Changing Identifications and Alliances in North-east Africa: Volume I: Ethiopia and Kenya

Published by Berghahn Books 2009

Changing Identifications and Alliances in North-east Africa

Volume I: Ethiopia and Kenya

Edited by: Günther Schlee and Elizabeth E. Watson

Volume 2 in the series Integration and Conflict Studies

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781845459574

Overview
Contents

About this book

Forms of group identity play a prominent role in everyday lives and politics in northeast Africa. Case studies from Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Kenya illustrate the way that identities are formed and change over time, and how local, national, and international politics are interwoven. Specific attention is paid to the impact of modern weaponry, new technologies, religious conversion, food and land shortages, international borders, civil war, and displacement on group identities. Drawing on the expertise of anthropologists, historians and geographers, these volumes provide a significant account of a society profoundly shaped by identity politics and contribute to a better understanding of the nature of conflict and war, and forms of alliance and peacemaking, thus providing a comprehensive portrait of this troubled region.

Author / Editor information

Günther Schlee is currently the director of the Department of Integration and Conflict at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. His publications include Identities on the Move: Clanship and Pastoralism in Northern Kenya (International African Institute, 1989), How Enemies are Made (Berghahn, 2008), Rendille Proverbs in their Social and Legal Context (with Karaba Sahado) and Boran Proverbs in their Cultural Context (with Abdullahi Shongolo) (both Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe).

Elizabeth E. Watson is a Lecturer in the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge. Recent publications include: 'Local Community, Legitimacy, and Cultural Authenticity in Postconflict Natural Resource Management: Ethiopia and Mozambique’ in Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 2006 (with R. Black), and 'Making a Living in the Post-Socialist Periphery: Konso, Ethiopia' in Africa, 2006.

Günther Schlee is currently the director of the Department of Integration and Conflict at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. His publications include Identities on the Move: Clanship and Pastoralism in Northern Kenya (International African Institute, 1989), How Enemies are Made (Berghahn, 2008), Rendille Proverbs in their Social and Legal Context (with Karaba Sahado) and Boran Proverbs in their Cultural Context (with Abdullahi Shongolo) (both Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe).

Reviews

“With contributions by many of the leading scholars of the region, these volumes convey both the distinctiveness of these diverse communities and their mutual relationships and reciprocal influences, thus providing an analytical handbook to this important region.” · African Studies Review

“…both theoretically and ethnographically, these volumes present a major contribution to contemporary anthropology, as well as social sciences in general.” · Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology

“… an excellent introduction to the region and its interconnected peoples, as well as a useful guide to ethnographical approaches applied by international scholarship. ... It brings sharp insights into the pragmatism of ‘traditional identities’ as small-scale societies cope - mostly remarkably successfully - with historical values, the vicissitudes of daily life, and the deep but varying impact of modern states that claim them as ‘subject-citizens.’ ... This is a really worthwhile volume with much to offer at first reading, and as a future reference source of ethnographic description of great historical value.” · Cedric Barnes, SOAS/Africa Research Group, Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
List of Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Maps, Figures and Tables Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
List of Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction Günther Schlee Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Space and Time: Introduction to the Geography and Political History Günther Schlee and Elizabeth E. Watson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
Part I Identification and Insecurity in the Lower Omo Valley
Chapter 1 The Fate of the Suri: Conflict and Group Tension on the South-West Ethiopian Frontier Jon Abbink Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	33
Chapter 2 Resistance and Bravery: On Social Meanings of Guns in South-West Ethiopia Ken Masuda Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
Chapter 3 Modernization in the Lower Omo Valley and Adjacent Marches of Eastern Equatoria, Sudan: 1991–2000 Serge Tornay Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
Part II Institutions of Identification and Networks of Alliance among Rift Valley Agriculturalists
Chapter 4 Burji: Versatile by Tradition Hermann Amborn Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	87
Chapter 5 The Significance of the Oral Traditions of the Burji for Perceiving and Shaping their Inter-ethnic Relations Alexander Kellner Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
Chapter 6 Mobility, Knowledge and Power: Craftsmen in the Borderland Hermann Amborn Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
Part III Land, Identification and the State in Ethiopia
Chapter 7 ‘We Have Been Sold’: Competing with the State and Dealing with Others Tadesse Wolde Gossa Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	133
Chapter 8 Identity, Encroachment and Ethnic Relations: the Gumuz and their Neighbours in North- Western Ethiopia Wolde-Selassie Abbute Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
Chapter 9 Debates over Culture in Konso since Decentralization (1991) Elizabeth E. Watson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
Chapter 10 Changing Alliances of Guji-Oromo and their Neighbours: State Policies and Local Factors Taddesse Berisso Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
Part IV Pastoralists in the Kenya–Ethiopia Borderlands
Chapter 11 Changing Alliances among the Boran, Garre and Gabra in Northern Kenya and Southern Ethiopia Günther Schlee Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
Chapter 12 Roads to Nowhere: Nomadic Understandings of Space and Ethnicity John C. Wood Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	225
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241
Notes on Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	253
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	257

Language: English
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 272
Keywords: Peace and Conflict Studies; Anthropology (General)

eBook

Published: October 1, 2009
ISBN: 9781845459574