This paper compares the economy of agropastoral Fulbe women in central Mali before and after the 1973 and 1985 droughts. The position of pastoralist women depends mainly on access to livestock, and... Show moreThis paper compares the economy of agropastoral Fulbe women in central Mali before and after the 1973 and 1985 droughts. The position of pastoralist women depends mainly on access to livestock, and more precisely on access to milk. Rules governing access to milk vary considerably between different pastoral societies and depend on the way social relations are defined and manipulated. For each social category, access to natural resources, labour and social relations are defined differently according to Islamic, 'ndimu' (nobleness) and 'yaage' (respect, shame) rules. The author focuses on women from the following social groups: Weheebe (elite), Jallube (herdsmen) and Riimaybe (ex-slaves). She shows that the droughts had varying effects on these women, depending on their access to and use of natural and social resources, as defined within the normative frameworks of society. The fieldwork on which the paper is based was undertaken in the period 1990-1992 in Dalla, the capital of one of the Fulbe chiefdoms, and in Serma, a village of Jallube and Riimaybe. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in French and Spanish Show less
This thesis deals with the ways in which the agropastoral Fulbe in the Sahel deal with ecological, social and political insecurities. It is based on field research carried out in the Hayre dryland... Show moreThis thesis deals with the ways in which the agropastoral Fulbe in the Sahel deal with ecological, social and political insecurities. It is based on field research carried out in the Hayre dryland region of central Mali, notably in the villages of Dalla and Serma, from March 1990 until February 1992. The first part of the study examines the history of natural resource management and ideologies in the Hayre (1400-1985). The second part is about the role of the past in the present. It analyses the spatial organization, ecological environment, economic organization, and division of labour in the area, as well as the normative complexes typical of Fulbe society. Part three focuses on the use and management of natural resources, paying attention to farming and herding practices, agricultural and pastoral production, the circulation of property, and land tenure. Part four is concerned with the way in which people who have been pushed out of agricultural production survive. It focuses in particular on how people manage social and cultural resources. Part five deals with the interactions of the Fulbe pastoralists with the State and the outside world in a situation of drought Show less
The forms of African divination which revolve around the use of a material apparatus, whose construction and application are more or less institutionalized and professionalized, constitute an... Show moreThe forms of African divination which revolve around the use of a material apparatus, whose construction and application are more or less institutionalized and professionalized, constitute an important field of medical technology. This paper examines a system of divination revolving around four tablets, to which the author was introduced during fieldwork carried out in Francistown in northeast Botswana since 1988. First, it presents the main analytical characteristics of the Francistown divination system. Since the system is a combination of a random generator and an interpretative catalogue, the paper discusses its mathematical properties as well as the high degree of standardization, the classificatory vagaries, and the selective societal referents of its interpretative catalogue. Next, the paper discusses the origin and distribution of the four-tablet system. It emerged in the middle of the second millennium AD in the highlands of Zimbabwe from the interaction between pre-existing local divination systems and Arabian geomancy. After a slow spread over a limited part of southern Africa, the 20th century saw the rapid spread of the system over the entire subcontinent, where it is now the hallmark of noncosmopolitan practitioners. Bibliogr., notes, ref Show less
This paper analyses a selection of the literature that has been published on the relationship between the development of food trade and urbanization in sub-Saharan Africa. The evolution of food... Show moreThis paper analyses a selection of the literature that has been published on the relationship between the development of food trade and urbanization in sub-Saharan Africa. The evolution of food marketing systems and the urbanization process are described in three phases: the precolonial period, the colonial period, and the postindependence period. The paper concludes that the evolution of food trade and urbanization have been closely interlinked from the beginning. Sometimes urbanization was the cause and food trade the consequence, at other times both were the consequence of external factors such as intercontinental trade and colonial policies. The evolution of marketing channels and the location of market places have been determined not only by population developments, but also by existing agroecological and ethnic boundaries, emerging national entities, changing government policies, and local social values. Show less
