Gold, blood, rain, and geniuses

In October 2017, a violent conflict broke out in southwestern Burkina Faso, pitting indigenous Lobi people against migrant gold diggers. Blood was spilled and the market of a gold panning site was burned down. Following this tragic event, latent tensions suddenly transpired into open conflict, revealing the precarious status of gold panners in this region and calling into question the foundations of their moral economy. Based on the cross-referencing of ethnographic data collected by the two authors, this article presents the individual and contrasting viewpoints of local actors, shedding light on the underlying logic of this confrontation.