The Milk of the Boswellia Forests: Frankincense Production Among the Pastoral Somali
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/ 1 THE MILK OF THE BOSWELLIA FORESTS: FRANKINCENSE PRODUCTION AMONG THE PASTORAL SOMALI Ahmed Yusuf Farah Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of London at the London School of Economics and Political Science December 1988 2 ABSTRACT The thesis is a study of the 'ownership', production and marketing of frankincense in Somalia. It considers first the various local and wider uses of frankincense, both industrial and non-industrial. It then examines the place of frankincense trees in the general classification of property in Somalia, with further consideration of the dominance of pastoral concepts in the frankincense sector and sedentary cultivation in northern Somalia. The thesis also analysis the organisation and social relations of frankincense production prior to 1969, and examines the subsequent transformations which have followed the introduction of cooperatives in this sector of the Somali economy. 3 CONTENTS List of Figures and Tables 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 6 INTRODUCTION 8 CHAPTER ONE: SOMALIA AND THE FRANKINCENSE TRADE Major Types of Frankincense and their Source 13 Marketing Policies of Previous Governments 18 Aden Market 22 Organisation of Marketing in Somalia Today 40 International Trade 47 CHAPTER TWO: NON-INDUSTRIAL USES OF INCENSE IN SOMALIA AND ELSEWHERE Social Organisation of the Somali 62 Local Thoughts about the Industrial Use of Incense 71 Some Practical Uses of Frankincense 72 Fumigation and Purification 77 Medicinal Uses of Frankincense 83 Medicinal Use of Myrrh 86 Ceremonial Uses of Incense 89 Incense Offering in the Spirit Possession Ceremony 93 Burning Incense: the Vision of Prophecy 96 Domestic Incensation: a Means of Demonifuge 98 The Cult of Saints 99 CHAPTER THREE: GENERAL CLASSIFICATION OF PROPERTY AND ETHNO-BOTANY OF FRANKINCENSE TREES Pastoral and Non-pastoral Categories of Property 102 Camels and Other Stock 108 Ideas About Frankincense Trees 121 Ethno-botany: Local and Botanical Classification of Frankincense Trees 131 CHAPTER FOUR: FRANKINCENSE SECTOR POETRY Pastoral Metaphors 144 Ambivalent Attitudes Towards Frankincense Property 155 Praise and Work Songs of Sedentary Cultivators in North-West Region 158 Frankincense Theft Curse 166 A Poetic Contest about an Imagined Woman Prostitute 172 Conclusion 182 4 CHAPTER FIVE; 'OWNERSHIP' OF THE FRANKINCENSE BEARING SPECIES Pastoral and Agricultural Land Use Systems 185 Initial Distribution of Frankincense Trees 194 Inheritance 206 Multiplication of Rights 210 Concepts Relating to Utilisation of Frankincense Property 216 Local Geography 229 CHAPTER SIX; ORGANISATION OF THE PRODUCTION OF FRANKINCENSE Instruments of Production 235 Production Uniform 239 The Temporary Field Station 240 Seasonal Rent 243 Organisation of Labour 248 Typology of Frankincense Gathering Families 257 The Production Process: Methods of Tapping 259 Traditional Relations of Production 272 CHAPTER SEVEN; THE COLLECTIVITY ENTERPRISE OF THE POST REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD Frankincense Development and Sales Agency 280 Frankincense Production Cooperatives 287 The Role of Middle-men in the Cooperative Enterprise 304 Parallel Market 311 Current Transformation of Access to Frankincense: from Share-Cropping to Rent 321 CHAPTER EIGHT: CONCLUSION Property Classification in Frankincense Production 330 The Poetry of Frankincense Production 334 The Political Economy in Frankincense Production 340 APPENDIX A 350 APPENDIX B 368 BIBLIOGRAPHY 378-382 5 LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES FIGURE 1 Map of Somalia showing the frankincense 12 growing areas and administrative towns of the enterprise FIGURE 2 The genealogical chart of the Somali 63 FIGURE 3 Morphology of the segmentary lineage system of the Somali 66 FIGURE 4 General classification of property 106 FIGURE 5 A case of several agnates collectively 'owning' an incense field 210-211 TABLE 1 Estimated volume of meydi trade 48 TABLE 2 The FOB international price (November 1986) for major gums 54 TABLE 3 Volume and patterns of consumption for the traded gums 55-56 TABLE 4 Chief characteristics of the animate and inanimate categories of wealth 130 TABLE 5 Ethno-classification of the gum trees 134 TABLE 6 Names of moxor tree 140-41 TABLE 7 Types of Somali Curse 169 TABLE 8 Names of some incense fields 218-219 TABLE 9 Estimated seasonal production and labour capacity of selected fields 222-223 TABLE 10 Seasonal credit account of a collector 308 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank all the institutions and individuals who have offered their assistance on numerous occasions throughout the course of this study. I mention my gratitude to the sponsors of my post-graduate studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, a bilateral research cooperation project between the Somali Academy of Sciences and Arts (SOMAC) where I am employed as research worker and the Swedish Agency for Research Cooperation with Developing Countries (SAREC). I wish to thank my supervisor, Mike Sallnow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His advice on the presentation of the data and techniques of writing an academic work has been very useful, particularly in the initial stages of the study. I would also like to express thanks to Professor I.M. Lewis for his keen interest in my post-graduate study in general and in this study in particular. His constructive comments and his correction of the language contributed much to the improvement of the intellectual and stylistic quality of the thesis. I thank B.W. Andrzejewski for his appreciation of the anthropological analysis of frankincense sector poetry and for the extensive use of poetry throughout the thesis. He made many appropriate changes to the English translation of the Somali poems. For their tremendous hospitality and cooperation, I thank 7 frankincense collectors in Bari and Erigavo regions. Regional, district and local level cooperative chairmen were all very cooperative and hospitable. To mention a few, I am grateful to Xuseen Gurxan (Bosaso), Siciid Cabdikariim (Alula), Addoosh (Qandala) and Saalax Xaji Xasan (Erigavo). I would also like to thank the regional and district officials and workers of the frankincense enterprise, particularly my former secondary school mate, Dhuxul, who is the research director of the enterprise in the central office in Mogadishu. I would like to thank the regional director of the customs in Bari region in 1985, Cabdi Cumar, for the substantial financial and logistic support of my field work in the frankincense producing areas in the region. His generous support has subsidised the limited research allowance obtained from the Somali Academy of Sciences and Arts. I am also grateful for the former and present presidents of the Somali Academy of Science and Arts, Cali Cabdiraxmaan Xirsi and Maryan Faarx Warsame, for their encouragement and support. My thanks goes to all of my research colleagues in the Academy, particularly my Friend Maxamad Xaamud Sheekh who is currently pursuing post-graduate study at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Finally, I thank Swedish and Somali researchers in the frankincense domestication project in Somalia for their advice on the botanical literature on the plants and for the joint trips in the frankincense region during my fieldwork, Persson, A., Thulin, M., and Warfa. 8 INTRODUCTION This study is the first anthropological work on the 'ownership', production and marketing of frankincense in Somalia. It is based on ten months' field research in the north-east frankincense region of Somalia in 1984/5. The frankincense collecting communities are sparsely distributed across a single ecological zone - the maritime escarpment which grows the frankincense bearing species in Bari and Erigavo regions. The fairly uniform culture of these communities allows us to treat this localised but important sector of the national economy as a unit of analysis. My command of the Somali language and my intensive knowledge of the economic groups in northern Somalia, permitted me to undertake a detailed sector analysis of the subject. Of first importance, the study is a comparative analysis of the sedentary, localised economies of frankincense gathering and crop production, within the predominant pastoral system of northern Somalia. However, the thesis has a wider comparative relevance as well. For example, the account of the development of cooperatives is a contribution to the general anthropological literature on this important topic. In the first chapter, and to a limited extent in the next one also, I examine written sources in the light of my field data. These first chapters deal with the current 9 uses of frankincense, both industrial and non-industrial, local and wider uses. They cover at some length, the importance of frankincense, partly because the subject is scarcely dealt with in the literature, with the sacred attributes of incense tending to obscure its other practical values. Chapters three, four and five, deal with property in general. Although a limited account of the primary community resources in the northern region exists in the work of I.M. Lewis (1961), a comparative analysis of basic property categories has not been previously carried out. Chapters three and four show the dominance of the pastoral outlook and world view of the Somalis regardless of economic specialisation - a recognised predisposition but one that has not been adequately documented. As shown in chapter three, Somalis classify property into two broad categories: animate or pastoral wealth