The TRANSFORMATION of CONFLICTS AMONG ETHIOPIAN PASTORALISTS
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The TRANSFORMATION OF CONFLICTS AMONG ETHIOPIAN PASTORALISTS: Ethnography of the Notion of Conflict among the Karrayyu in the Upper and Middle Awash Valley ALEMMAYA MULUGETA A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY OF UNIVERSITY OF BASEL FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY PRESENTED BY ALEMMAYA MULUGETA ON THE RECOMMENDATION OF Prof.Dr. Till Forester Prof. Dr. Laurent Gotschel Summary This PhD thesis is concerned with studying the conceptualization, performance and transformation of violent conflicts among the pastoralists of the Upper and Middle Rift Valley of Ethiopia. It focused on a particular socio-political context that differs from contexts to which Western scholars are familiar. The research in particular challenges prior studies that reduced violent conflicts in pastoralist areas to purely natural resource- based. Although the link between natural resources and conflict is less contested, the extent to which one enforces the other are not always substantiated with evidence. The research contributes towards a less hegemonic understanding of violent conflicts by avoiding prior definitions, and instead explaining how they appear to, and are performed by, each respective actor in a specific time and place. Violent conflicts in pastoralist areas of the Upper and Middle Awash Valley of Ethiopia are increasingly known and are of great concern to actors in the region because they have changed in their nature and have not yet achieved full transformation to peace. The research supports the notion that violent conflicts are basically embedded within other forms of social interactions. Violent conflict in particular mainly manifests itself in form of cattle raiding or homicide as it has been characteristic to pastoralism. Nonetheless, its notion and its performance has transformed as more actors with diverse interests have come onto the scene. The expansion of state farms, new forms of local governance, such as ethnic federalism, and increased settlements by outsiders has affected the balance of power among local groups and their capacity to restore balance. The Karrayyu, the pastoralist group I dealt are the most marginalized groups in the country in terms of their economic and political participation. They felt their neighboring groups have better access to automatic weapons and administrative institutions rendering them more power and domination over them. Local administration and development agencies have often understood conflict as intrinsic to pastoral mode of production, and thought of its transformation to peace with changing the economy and forms of governance. In practice however, they soon learn that conflict has been reproduced with such changes. The state has growing interest to expand commercial farms as well as private investments that takes away a great share of resources from the local people. The Karrayyu went through a series of interactions with various external groups of which violence is overriding. In attempting to understand such violent conflicts, the research has adopted two approaches. The first is an approach publicised by Schlee (2004) about the importance of people’s reasons for fighting, who fights with whom. The research gives all actors in conflict situations equivalent voices as to their conceptualisation of violent conflict. Specifically, this would mean a) inquiring into the reasoning, preferences and motivations of major actors engaged in violent conflicts. The majority of the Karrayyu pastoralists I consulted saw violence as a necessary and discursively constituted action in their particular context, which is characterised by a lack of peaceful and productive alternatives. It is true that violence entails damage to property and human lives, and it would be naïve to argue that the Karrayyu would feel no remorse about the death of their animals or people as a result of violence with their neighbours. They have their own ways of expressing sorrow and sympathy for the dead and yet such sentiments do not, in their perception, contradict the legitimacy of the violence. To engage in violence in certain empirical conditions is to be realistic. One has to defend one’s cattle, one’s land, and one’s people from those whom one thinks would pre-emptively render harm. Therefore, the Karrayyu feel as though they ought to continuously engage in violence so as to incapacitate their enemies. The second approach focuses on the importance of looking at deeper patterns of relationships to gain a better understanding of conflicts. As violent conflicts are juxtaposed with other forms of social interactions, they are not always and overtly discussed, expressed and acted upon. The research looked at the structural incompatibilities that arose from differences in values as well as the institutions that embrace them. The research also brought to the fore the significance of primordial ties in the process of conflict reproduction. Methodologically, precipitations of violent events can, therefore, be better understood by examining both manifestations of violent events and their contents on the one hand, and structural, deep contradictions, experiences and histories on the other hand. Pastoralist societies are known as ‘Stateless’ societies, the implication being that defence and the monopoly of violence are largely a task imposed on the societies themselves. Violence is often selected as the best option because of its advantages over other means at their disposal. The availability and supply of choices for bargaining, as well as the historical primordial ties that set boundaries between them and others, help to explain why violence is selected in one situation but not in another. Pastoralists cannot be warriors all the time, but rather should be ready to employ violence when the need arises. This capacity to employ violence will continue to exist as long as alternative forms of violence transformation is not put in place. At present, the practice of peace conferences in this region actually increased power imbalances among groups in the Rift Valley instead of transforming violent conflicts to peace.. Acknowledgements The completion of this research project is evidence to the support I received from a number of people and organizations. It is difficult to point out everyone but surely more people have contributed to the success of this research project than could be mentioned here. I thank all the people who provided professional and technical support, made comment, and showed interest to learn from this research. I acknowledge full support from the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) North–South: Research Partnerships for Mitigating Syndromes of Global Change, co-funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). I thank earnestly all my informants in the Upper and Middle valley of Ethiopia including government representatives, NGO staffs particularly GTF staff who have provided significant support during my field work between 2003 and 2005. My great gratitude goes to Professor Till Förster Director for Institute of Social Anthropology at University of Basel, for supervising and offering his valuable time to advise on each and every aspect of the research and for his intellectual inputs which often made me think how wonderful it would have been had I been trained by him before the commencement of this project. He has been among a few professors I know who despite his extensive knowledge and experience in the discipline, still show interest in learning from young scholars like me. His patience, diligence and gift to listen to others have been the best lessons I received and helped me recognize what means to be a prized social anthropologist. His visits to my „field work‟ site and consequent discussions cleared my frustrations about a grounded theory which I dreaded for years. I benefited a lot from the Institute of social anthropology in Basel. It provided me a place of work during my stay in Basel which made it easier for accessing materials that are needed for writing the thesis. I was also able to involve in regular academic discussions and seminars. 1 My sincere thanks go also to my second supervisor, Professor Laurent Goetschel, director of Swiss peace, who closely followed my project and facilitated all the institutional support so that everything goes right and the outcomes are good. I like to thank wholeheartedly my mother, Muluwork Shiferaw, who unfalteringly provided her time; energy and love to enable me complete this research. She also extended her love and care to my daughter during my absence, compromising her own comfort and responsibilities. She has been a reason for me to try and keep on trying to be a better person, to be daring to contribute to the world. My deepest love, great admiration and respect go to my husband, Dr. Muluken Melese who has been always encouraging, practical and loving. His continuous reassurance and support made this to happen. My daughter, Michu, the comforting one, has paid the cost due to my absence even when I am physically there. And yet, she has been my foremost motivation to finish and come back to her, to give her all the time and love she was not able to cherish during five years of study. My parents, Ato Ashenfai Degafaw, my brother Allehone Mulugeta and my sister Fikir Ashenfai, have been my treasures not only during my study but the whole time. I always received a very good insight and contribution from my brother, Allehone whom I envy for his energy, thought and articulation of many social science themes. His extensive reading on Ethiopia and experience has been a great support for me from someone near. The merit of this research is owed to all the people involved in NCCR north south network. My special gratitude is to Ato Berhanu Debelle, Dr. Eva Ludi, Dr. Tobias Hagmann, and Dr. Didier Péclard, who were interested and involved in my research project both administratively and professionally and contributed to the outcome of the research.