled my family and me. An immigration lottery brought me to the USA, where I continue to obtain western education. An honest assessment of my adopted western epistemologies could result in subconscious misjudgments. Most likely, I will have to challenge my paternalistic instincts towards those still in Sierra Leone, raised by potential subconscious assumptions that my Western knowledge holds a higher position hierarchically than their indigneous knowledge. Unless challenged, these will cloud the insights raised by my collaboration with the Kono people.

In “Charity and Shame: Towards Reciprocity,” Cameron Parsell outlines how this tendency amongst Westerners intervening in subaltern communities to look down upon indigenous people can be challenged. He suggests that by breaking down “provider/recipient distinctions” then the conditions will be created for “reciprocity and interdependence.”^[11]

Methodology

My pilot study will be conducted through two primary investigations during a month-long field research period in Kono this summer.

Patchwork Ethnography

Both my investigations will be informed by patchwork ethnography. Introduced in 2020 in “A Manifesto for Patchwork Ethnography”, this refers to a combination of “rigorous” but inevitably “fragmentary” field investigations, with long-term commitments to understanding the locality, to create ethnographies.

Investigation 1:

My first investigation will be into the commodification of land in Kono, and the resultant shifts in indigenous people’s relationships with land. It will reflect on how Kono’s ethnographies and epistemologies affect their perspective of the problem space.

Narrative Inquiry

^[11] Parsell, Cameron and Clarke, Andrew (2020) “Charity and Shame: Towards Reciprocity.” Social Problems, 0, p. 3.

Narrative inquiry is the process of recording the lived experiences of a group of people, showing how structures have had an impact on their everyday life. I will deploy narrative inquiry by creating a questionnaire asking open prompts to discover Kono people’s relationship to the land they work in and if they see themselves as stewards of it. They will be invited to tell their own narrative of their connections with their land.

Cultural Probes

Cultural probes are used to generate a richer picture of people’s lives by allowing them to create media to document their socio-cultural experiences. It allows them to externalize their narratives, making their lived experiences tangible for outsiders. By inviting Kono people to make a diary recording the events of their lives and the desires that emerge from them, I will discover their thoughts on active land acquisitions by diamond firms, learning how the acquisitions have challenged their livelihoods.

Investigation 2

My other study will be conducted differently based on my encounters with individuals actively working on land reclamation projects. While in Kono, I will engage in the “collective doing” of reclaiming land, embedding myself alongside the manual laborers to create candid moments of reflection with them.

Deep Listening

During my candid conversations with land reclamation workers, I will deploy deep listening techniques, used to withhold all judgment while listening. By showing my willingness to learn from my co-workers, I will encourage them to open up about their ethnographies and their motivations for creating alternatives to mining.

Vignettes

I will translate the findings from my candid conversations and the insights raised by deep listening into detailed vignettes of all the reclamation workers I encounter.

Composite Narratives

Having gained these vignettes, I will be able to combine them into composite narratives: the process of using several individuals’ data to create a single narrative. My composite narratives will unearth the ethnographic facts and motivations behind reclamation workers for alternatives to mining.

Participants and Recruitment

My two different research methodologies will require two different sets of participants, fitting for my two investigations. Furthermore, the differing participants necessitate two different forms of recruitment and reciprocity.

Investigation 1:

My first investigation requires a representative cross-section of Kono society to gain a complete picture of Kono’s relationship to the land and their thoughts on its commodification. Participants will be selected through proportional quota sampling, which ensures that all demographic groups are included in the findings proportionally to their representation in society.

To accurately gather the correct number of participants from each age group, Sierra Leonean census data from the last 20 years will be leveraged. The 2015 census will primarily be used, revealing Kono’ gender, religious, age, and chiefdom demographics, as well as the ethnic dispersion across Sierra Leone.^[12]

With the scale of each demographic group in Kono accessed, I will engage with the local community to gather a representative group of participants.

Previous researchers have set an unacceptable precedent for exploiting Kono people and their data, which I hope to challenge. Offering financial incentives or assistance with their household tasks will ensure I maintain reciprocity with all participants, who will be protected by complete anonymity.

Investigation 2:

My investigation of land reclamations requires less formal sampling methods, and a sample of community workers affected by open mining pits will ensure that my investigation only covers those intimately involved in it. Convenience sampling methods are possible by recording candid conversations with the reclamation workers I am laboring alongside.

A less explicit form of reciprocity will be required for these Kono people, who are in most cases already involved in creating alternative livelihoods to mining. My assistance and leadership in reclamation projects will complete the reciprocal relationship. This will raise a potential power imbalance, and I run the risk of giving orders to a community who are in a better position than myself to determine their needs. To ensure that the power is held by indigenous people throughout the process, I will consult Power Analysis: A Practical

^[12] Weekes, Samuel Beresford and Bah, Silleh (2017) Sierra Leone 2015 Population and Housing Census: Thematic Report on Population Structure and Population Distribution. Statistics Sierra Leone (SSL).

Guide, asking myself relevant questions posed by Jethro Petitt in his “Transnational Economic Actors” section throughout the field work. These include will I “increase or reduce the policy autonomy and developmental space governments have to tackle poverty in ways which reflect agreed national priorities and needs?”: What can I do to reduce the conflict between my objectives and localities’?: And how will I position myself to prioritize all levels of local hierarchies?^[13]

Findings from my Investigations

The findings from both my investigations will center around the idea of “readiness” for two differing transitions, supplemented by insights into my research method of “entrepresearch”. 

Investigation 1:

The primary take-away from “Investigation 1” will be Kono people’s epistemologies towards their land, where I will learn the thought-processes behind their interactions with it. Participating alongside them in activities in the problem space of land commodification, will allow me to assess their “readiness” for a transition to land stewardship while simultaneously solving the problems of today..

