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Homeland, Identity and Wellbeing Amongst the Beni-Amer in Eritrea-Sudan and Diasporas

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Homeland, Identity and Wellbeing Amongst the Beni-Amer in Eritrea-Sudan and Diasporas IM/MOBILITY: HOMELAND, IDENTITY AND WELLBEING AMONGST THE BENI-AMER IN ERITREA-SUDAN AND DIASPORAS Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Leicester Saeid Hmmed BSc MSc (OU) Department of Geography University of Leicester September 2017 i Abstract This thesis focuses on how mobility, identity, conceptions of homeland and wellbeing have been transformed across time and space amongst the Beni-Amer. Beni-Amer pastoralist societies inhabit western Eritrea and eastern Sudan; their livelihoods are intimately connected to livestock. Their cultural identities, norms and values, and their indigenous knowledge, have revolved around pastoralism. Since the 1950s the Beni-Amer have undergone rapid and profound socio-political and geographic change. In the 1950s the tribe left most of their ancestral homeland and migrated to Sudan; many now live in diasporas in Western and Middle Eastern countries. Their mobility, and conceptions of homeland, identity and wellbeing are complex, mutually constitutive and cannot be easily untangled. The presence or absence, alteration or limitation of one of these concepts affects the others. Qualitatively designed and thematically analysed, this study focuses on the multiple temporalities and spatialities of Beni-Amer societies. The study subjected pastoral mobility to scrutiny beyond its contemporary theoretical and conceptual framework. It argues that pastoral mobility is currently understood primarily via its role as a survival system; as a strategy to exploit transient concentration of pasture and water across rangelands. The study stresses that such perspectives have contributed to the conceptualization of pastoral mobility as merely physical movement, a binary contrast to settlement; pastoral societies are therefore seen as either sedentary or mobile. This study argues that pastoral mobility is more than mere physical movement: it is a mechanism through which pastoralists formulate their sense of homeland, identity and wellbeing. As part of the analysis the study investigates the multiple interlocked factors which underpin dynamic change to Beni-Amer pastoral systems across time and space. It argues that those binary boundaries between the sedentary and the nomadic are fuzzy: pastoralists are ‘mobile when mobile, mobile while sedentary, and sedentary while mobile’; mobility is a permanent feature, but its purpose and practice differ across time and space. The study argues that mobility is central to Beni-Amer existence, intrinsic to their everyday practices. It happens everywhere; even when camping for extended periods at a single site in a good rainy season their life incorporates mobility. Furthermore, the study argues that for those who leave ii pastoralism as their primary livelihood strategy (‘drop-out pastoralists’), their continuing mobility is invisible in research literature: pastoralists are perceived to cease mobility when leaving pastoralism. This study found that leaving pastoralism does not mean leaving mobility; it means engaging in multiple im/mobilities beyond pastoralism. Pastoralists in transition engage in non-pastoral mobility in search of alternative livelihoods in ‘new’, often urban, environments; many gravitate towards illegalised migration, often experiencing fragmented im/mobilities, characterised by multiple returns, stillness, stuckness, waiting and uncertainty. This study found that this fragmented im/mobility itself converts pastoralists in transition into asylum seekers and diaspora communities. In the new destination, they develop a diasporic identity while remaining connected to the pastoralist identity of their upbringing. In the host country, their im/mobility rights link to their immigrant status; as such these have a significant impact on their sense of wellbeing, identity and homeland attachment. The study concludes that those Beni-Amer who are unable to revisit their homeland demonstrate profound disappointment with life in the diaspora and face the risk of being permanently deracinated, in contrast with those who can maintain contact with their homeland. iii Acknowledgements I praise Allah the Almighty, the Merciful, the Most High, the All Knowing. Indeed, Allah is the Most Compassionate and Appreciative. My deepest gratitude and appreciation go to my Supervisors Dr. Caroline Upton and Dr. Jen Dickinson. This thesis would have been impossible without their empowering, critical and insightful supervision. I am grateful to my Panel Committee, Professor Clare Madge and Professor Martin Phillips, for providing me with great personal and professional guidance, teaching me a great deal about social scientific research; without them, the PhD would have been a lonely and incomplete project. I am also grateful to Dr. Margaret Byron for her constructive suggestions and encouragement when they were most needed; and I would like to thank Associate Professor Nicholas