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The new pastoralism: poverty and dependency in northern Kenya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Extract

Recent studies of African pastoralism have come more and more to concentrate on its political economy and to note the increasing social and economic differentiation occurring within pastoral societies. As Swift and Maliki write of West Africa: ‘Since the 1973 drought, there has been an increasing process of proletarianization in the countryside which has particularly affected herders, who are in many places being transformed from independent rural producers into cowboys herding other people's animals on land they no longer control’ (1984: 2). In Kenya this process has become increasingly apparent since independence, as pastoralism has become dominated by a town-based elite (see Dahl, 1979a; Little, 1983, 1985a and b; Ensminger, 1984). In this article I trace the origins of a new kind of pastoralism in northern Kenya, and argue that poverty and dependence is becoming a permanent way of life to many pastoralists.

Résumé

Le nouveau pastoralisme: pauvreté et dépendance au Kenya du Nord

L'article retrace les origines d'une nouvelle forme de pastoralisme au Kenya du Nord, à partir de ses origines durant la période coloniale jusqu'à nos jours. La pauvreté et la dèpendance d'une aide extérieure et d'un travail nomade sont en train de devenir les caractéristiques permanentes de la vie pastorale. Les projets d'irrigation et autres plans de développement se sont révélés de coûteux fiascos. Des études de cas particuliers et une accumulation d'observations générales sont analysées pour documenter l'émergence d'un petit nombre de families riches qui peuvent vivre relativement bien et peuvent également augmenter les revenus qu'elles tirent de leurs troupeaux grâce aux salaries et au commerce de détail. Ces quelques gens relativement riches contrastent avec la masse des families pauvres qui dépendent d'un travail nomade mal payé et d'aumônes et qui se trouvent également forcées de quitter cette économie pastorale. D'autres inégalités progressives reposent sur ces inégalités et les pauvres se retrouvent de plus en plus pris au piège de leur pauvreté. Si on veut aider les pauvres pastoraux, il faut alors réorienter les priorités de recherche pour examiner l'économie politique du pastoralisme et les processus sociaux et économiques qui sont à la base de la réduction à l'indigence progressive des populations pastorales.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1986

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