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Table of Contents Introduction Abdel Ghaffar M. Ahmed and Hassan A. Abdel Ati Human Adaptation in East African Drylands:The Dilemma of Concepts and Approaches Leif Manger From Adaptation to Marginalization:The Political Ecology of Subsistence Crisis Among the Hadendawa Pastoralists of Eastern Sudan Omer Abdalla Egeimi External Pressures on Indigenous Resource Management Systems: A Case from the Red Sea Area, Eastern Sudan Hassan A. Abdel Ati Agriculture and Pastoralism in Karamoja: Competing or Complementary Forms of Resource Use? Frank Emmanuel Muhereza Management of Aridity:Water Conservation and Procurement in Dar Hamar, Western Sudan Mustafa Babiker Subsistence Economy, Environmental Awareness and Resource Management in Um Kaddada Province, Northern Darfur State Munzoul Abdalla Munzoul Economic Strategies of Diversification Among the Sedentary 'afar of Wahdes, North Eastern Ethiopia Assefa Tewodros Management of Scarce Resources: Dryland Pastoralism Among the Zaghawa of Chad and the Crisis of the Eighties Sharif Harir Resource Management in the Eritrean Drylands: Case Studies From the Central Highlands and the Eastern Lowlands Mohamed Kheir, Adugna Haile and Wolde-Amlak Araia Survival Strategies in the Ethiopian Drylands: The Case of the Afar Pastoralists of the Awash Valley Ali Said Yesuf State Policy and Pastoral Production Systems: The Integrated Land Use Plan of Rawashda Forest, Eastern Sudan Salah El Shazali Ibrahim The Importance of Forest Resource Management in Eastern Sudan: The Case of El Rawashda and Wad Kabo Forest Reserves Sanaa Ibrahim Gadalla Land Tenure and Pastoral Planning in the Red Sea Hills Leif Manger Range Management in the Sudan: An Overview of the Role of the State Abdel Rahman Abbakar Ibrahim What If the Pastoralists Chose Not to be Pastoralists? The Pursuit of Education and Settled Life by the Hadendawa of the Red Sea Hills, Sudan Idris Salim El-Hassan Property and Social Relations in Turkana, Kenya Frode Storås "Do Give Us Children": The Problem of Fertility Among the Pastoral Barbayiig of Tanzania Astrid Blystad Note on Contributors Table Table 1: Mean Annual rainfall for Kotido and Moroto Districts (1982-1994) Table 2: Wild Fruits used as Famine Reserves in Karamoja Table 1: Area in Hectares Planted in Kotido District, Karamoja Table 2: Area in Hectares Planted in Moroto District, Karamoja Table 1: Cultivated Area per Crop in Um Kaddada Rural Councils 1994/95 (in feddans) Table 2: Rainfall in Um Kaddada Province 1993\94 and 1994\95 (in millimeters) Table 1: Types and Number of Livestock Table 2: Frequency of Migration to Saudi Arabia and Djibouti Table 1: Number of Households and Individuals in Gahtelay Table 2: The Major Crops Grown and the Yield in qt/ha. Table 3. The Number of Livestock in Settled Table 4: Farmers Responses to Trees Disappearance Table 5: Percentage Distribution of Households Table 6: Major Crops Grown in the Study Area (a sample) Table 1: Average Household Livestock Holding Among the Middle Awash by Species Type (A Sample) Table 1: Development Budgets of the Department of Range Management (1989/90-1993/94) Table 2: Rates of Implementation in Certain Key Projects (1992/3-1994/5) Table 3: Implementation of Other Project in Financial Terms 1992-1995 Figure Fig. 1: Graphical Representation of a (loree) Manyatta Fig. 2 Annual Rainfall Variations in selected Areas of the Red Sea Hills Fig. 3 Rural and Urban Population in Sinkat District (1973-1989) Fig. 4 Development in Prices of Grains, Sheep and Goats in Sinkat District (January-December 1990) Fig. 1 Pastorial Areas in Ethiopia Fig 2 Seasonal Transhumance of Afar Livestock in the Study Area INTRODUCTION Abdel Ghaffar M. Ahmed and Hassan A. Abdel Ati The present situation in the East African drylands is a very complex one. The dilemma facing the population of these countries is a result of a combination of factors that have their roots in the economy, social organization, policy and ecology. Though, strategically, the countries of the Horn of Africa, which represent a major part of the East African drylands, may be important on the international scene, their economic significance is debatable. One major feature of the production systems in these countries, under the present circumstances, is their dominance by certain trends, some of which are irreversible, such as land degradation, loss of livestock, continuous mobility and excessive marginalization of rural communities. Within such a frame recovery in the sense of simply restoring sustainable self-reliant systems - may no longer be an attainable option. Among the population of the Greater Horn of Africa1, pastoralists and agro-pastoralists represent a high proportion utilizing arid and semi-arid areas. To understand their systems of