IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/eurjdr/v22y2010i5p678-695.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Better Marginalised than Incorporated? Pastoralist Livelihoods in Somali Region, Ethiopia

Author

Listed:
  • Stephen Devereux

    (University of Sussex, Sussex)

Abstract

Recent droughts have revived debates about the viability of pastoralist livelihoods in the Horn of Africa. Responding to a perceived crisis of pastoralist reproduction, the Ethiopian government is advocating sedentarisation, but critics argue that this is an opportunistic attempt to extend the regime's control over an insubordinate minority. Pastoralists in Somali Region are in the paradoxical position of being wealthier than highland farmers but politically excluded, geographically isolated and intensely vulnerable to livelihood shocks – natural (droughts), economic (livestock import bans by the Gulf States, government crackdowns on ‘contraband’ trade) or socio-political (conflict between clans, or between militia groups and the state). In this highly politicised context, the voices of pastoralists themselves are often ignored. Based on fieldwork in Somali Region in 2005, this article argues that ‘living on the margins’ – excluded by and beyond the reach of the state, yet resisting incorporation – is the source of both pastoralist wealth and pastoralist vulnerability.Les sécheresses qui ont récemment frappé la Corne de l′Afrique ont relancé les débats sur la viabilité des modes de vie pastorale dans cette partie du continent. Pour répondre à ce qui est perçu comme une crise de reproduction pastorale, le gouvernement éthiopien préconise la sédentarisation des éleveurs. Les critiques affirment que cette politique est une tentative opportuniste par le régime de renforcer son contrôle sur les minorités rebelles du pays. Les éleveurs nomades de la Région Somali se trouvent dans la situation paradoxale d′être plus riches que les agriculteurs des régions montagneuses, mais d′être exclus politiquement, isolés géographiquement, et fortement vulnérables aux crises de subsistance, qu′elles soient naturelles (sécheresses) économiques (embargos sur les importations de bétails par les États du Golfe, lutte sévère du gouvernement contre le commerce de ‘contrebande’), ou socio-politiques (affrontements entre les différents clans, ou entre les milices locales et les autorités). Dans ce contexte fortement politisé, les voix des communautés pastorales sont souvent ignorées. À partir d′un travail de terrain effectué en 2005 dans la Région Somali, cette étude cherche à montrer que le mode de vie « en marge » caractérisant les peuples pastoraux car ils sont exclus par l′État et hors de sa portée, et résistent pourtant à l′intégration, explique à la fois leur richesse et leur vulnérabilité.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen Devereux, 2010. "Better Marginalised than Incorporated? Pastoralist Livelihoods in Somali Region, Ethiopia," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 22(5), pages 678-695, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:pal:eurjdr:v:22:y:2010:i:5:p:678-695
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ejdr/journal/v22/n5/pdf/ejdr201029a.pdf
    File Function: Link to full text PDF
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ejdr/journal/v22/n5/full/ejdr201029a.html
    File Function: Link to full text HTML
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rebecca W. Kariuki & David Western & Simon Willcock & Robert Marchant, 2021. "Assessing Interactions between Agriculture, Livestock Grazing and Wildlife Conservation Land Uses: A Historical Example from East Africa," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-19, January.
    2. Derib Woldeyohannes Benti & Worku Tuffa Birru & Workneh Kassa Tessema & Messay Mulugeta, 2022. "Linking Cultural and Marketing Practices of (Agro)pastoralists to Food (In)security," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-22, July.
    3. Andrea Schapper, 2021. "Climate Justice Concerns and Human Rights Trade-Offs in Ethiopia’s Green Economy Transition: The Case of Gibe III," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 33(6), pages 1952-1972, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:eurjdr:v:22:y:2010:i:5:p:678-695. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.