A Warrior's Domain in a Modern
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A Warrior’s Domain in a Modern Era The transforming nature and functions of cattle raiding as a result of the tension between modernisation and tradition The case of Kenya, Uganda and Sudan’s border region Ylva van den Berg - 3091651 Eva de Vries - 0492671 Utrecht University 14th of August 2009 A Thesis submitted to the Board of Examiners in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts in Conflict Studies and Human Rights Name of Supervisor: Dr. Chris van der Borgh Date of Submission: 14th of August 2009 Programme trajectory: Research & Thesis Writing: 30 ECTS Word Count: 29.700 2 Contents List of Maps, Figures and Photographs 5 List of Abbreviations 6 Acknowledgements 7 1. Introduction 11 1.1 Focus of study 11 1.2 Realisation of research and changing directions 14 1.3 Understanding transformation 15 1.4 Relevance of research 17 1.5 Outline 19 2. Methodology 20 2.1 Location and access 20 2.2 Methodological discussion 21 2.3 Focus of research 23 2.4 Sample and venues 24 2.5 Research methods 25 3. Analytical Framework 29 3.1 The analytic lens 29 3.2 The changing nature and functions of cattle raiding 30 3.3 The tension between modernisation and tradition 31 3.4 Pastoralist societies and modernisation 33 4. Context Analysis 36 4.1 Pastoralist parts of the Horn of Africa 36 4.1.1 Area of focus 36 4.1.2 Pastoralism as a way of life 37 4.1.3 History and culture 39 4.2 Colonialism and pastoralism: a contradicting combination 41 4.3 Regional instability after independence 42 4.4 Poorly governed states and the proliferation of small arms 43 4.5 Pastoralist conflict in the region 45 4.5.1 Cattle raiding 45 4.5.2 Pastoralist groups in war and peace 46 5. State Policies: Disarmament 48 5.1 Disarmament campaigns 2000 – 2006 48 5.2 Disarmament campaigns 2006 – to date 49 5.3 The issue of protected kraals 52 5.4 Increasing a-symmetric tensions 54 5.4.1 Karamoja 54 5.4.2 Turkana 55 5.4.3 Toposa 55 5.5 Disarmament and the changing nature and functions of cattle raiding56 6. Pastoralist Migration Patterns 60 3 6.1 Pastoralist migration 60 6.2 Past and current migration patterns 62 6.2.1 Turkana 62 6.2.2 Jie and Dodoth 65 6.2.3 Toposa 68 6.3 Migration and the occurrence of violence 69 6.4 The resource scarcity debate 74 6.5 Migration and the changing nature and functions of cattle raiding 76 7. Socio-economic and Cultural Changes 78 7.1 Trans-border trade and the commercialisation of cattle raiding 78 7.1.1 The participation of businessmen 79 7.1.2 The involvement of the Dinka 80 7.1.3 Politically instigated cattle raiding 81 7.2 Changing cultural perceptions of cattle raiding 81 7.3 The eroding role of elders and changing attitude of women 84 7.3.1 The diminishing authority of elders 85 7.3.2 The changing role of women 86 7.4 The changing nature and functions of cattle raiding 87 Discussion and Conclusion 89 Bibliography 95 Data Collection Techniques 100 List of Maps, Figures and Photographs 4 1. The main concepts of research 16 2. Research location in East Africa 21 3. Groups of focus and location 24 4. Total number of respondents 26 5. Ongoing drought in Turkana 37 6. Turkana man 40 7. Turkana woman 40 8. Youth warrior: small wooden stool and AK-47 45 9. Conflict map of border region Kenya, Uganda and Sudan 47 10. Modern weapons: a common phenomenon in the border region 51 11. Women migrating with their packed donkey’s 61 12. Turkana migration patterns 64 13. Jie migration patterns before forced disarmament 66 14. Dodoth migration patterns before forced disarmament 67 15. Direction of movement during dry season: Toposa clans 69 16. Direction of migration in border region 70 17. Incidents of cattle raiding 2007 – 2009: Turkana 73 18. Human deaths and injured 2007 – 2009: Turkana 73 19. A branded Jie cow 80 20. Warrior with ‘lifelines’ on his shoulder 83 List of Abbreviations 5 CBO Civil Based Organisation CEWARN The Conflict Early Warning and Response Mechanism CPA Comprehensive Peace Agreement GoS Government of Sudan GoSS Government of Southern Sudan IDP’s Internally Displaced Persons IGAD Inter Governmental Authority On Development KPF Kenya Peace Forum KPR Kenya Police Reserves LDU Local Defence Units LOKADO Lokichoggio Kakuma Development Organisation LOPEO Lokichoggio Peace Organisation LRDA Losolia Rehabilitation and Development Organisation LRA Lord’s Resistance Army LWF Lutheran World Federation NCP National Congress Party NGO Non Governmental Organisation SOPA Seeds of Peace Africa SNV Stichting Nederlandse Vrijwilligers / Dutch Development Organisation SPLA Sudan Peoples Liberation Army SPLM Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for the Refugees UNOCHA United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs UPDF Ugandan Peoples Defence Forces WFP World Food Program Acknowledgements 6 From the beginning of February to the end of May 2009 we conducted research throughout Northern Uganda, Northern Kenya and Southern Sudan in order to collect data for our thesis which would serve as final product for the Master in Conflict Studies and Human Rights. The area where these three East African countries meet each other is, and has always been, prone to conflict between nomadic groups that struggle for access to scarce water and pasture for their livestock and who raid each other’s cattle. The influx of modern weapons in the last decades has changed the practice of cattle raiding and made the population increasingly feel insecure. Besides the constant concern of getting attacked, they have to deal with an extreme arid environment, diminishing amount of trees, shorter wet seasons and more droughts. As result of this, they face an inability to built proper shelters and deal with lack of drinking water, hunger and, in increasing extent, famine. Governments from all three countries have hardly put any effort in developing this region, which has left its people being among the poorest in Africa, if not, worldwide. Its neglect and marginalisation is largely due to the inaccessibility of the region. As a result of security risks, lack of infrastructure, healthcare and language barriers, many people (including those working for (inter)national development organisations, journalists and researchers) think twice before entering ‘the Land of Thorns”.1 The Dutch NGO IKV Pax Christi offered us the unique opportunity to conduct research in the border areas of these three countries on the relationship between seasonal migration of nomadic groups and the occurrence of (cross-border) violence. Our decision to do our fieldwork in this challenging environment was informed by a couple of reasons: first, bearing in mind the lack of research done in these three countries altogether. Second, the chance to enhance our knowledge on this particular kind of conflict while hopefully contributing to the large body of literature. Third, gathering useful information for IKV Pax Christi’s Peace and Sports Programme and last, the extraordinary chance to do grass-roots research in a normally quite inaccessible area in this interesting part of Africa. Looking back on our time in the field, it was not always easy to live in such an isolated area. Language barriers were difficult as only few people speak English. Awareness of possible security risks and a constant dependency upon the people that we worked with (with regard to translation and arrangement of interviews) made our stay at some points quite challenging. On top of this, interviewing people with a totally different culture and view on 1 Name of a documentary with as subtitle “Struggling for survival in Karamoja”. Produced by Steffen Keulig and Sacha Kachan in February 2008 as part of the EU Karamoja Campaign and supported by the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED). 7 the world as a whole made it hard to understand them and their norms and values. However, these challenges have been turned into positive experiences from which we have learned lengthily and that were relevant and useful in complementing the analytic part of our studies. As we are very grateful that we were given the chance to travel to this part of Africa, we would like to express our appreciation to many people for making our fieldwork possible, and therefore also the final production of this Master thesis: Most importantly, we would like to gratefully thank all people working for the Peace and Sports Programme, carried out by IKV Pax Christi Netherlands (working from Nairobi) in cooperation with the Kenya-based NGO Seeds of Peace Africa (SOPA). This research would not have been possible without being incorporated in their programme, working together with their partner organisations in the field and making use of their long established connections. Inextricably bound up with this programme are Sara Ketelaar and Meindert Korevaar who we would like to thank in particular for giving us the chance to do this research. We are so grateful for their trust, assistance and supportive words during our stay in Nairobi and in the field. Sincere thanks to Wycliffe Ijackaa Imoite, their direct colleague and the Projects Director of SOPA for his insightful contributions to our work, kindness and positive attitude during these three months. Also, we would like to thank the rest of IKV Pax Christi and SOPA personnel, who were always friendly and interested in the progress of our research. During our visits to Nairobi it was such a pleasure to be received with open arms by the staff.