This monograph reports on the seasonal fluctuations in food and nutrition that occur in Coast Province, Kenya, on the basis of data gathered during five survey rounds held in selected locations in... Show moreThis monograph reports on the seasonal fluctuations in food and nutrition that occur in Coast Province, Kenya, on the basis of data gathered during five survey rounds held in selected locations in Kwale and Kilifi districts between mid 1985 and late 1986. The study population seems to have developed fairly successful strategies to cope with diminishing food stocks at the end of the agricultural year, despite the fact that household income levels are generally low, a large number of households fall below poverty levels, household energy intake is not more than that of peasant smallholders elsewhere in Kenya and the nutritional status of children is below that in other districts. The implications of the findings are reviewed against the background of the changes in livelihood that have occurred in rural Africa; in respect of resource management and diversification strategies; and in relation to existing theories of child growth. The contribution of climate, productive organization, household income and individual characteristics in determining the extent to which the adverse effects of seasonality are felt and the types of coping mechanisms that are used is considered. Finally, the implications for development and policy are discussed. Show less
Ethiopië lijkt een fase van 'deconstructie en reconstructie' door te maken sinds de val van het regime Mengistu in mei 1991. Het land is in een proces van politieke herstructurering verwikkeld... Show moreEthiopië lijkt een fase van 'deconstructie en reconstructie' door te maken sinds de val van het regime Mengistu in mei 1991. Het land is in een proces van politieke herstructurering verwikkeld en poogt een basis te leggen voor een meer open, democratische samenleving. Als gevolg van bijna vier jaar overgangsbeleid is Ethiopië reeds aanzienlijk veranderd: er bestaat vrede en relatieve rust; er is veel meer sociale en politieke vrijheid; er is een opener, markt-georiënteerde economie, met betere voorwaarden voor economische activiteit; het bewind is erin geslaagd etniciteit of 'nationaliteit' een alom tegenwoordig punt te maken onder de bevolking; decentralisatie en 'etnisering' van de regio's zijn vergevorderd, ofschoon de feitelijke controle nog steeds bij de centrale regering ligt. Een probleem vormt de dominantie van het EPRDF (Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front) en de TGE (Transitional Government of Ethiopia) en de relatie tussen de zittende machthebbers en de oppositie. De verkiezingen van juni 1994 en mei 1995 leidden tot een versterking van de positie van de zittende regering, maar losten de problemen van representativiteit en legitimiteit van deze regering niet op. Het dilemma van etnisering en/of representatieve democratie blijft voorlopig nog bestaan. Noten, samenvatting in het Engels (p. 624) Show less
The main objective of this study was to determine the effects of food price changes and relative household incomes on household food expenditure patterns in Kenya. Primary data on household budgets... Show moreThe main objective of this study was to determine the effects of food price changes and relative household incomes on household food expenditure patterns in Kenya. Primary data on household budgets and monthly market prices for selected food items were collected in two agroecological zones of Vihiga district (Western Province) for the main crop year 1993/1994. The study reveals a significant effect of seasonal price fluctuations on household food expenditure patterns. This is exhibited by reduced food expenditures and, by implication, reduced food consumption during the preharvest season. The study concludes that the combined effects of high population growth rates, high population density leading to declining or stagnant food production capacities, and the adverse effects of high food prices caused by the effects of the ongoing structural adjustment programmes will continue to increase food demand in rural areas and reduce purchasing power of households, with adverse effects on the welfare of the population. (Food and Nutrition Studies Programme Report no. 57, 1995) Show less
Chronic malnutrition has been consistently high in Kilifi District, Kenya, despite efforts to improve nutrition. This report presents an alternative approach to nutrition planning in Kilifi... Show moreChronic malnutrition has been consistently high in Kilifi District, Kenya, despite efforts to improve nutrition. This report presents an alternative approach to nutrition planning in Kilifi District, taking into account the multidimensional and multidisciplinary nature of nutrition. This approach incorporates the following processes: intersectoral collaboration and a participatory approach to solving nutritional problems; use of existing structures to implement food security and nutrition surveillance to provide information for district nutrition planning. Show less
De auteur behandelt een aantal van de problemen waarmee Nigeria momenteel te kampen heeft. Hij gaat eerst in op het probleem van de regionale machtsverdeling. De noordelijke politieke elites, die... Show moreDe auteur behandelt een aantal van de problemen waarmee Nigeria momenteel te kampen heeft. Hij gaat eerst in op het probleem van de regionale machtsverdeling. De noordelijke politieke elites, die voortdurend met elkaar concurreren, kunnen alleen regeren door coalities te smeden die elites uit de gehele natie omvatten, waarbij ze zelf de algemene leiding houden. Vervolgens komt het probleem van de corruptie ter sprake. De indruk bestaat dat de Nigeriaanse samenleving de meest corrupte ter wereld is. Het politiek systeem van omkoping werkt echter in zekere zin redelijk doelmatig. Geen enkele president of militair leider heeft sinds de burgeroorlog van 1967-1970 kunnen regeren zonder de actieve samenwerking van een ingewikkeld bestel van lokale elites, die stuk voor stuk omgekocht moeten worden om hun rol als politieke bemiddelaar te verzekeren. Omkoperij is echter anderzijds uitermate ondoelmatig in termen van bestuur. Voorts bestaat het gevaar dat regionale aanspraken uitlopen op pogingen tot afscheiding. Tenslotte gaat de auteur nog in op de ongeldigverklaring, door de toen zittende president Babangida, van de uitslag van de verkiezingen van 1993, die een overwinning betekenden voor Moshood Abiola, en die een burgerlijk bewind hadden moeten opleveren. Show less