Tate for his guidance at the beginning of my PhD. I would like to thank my extended family members whose love and guidance are always with me in whatever I pursue. Similar thanks go to all of my research participants: without them nothing could have happened, no story, no past to remember, no present to contemplate and no future to aspire to. iv I. Contents page Title page I Abstract ii Acknowledgements iv I. Contents v II. List of tables xi III. List of figures xi IV. Case studies xv V. Appendixes xv VI. Acronyms xvii Chapter one: Introduction 1 1.1. Introduction 1 1.2. Statement of the problem 2 1.3. The Beni-Amer and their homeland 4 1.4. Significance, scope and limitations 6 1.5. Methodology 7 1.6. Thesis structure and precise chapter by chapter summary 9 1.7. Conclusion 10 Chapter Two: Literature Review: Pastoralism, Mobility and Diaspora 11 Part One: Pastoral mobility, Home(land), Identity and Wellbeing 11 2.1. Introduction 11 2.2. Critical pastoralism: rethinking mobilities in pastoral societies 12 2.3. Geographies and mobilities of pastoralist societies 15 2.4. Pastoral mobilities: drivers and constraints 20 v 2.4.1. Rainfall variability and the impact of climate change on pastoral mobility 22 2.4.2. Development policies and pastoral mobility 28 2.4.3. Conflict and pastoral mobility 33 2.4.4. Contemporary pastoral mobility and modern technology 36 2.4.5. House, home and ‘homemaking’ in pastoralist societies 37 2.4.6. Wellbeing, poverty and diversification in pastoralist societies 44 2.5. Conclusion 47 Part Two: Mobility, Migration and Identity 48 2.6. Geographies of mobility and contemporary debates 48 2.7. (Im)mobility in relation to identity 51 2.8. ‘Governing im/mobility’: between legality and illegality 56 2.8.1. Illegal migration routes and illegalised migrants 62 2.8.2. Im/mobility experiences and illegalised migrants: identities and Wellbeing 65 2.9. Conclusion 66 Part Three: Diaspora, Identity, Homeland and Return 67 2.10. Understanding diaspora across time and space 67 2.11. Criteria of diaspora identity formation and homeland debates 69 2.12. Diasporic and ancestral homeland return 74 2.13. Conclusion 75 Chapter Three: Methodology and Methods 76 3.1. Introduction 76 3.2. Philosophical positionality and justification 77 3.2.1. Value positionality: insider-outsider debate while researching communities 79 vi 3.3. Rationale for qualitative methodology and methods 85 3.3.1. Ethnography: participant observation 87 3.3.2. In-depth-walking-along interview 93 3.3.3. Remote-interviewing: mobile phone interviews of illegalised migrants on the move 97 3.3.4. Focus group discussions 99 3.4. Data collection processes: sampling and recruitment criteria 103 3.4.1. Data collection process: number and locations of interviews and focus groups 104 3.4.2. Central ethical issues and informant consent 105 3.4.3. Data collection limitations 106 3.5. Approaches to qualitative data analysis 107 3.5.1. Making sense from data: transcribing for translation 110 3.5.2. Making sense from data: translation for analytic use 111 3.5.3. Making sense from data: Memoing for analytic use 113 3.5.4. Making sense from data: coding for thematic analysis 114 3.5.5. Making sense from data: manual and software use for analysis 117 3.6. Conclusion 119 Chapter Four: History and Geography: Implications for the Re/construction of Identity, Homeland and Subsistence in Eritrea 121 4.1. Introduction 121 4.2. Contexts 121 4.3. Pre-colonial-post-colonial chronicles: Aksum kingdom and Eritrean identities 130 4.3.1. Arab control of the Red Sea: Islamic identity among Eritreans 134 vii 4.3.2. Ottoman and Egyptian occupations: Islamic identity among the locals 136 4.3.3. Creation of Eritrea: Italian occupation, urbanisation and Eritrean national identity 137 4.3.4. British administration and transition of Eritrea 141 4.3.5. Eritrea 1952-1991: federation, the war for independence and forgotten refugees 144 4.3.6. Post-independence Eritrea 1991-2016: wars and displacement 146 4.4. Geographical regions, ethnic groups and subsistence: Central Highland 150 4.4.1. Eastern and western escarpments 154 4.4.2. The Red Sea coastal plains 158 4.4.3. Northern / Sahel highland 165 4.4.4. The western lowland of Eritrea 167 4.5. The Beni-Amer: socio-political and geographical background 177 4.6. Conclusion 184 Chapter Five: Beni-Amer Pastoral Mobility: Homeland, Identity and Wellbeing 186 5.1. Introduction 186 5.2. Background and Context of the Beni-Amer 186 5.3. Pastoral mobility, homeland-making and sentiments among the Beni-Amer 194 5.3.1. Italian colonisation and homeland: impacts on pastoral mobility, identity and wellbeing 198 5.3.2. Impacts of the Ethiopia-Eritrea Federation and EWI 203 5.3.3. Impacts of drought and a war-torn homeland 208 5.3.4. Homeland and Pastoral mobility memory: passing on to the next generation 214 viii 5.3.5. Pastoral mobility and contested concepts of home 218 5.4. Wellbeing in relation to pastoral mobility 221 5.5. Identities and wellbeing in relation to Beni-Amer herding and Religion 223 5.5.1. Identity and wellbeing in relation to Camel-herding practices 225 5.5.2.
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