colonialism

To the Western mind, the presence of lush oases in the middle of deserts is a strange aberration, almost a dream. What moderns fail to appreciate is that oases are actually deliberate human creations, socio-ecological examples of commoning. Colonial powers may see oases as a miraculous fantasy, but locals realize that their cultures of interdependence over the course of millennia have made oases possible, enabling them to collect and sustain natural flows of water in arid climates.

Safouan Azouzi, a scholar of the commons, grew up in Gabès, Tunisia, where as a boy he lived within ancient traditions that sustain oases in the desert. "The idea is to maintain the moisture," said Azouzi, explaining that oases require three distinct layers of vegetation –  the palm tree layer, which produces shade for fruit trees, which in turn provide a layer of shade for growing vegetables.

With these mutually reinforcing layers of plants, oases are able to evolve into food forests to sustain human settlements. In modern terms, they embody the principles of permaculture. Oases are engineered systems in a sense, but not in the modern, mechanical sense of the term. They are instances of co-development and co-stewardship with nature itself – a collaboration that yields a rich, self-replenishing catchment area of moisture and luxuriant growth in the desert.   

"The local Arabic word for moisture is richness," said Azouzi. We talk about an oasis effect. If it's 40° Celsius [104° F.] in the desert, it would be like 30° C. [86° F.] in the oasis….The idea behind oases is to grow as much as possible in the smallest area possible because of the scarcity of the water."

To Western scholars, oases as commons may sound like an arcane topic. But in this time of climate collapse and ecological crises, oases hold many important lessons about how societies can work with ecosystems and develop cultures that support that challenge. 

I explore this and many related topics in a conversation with Azouzi in the latest episode of my podcast, Frontiers of Commoning (Episode #52). Azouzi has studied social design and commons with leading scholars in Italy and  and recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard University Center for Middle Eastern Studies.