Knowledges and attachments to urban plants in Sub-Saharan Africa (Benin, Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal): identification and production of a heritage from below – INFRAPATRI

This research project is based on a comparative approach. The four cities selected for the survey present contrasting but not dissimilar histories and ecosystems. All of them are also threatened today by urbanization policies determined by a certain conception of "modernity" promoting the use of concrete, the artificialization of soils and highly regulated greening methods, in addition to land and property speculation. Nevertheless, in each of these cities, urban plants have recently been brought up to date by new urban elites or public authorities, through the prism of the global model of the "sustainable city" promoted by international cooperation and major development agencies.

An international and interdisciplinary collaboration between humanities, social and natural sciences and arts

Within the framework of INFRAPATRI, interdisciplinary collaborations between human and social sciences and natural sciences will be set up in order to understand urban nature both as a historical, social and cultural construction and as a set of living elements with tangible physical, biological and ecological properties. The project also places great emphasis on collaboration between scientists and visual and audiovisual artists, not only in terms of disseminating the results to a variety of audiences (inhabitants, urban planning and sustainable development actors, academic and cultural actors) but also in terms of survey methodology. This interdisciplinary project thus brings together geographers, anthropologists, historians, botanists and artists from Benin, Cameroon, France, Nigeria and Senegal, all of whom are familiar with the cities selected for the survey and the project's issues.

To address INFRAPATRI's interdisciplinary issues, the research methodology will combine qualitative and quantitative survey techniques, using both secondary (archives, contemporary grey literature, cadasters, local press articles, online resources) and primary sources (via data collection work directly on species and natural spaces in cities and together with different types of urban dwellers and the authorities in charge of environmental management and urban planning). By combining archival work, botanical inventories, production of geolocalized data, cartographies, and interviews and long-term ethnographic observations, the project borrows from several disciplinary traditions. Finally, our approach is resolutely participatory, based on a "multi-species ethnography" approach that allows us to consider inhabitants and natural elements together in their daily interactions within the urban space.

Head of project: Emilie Guitard, permanent research fellow in Anthropology (CNRS/UMR Prodig, France)

Team in Dakar:

• Jean-François Boclé, visual artist (Paris, France)
• Linda Boukhris, lecturer in Geography (Université Paris 1/EIREST, France)
• Saskia Cousin, professor of Anthropology (Université Paris Nanterre/CESSMA, France)
• Wagane Gueye, artist (Dakar, Senegal)
• Sébastien Jacquot, lecturer in Geography (Université Paris 1//EIREST, France)

• Saheed Aderinto, professor of History and African and African Diaspora Studies (Florida International University, USA)
• Elodie and Delphine Chevalme aka « Les soeur Chevalmes », visual artists and graphic designers (Paris, France)
• Emilie Guitard, permanent research fellow in Anthropology (CNRS/UMR Prodig, France)
• Alain Kassanda, documentary film maker (Montreuil, France)
• David Ladipo, research in Botany (CENRAD Ibadan, Nigeria)
• Anthony Obayomi, visual artist and graphic designer (Lagos, Nigeria)
• Yohan Sahraoui, lecturer in Geography (Université de Franche Comté, France)

Team in Porto-Novo

• Saskia Cousin,  professor of Anthropology (Université Paris Nanterre/CESSMA, France)
• Theodore Dakpogan, visual artist (Porto-Novo, Benin Republic)
• Elieth Eyebiyi, postdoctoral fellow in Anthropology (LASDEL, Benin Republic)
• Rémi Jenvrin, doctoral fellow in Geography (CNRS/Université Paris 1)
• François Kougblenou Zansou, visual artist  (Porto-Novo, Benin Republic)
• Sara Tassi, research in Architecture and Urbanism (CESSMA, France)

• Thomas Chatelet, documentary film maker (Lyon, France)
• Stéphane Eloundou, visual artist (Yaounde, Cameroon)
• Elsa Escobedo, visual artist (Paris, France) 
• Sébastien Jacquot, lecturer in Geography (Université Paris 1//EIREST, France)
• Marie Morelle, professor of Geography (Université Lyon 2/PRODIG, France)
• Joseph Owona NTSAMA, researcher in History (Cerdotola, Cameroon)
• Christine Raimond, senior research fellow in Geography (CNRS/UMR Prodig, France)
• Murielle SIMO, lecturer in Botany (Université Yaoundé 1, Cameroon)