The current discussion on democratization in Africa tends towards Eurocentrism in that it pays insufficient attention to the analytical and methodological implications of cultural imperialism,... Show moreThe current discussion on democratization in Africa tends towards Eurocentrism in that it pays insufficient attention to the analytical and methodological implications of cultural imperialism, localization, wrongly claimed universality, and the social price of relativism. Conceptually, formal constitutional democracy is only one variant of democracy among others, and besides, it is an item of political culture which has only relatively recently been introduced to Africa. Recent developments among Nkoya peasants of Kaoma district, Zambia, and working-class townsmen from Francistown, Botswana, most of whom identify themselves ethnically as Kalanga or Tswana, suggest that the democratization movement is only another phase in the ongoing political transformation of Africa. In the course of this process, by an interplay of local and national (ultimately global) conceptions of political power, indigenous constitutional, philosophical and sociological alternatives of political legitimacy are tested, and subsequently accommodated or discarded as obsolete. The author carried out anthropological fieldwork among the Zambian Nkoya in 1972-1974, and in Francistown in 1988-1989, and in both cases has made repeated return visits since. Bibliogr., notes, ref Show less
Moral geographies of antiwitchcraft campaigns may be constructed from quite different vantage points and ideological programmes, as well as working upon quite diverse sets of relationships between... Show moreMoral geographies of antiwitchcraft campaigns may be constructed from quite different vantage points and ideological programmes, as well as working upon quite diverse sets of relationships between the traditional and the modern, the young and the old, the diasporic and the diabolical. One vantage point is the village, and the moral geography that is constructed can be interpreted as a way of coming to grips with a partially apprehended modern world. The present author takes the urban world as point of departure in his analysis of the Abadwa Mwatsopano (Born-Agains), a Christian fundamentalist movement whose preachers operate specifically from the three larger cities of Malawi. For the young urban Born-Again preachers, it is the village world which is largely strange and estranging, only partially comprehensible, and threatening. It is not the 'tarmac' leading to the urban world which is the symbol of hope and despair for this younger generation, but witchcraft-related esoteric objects such as the 'zitumwa', that lead back to the village world and that are seen to jeopardize their frail independence in town. The 'crusade' is a counterattack against the evil forces emanating from the 'village' and a way of contesting the gerontocratic authority of the elderly in religious terms Show less
This chapter describes responses to the ecological crisis and political changes in Ethiopia in the early 1990s among the Suri, an agropastoral group in K„fa Region, southern Ethiopia. Data are... Show moreThis chapter describes responses to the ecological crisis and political changes in Ethiopia in the early 1990s among the Suri, an agropastoral group in K„fa Region, southern Ethiopia. Data are derived from fieldwork carried out in the area after the change of regime in 1991. Attention is paid to environmental conditions and the Suri subsistence system, relations between the Suri and neighbouring ethnic groups, drought and famine in the area, in particular in the 1980s, and the Suri attitude towards the interventions of outside agencies, interethnic conflict in the period 1984-1993, Suri recovery and adaptation in the early 1990s, and the effects of drought, famine, and political upheaval on Suri socioeconomic organization, local political relations, and ethnic identities and interethnic relations. Bibliogr., notes, ref Show less
This paper examines the transformation of violence in Ethiopian society, chiefly in the context of processes of 'modernization' and political change since the turn of the century, but focusing on... Show moreThis paper examines the transformation of violence in Ethiopian society, chiefly in the context of processes of 'modernization' and political change since the turn of the century, but focusing on the most recent period (1970s-1980s). Forms and practices of violence varied in the different periods of modern Ethiopian history. The author distinguishes roughly four periods where a change of political regime initiated a different sort of performance of violence, viz. the period of expansion under Minelik II (d. 1913) and the Yasu-Zewditu era (1889-1930), the Italian intermezzo (1935-1941), the post-War Haile Selassie period (1941-1974), and the 'revolutionary' period (1974-1991). The present 'transitional' period is only marginally discussed. The most important period was that of the revolution. It can be argued that a radical break with the past occurred under the regime of the 'Dergue', the military council ruling Ethiopia after 1974. The breaking point was the period of the 'Red Terror' in the years 1976-1978. It was a period of intense physical and psychological violence which became rooted in society and had a lasting effect on the collective mind and on social relations among Ethiopians. Bibliogr., notes, ref Show less
