In the Aftermath of Displacement: a Political Ecology of Dispossession
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IN THE AFTERMATH OF DISPLACEMENT: A POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF DISPOSSESSION, TRANSFORMATION, AND CONFLICT ON MT. ELGON, UGANDA by DAVID KARL HIMMELFARB (Under the Direction of J. Peter Brosius) ABSTRACT Through the lens of political ecology, this dissertation examines the long‐term legacy of displacement and resettlement on the edge of Mt. Elgon National Park. In 1983, the Ugandan Forest Department resettled 30,000 people in a forested area they called the Benet Resettlement Area. In the three decades since, the area has become home to some of the most severe poverty, highest levels of illiteracy and food insecurity, and most intense soil and water degradation in the region. At the same time, some residents have banded together in novel ways and experimented with new technologies to cope with periodic crises and take advantage of new opportunities. The resettlement area has also become the site of intense conflict that has pitted resident against national park manager and resident against resident. Over the past decade, leaders have used claims of indigeneity to secure government recognition of individualized land rights for the residents of the resettlement area. Nevertheless, conflict and insecurity have persisted as national park managers have redoubled their efforts to stamp out encroachment and claim what they perceive as their territory. The political ecological perspective adopted here shows how these particular opportunities and constraints came to be as dynamic conjunctures of ecological, cultural, social, political, and economic processes at local, regional, national, and international scales. The Benet case demonstrates how displacement and resettlement are transformative processes that create new relations of production, which then shape how affected individuals negotiate future political economic change and crisis. In the moving of people, allocation of land, and enclosure of common pool resources, forced migration made tenure security a new and vitally important component of livelihoods, expressed both in people’s decisions and how they think about place. Yet, since the 1990s, protected area managers and their government supporters have enacted formal policies and informal practices that have promoted tenure insecurity, imperiling livelihoods throughout the resettlement area. This research demonstrates that within the economic system enacted by resettlement, tenure security has become an essential precondition for residents to move forward out of the shadow of forced migration and toward more viable and sustainable livelihoods. INDEX WORDS: Forced migration, livelihoods, environmental conservation, political ecology, indigenous movements, Sabiny, Mt. Elgon, Uganda IN THE AFTERMATH OF DISPLACEMENT: A POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF DISPOSSESSION, TRANSFORMATION, AND CONFLICT ON MT. ELGON, UGANDA by DAVID KARL HIMMELFARB BA, Cornell University, 2004 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF ANTHROPOLOGY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2012 © 2012 David Karl Himmelfarb All Rights Reserved IN THE AFTERMATH OF DISPLACEMENT: A POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF DISPOSSESSION, TRANSFORMATION, AND CONFLICT ON MT. ELGON, UGANDA by DAVID KARL HIMMELFARB Major Professor: J. Peter Brosius Committee: Lisa C. Cliggett Ted L Gragson Bram Tucker Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia August 2012 iv DEDICATION For my grandfather, David Himmelfarb, whose own dissertation research was snatched from him on the IRT. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the help, guidance, and support of a great number of people. I would like to thank my major professor, Pete Brosius, and the rest of my dissertation committee, Ted Gragson, Bram Tucker, and Lisa Cliggett for their time, guidance, and feedback all along the way. I am greatly indebted to my research participants on Mt. Elgon, who suffered through many long and confusing interviews with a grace and hospitality that this novice ethnographer did not always deserve. I will always be grateful to William Cheptegei his wives, Beatrice and Mary, and their children, for adopting me into their family without hesitation the first day we met in 2005. As a research assistant, key informant, father‐ figure, and most importantly, friend, William contributed greatly to my development as a researcher and to my understanding of life in the resettlement area. It is an honor to be a part of the Kabokir clan. Thanks also to Aggrey Kibet, Moses Kiptala, Moses Mwanga, Francis Alinyo, David Mukhwana, and Nelson Chelimo, who provided a great deal of information and insight into the land rights movement in Benet. Diane Russell, Laura German, Joseph Tanui and Jeremias Mowo all provided great assistance as I struggled to begin my research. Aggrey Chemayek, George Musobo, and Edward Chelangat were fantastic research assistants, without whose perseverance, determination, and insight none of my research would have been possible. My research would have also been physically impossible without the honesty and professionalism of mechanic, Lala Gujaram. vi I am lucky to have many wonderful colleagues and friends at UGA and beyond. In particular, I would like to thank, Pat and Amber Huff, Richard Owens, Geoff Kelley, Kate Dunbar, Todd Crane, Sarah Hunt, Ted and Ellie Maclin, Nick Sitko, and Connor Cavanaugh. I could not have navigated the complexities of UGA bureaucracy without the sustained efforts and kindness of Margie Floyd. Andy Case‐Simonson provided a great deal of support during the darkest days of my writing. Zach Anderson deserves special thanks for offering a near‐constant sounding board for my many crackpot theories and a sympathetic ear to my tribulations. Thanks also to Alex McBurney and Ari Friedland, two wonderful friends who have been there for me from the beginning and continue to inspire me ever‐forward to new heights. It turns out that you really never know what will happen when you leave the house. I am especially grateful to my parents, Martin and Jeanette Himmelfarb, otherwise known as HARF (the Himmelfarb Anthropological Research Foundation), who have been my most ardent and indefatigable supporters along this long and tortuous journey. You certainly got more than you bargained for by taking me travelling so many years ago. Finally, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to my friend, confidant, sage advisor, partner in crime, and (most recently!) wife, Jessie Fly. A list of all they ways you have helped me through this process would exceed the length of this manuscript (including references). We have traveled a tremendous amount of ground since we joined forces nearly seven years ago. I can’t wait to see where we’ll go next. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......................................................................................................................................... v LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................................................................xi LIST OF FIGURES.....................................................................................................................................................xii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................................1 Introduction: Getting up on Mt. Elgon................................................................................1 An Overview of the Benet Resettlement Area Case......................................................4 The Complexities of Identity Categories in the Benet Resettlement Area..........7 Forced Migration Studies: A Fractured Intellectual Landscape .......................... 10 Toward a Political Ecology of Forced Migration......................................................... 16 Walter Goldschmidt, Adaptation, and the Ethnography of the Sebei ................ 23 Research Methodology........................................................................................................... 25 Chapter Summary..................................................................................................................... 31 2 THE LANDSCAPE AS PALIMPSEST: THE CONTEXT OF LIVELIHOODS IN THE BENET RESETTLEMENT AREA.................................................................................................. 33 Introduction: A View from the Mountain....................................................................... 33 Physical Geography ................................................................................................................. 37 Regional Ethnographic Context and Pre‐colonial History...................................... 40 viii The Road to Displacement: Conservation Policy on Mt. Elgon 1938‐2010 .... 48 Oral History Box 1: How Kityo Francis Lost His Cows ............................................. 59 Cattle Raiding and the Desertion of the Northern Plains........................................ 60 Oral History Box 2: George Cherop’s Flight from the Plains.................................. 62 From Taxation to Structural Adjustment: The Creation of Peasant Production ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….64 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 74 3 WHEN “EVERYTHING CHANGED”: RESETTLEMENT, ECONOMIC