“Readiness” expands upon transition design scholars’ conceptualization of “mindset and posture,” which proposes that “fundamental change” arises from “a shift in mindset or worldview that leads to different ways of interacting with others.” “Mindset and postures” underlies the fundamental appeal from transition design, that individuals “examine their own value system and take up more speculative and collaborative postures.”^[14] Cultural probes, revealing the tangible experience, desires, and mindsets of participants, will therefore reveal how speculatively and collaborative the Kono people are and therefore how “ready” they are for a transition.

Investigation 2:

Investigation 2 is less about assessing “readiness” as it is safe to assume that land reclamation workers actively contributing to a transition to alternative livelihoods are “ready” for them. Instead, investigation 2 will allow us to understand the ethnographic, demographic, and epistemological characteristics which underpin this “readiness” for a post-extractivist Kono.

Entrepresearch

^[13] Petitt, Jethro (2013) Power Analysis: A Practical Guide. Stockholm, Sweden, p. 27
^[14] Irwin, Terry and Vaughan, Laurene (2016) “Mapping Transition Design: A Workshop.” Climactic Post Normal Design Exhibition, p. 9

Discussion

I expect my pilot study to raise actionable insights with utility for those working in the land commodification and use and the lack of mining alternatives in the problem spaces. Furthermore, people working in the post-extractivist area more generally also stand to gain.

My assessment of “readiness” amongst Kono people should help related stakeholders create solutions towards alternative livelihood for communities from diamond mining and the ecological cost that precedes.

My pilot study will also be the point at which entrepresearch is introduced to the design world, hopefully inspiring other designers to take a more action-based approach.

Finally, I hope my pilot study will help unlock the agricultural potential of land currently occupied by abandoned mines.

References

• “A Story Of Restoration And Reconciliation – RESOLVE”. RESOLVE, 2021, https://www.resolve.ngo/blog/A-Story-of-Restoration-and-Reconciliation.htm.
• “Diamond Development Initiative- RESOLVE”. RESOLVE, 2021, https://www.resolve.ngo/ddi.htm.
•  “Reclaiming the Land After Mining: Improving Environmental Management and Mitigating Land-Use Conflicts in Alluvial Diamond Fields in Sierra Leone,” Foundation for Environmental Security & Sustainability, 2007, https://www.loe.org/images/content/080201/Reclaiming.pdf, [accessed 02/08/2022]
• Günel, Gökçe et al. (2020) “A Manifesto For Patchwork Ethnography”. Society For Cultural Anthropology, https://culanth.org/fieldsights/a-manifesto-for-patchwork-ethnography.
• “Improving Environmental Management And Mitigating Land-Use Conflicts In Alluvial Diamond Fields In Sierra Leone.”. 2007, https://www.loe.org/images/content/080201/Reclaiming.pdf. Accessed 20 Nov 2021.
• Inveen, Cooper (2019) “Sierra Leone Community’s Suit against Diamond Miner shows Activist Trend,” Reuters, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-leone-diamonds-idUSKCN1UW0QZ, [accessed 02/08/2022]
• Irwin, Terry and Vaughan, Laurene (2016) “Mapping Transition Design: A Workshop.” Climactic Post Normal Design Exhibition, pp. 1-22.
• Jamasmie, Cecilia (2018) “De Beers Launches Sierra Leone Based Pilot to Remove ‘Conflict Diamonds’ from the Market,” Mining.com, https://www.mining.com/de-beers-launches-sierra-leone-based-pilot-remove-conflict-diamonds-market/ [accessed 02/08/2022.]
• “Land Reclamation Project,” Resolve, https://www.resolve.ngo/land_reclamation_project.htm, [02/14/2022].
• Mabey, Prince T. et al. “Environmental Impacts: Local Perspectives Of Selected Mining Edge Communities In Sierra Leone”. Sustainability, vol 12, no. 14, 2021, Accessed 18 Nov 2021.
• Njoh, A., Ananga, E., Anchang, J., Ayuk-Etang, E. and Akiwumi, F., 2016. “Africa’s Triple Heritage, Land Commodification and Women s Access to Land: Lessons from Cameroon, Kenya and Sierra Leone.” Journal of Asian and African Studies, 52(6), pp.760-779.
• Parsell, Cameron and Clarke, Andrew (2020) “Charity and Shame: Towards Reciprocity.” Social Problems, 0, pp. 1-17.
• Petitt, Jethro (2013) Power Analysis: A Practical Guide. Stockholm, Sweden.
• “Sierra Leone’s Diamond Industry must be Reformed” (2019) African Business, https://african.business/2019/05/economy/sierra-leones-diamond-industry/
• [accessed 02/08/2021].
• USAID, 2010. “Property Rights And Resource Governance Country Profile: Sierra Leone”. Resource Equity, 2021, https://resourceequity.org/record/1332-property-rights-and-resource-governance-country-profile-sierraleone/.
• van Amstel, Frederick. “Designing Relations In Prospective Design”. Frederick Van Amstel, 2021, https://fredvanamstel.com/talks/designing-relations-in-prospective-design.
• Weekes, Samuel Beresford and Bah, Silleh (2017) Sierra Leone 2015 Population and Housing Census: Thematic Report on Population Structure and Population Distribution. Statistics Sierra Leone (SSL).
• Wherton, Joseph. “Designing Assisted Living Technologies In The Wild’: Preliminary Experiences With Cultural Probe Methodology”. BMC Medical Research Methodology, vol 12, no. 188, 2012, Accessed 20 Nov 2021