livelihood, the ways and means through which they are managing to cope with the difficult circumstances and the strategies they have developed over decades in their struggle for survival certain factors have to be taken into consideration. Such factors, as will be discussed below, are essential to the understanding of the pastoralists and agro-pastoralists activities and their integration or marginalization in relation to the wider surroundings in these countries. Varying factors have direct bearings on the structure and culture of pastoral and agro-pastoral societies in the African Drylands. These include the patterns of movement, mode of habitation and the degree of reliance on supplementary economic activities. This had led to some definitional problems when attempts are made to distinguish, with precision, between the pastoralists and agro-pastoralists. It is perhaps more accurate to look at them as a continuum of modes of utilization of resources in time and space. Symbiotic relations are the major features of the relations between pastoralists and their neighbours communities. To try, for example, and give certain characteristic to pastoralists can be easily defeated by the sheer variety of pastoralists forms of adaptation to the demands of their environment. Perception of life, mode of production, social and political organization are essentially interconnected in the life of these people. The ways of life of the population inhabiting the East African drylands have immensely changed over the past few decades. Development projects and government as well as other "external" interventions were the main driving force behind such changes. One of these changes is the gradual curtailment of spontaneous movement of the these people. Such curtailment has disrupted the natural process of adjustment that maintained a balance between people, land and livestock in the pastoral sector. In the case of the agro-pastoralists development and government interventions have also reduced the areas of land available for their activity and forced them to intensify the utilization of the limited space and, hence, natural resources left around their settlements. In certain cases such a practice has contributed to severe land degradation. One very important element to note with reference to the state of development and government intervention is the considerable increase of animal population in many parts of the East African drylands as a result of the introduction of elementary veterinary services and provision of water in areas where traditionally it is lacking. However, such an increase was not, in many parts, matched by an equivalent off-take, whether for marketing or other purposes, in order to release the resulting congestion. The livestock proliferation occurred at the time when the pastoralists habitat began to shrink (Markakis, 1993) due to encroachment of cultivation in the seemingly high potential areas and desertification in the marginal semi-desert areas. Large scale agricultural schemes whether irrigated or rainfed have also had their impact on the agro-pastoralists. However, with the emergence of cash crops as a major activity in the agro-pastoralists economy, competition between them and their fellow pastoralists has had its impact on the land situation as well as on social and political relations. Constriction and degradation of the pastoralists habitat was accompanied by loss of complementary economic activities and supplementary sources of income. Viewed carefully, it can be noted perhaps morethat the interplay of factors such as the population increase, neglect in the planning process, unfavourable terms of trade as well as climatic changes and desertification had led to the marginalization of the pastoralist, their impoverishment and, in some cases, imposed sedentarization either round their fellow agro-pastoralists' settlements or around urban centres. This had led to the emergence of a new category which can be referred to as pastoralists in town (M. Salih, 1985, Abu Sin, 1982). This issue of sedentarization had to be looked into carefully since it normally affects the polar points of the pastoral sector i.e. the poorest and the richest (Abdel Ghaffar: 1976). At the same time the relations between the sedentary and pastoral people should not be taken, as so often mistakenly assumed, as one of polar opposition. In reality it can best be characterized as one of polar complementarity (Mohamed: 1980). In addition to this the recurrent droughts, over the past three decades, have had their impact on the human and animal population of the East African dryland as well as reshaping the ecological scene. This has led people to rely very much on their indigenous knowledge in order to cope with the imposed pressure. In some cases this might have worked