Primary identities in the lower Omo valley: migration, cataclysm, conflict and amalgamation, 1750–1910

Bassi, Marco

doi:10.1080/17531055.2011.552280

Cited by 23 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…These movements ranged across different types of habitats (Carr 1977;Bassi 2011), facilitating diversified food production and complex patterns of risk minimization, as described in Chap. 4.…”

Section: Dasanech Pastoral Decline: Roots and Responsesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Dasanech of the Lowermost Omo Basin: From Adaptation to Development Debacle

Carr

2016

River Basin Development and Human Rights in Eastern Africa — A Policy Crossroads

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The decline of Dasanech pastoral economy in recent decades, due to increasing marginalization by powerful external political and economic forces, has forced the majority of Dasanech to move to areas along the Omo River and its active delta or around the northeastern shores of Kenya's Lake Turkana. Radical reduction of river flow volume, lake retreat and elimination of the river's annual flood brought about by the Gibe III dam, together with dam enabled irrigation agricultural enterprises, would destroy the key components of Dasanech livelihood. Most flood recession agriculture would be eliminated, along with 'last resort' livestock grazing lands, forest resources and fish reproductive habitats in the lowermost Omo and Lake Turkana northern shoreline. Even if the highly unlikely and in any case inadequate artificial flood program promised by the Ethiopian government were implemented, Dasanech survival systems would have already been decimated. The looming crisis of region-wide hunger and mortality is intensified by the Ethiopian government's eviction and expropriation of thousands of Dasanech villagers for large-scale irrigated commercial agriculture. Political repression and a culture of fear prevail. As the crisis unfolds, Dasanech communities, faced with vanishing means of survival, would inevitably contribute to rapid escalation of cross-border, interethnic armed conflict. Dasanech Pastoral Decline: Roots and Responses➢ Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, the Dasanech pastoralists sustained a system of wide-ranging movements throughout the region's dryland plains, as did other indigenous groups in the transboundary region. These movements ranged across different types of habitats (Carr 1977;Bassi 2011), facilitating diversified food production and complex patterns of risk minimization, as described in Chap. 4.By the second half of the century, the combination of direct territorial restriction by the Kenyan and Ethiopian governments, conflict with other disenfranchised pastoral groups in the region and other pressures effectively confined the Dasanech to the plains west of the Omo River and east of the Kibish River for many years. The Dasanech were forced to relinquish most of these areas:• The upland plains of the Ilemi Triangle-formerly, a 'buffer zone' created by agreement between the Ethiopian monarchy and the Kenyan colonial administration.© The Author(s) 2017 C.J. Carr, River Basin Development and Human Rights in Eastern Africa -A Policy Crossroads, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-50469-8_7 111• Grasslands in the Kenya/Ethiopia border area to the northwest of Lake Turkana and southeast of the Ilemi Triangleespecially critical during drought periods. 1 • Woodlands and grasslands along the Kibish River, Koras Mountain and much of the pasture lands between Koras Mountain and the Omo River ( Fig. 1.3)-lands previously shared with the Nyangatom but increasingly fought over as resource degradation and loss of land access have taken hold in the region.• Semi-arid plains and relatively wetter footh...

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Section: Dasanech Pastoral Decline: Roots and Responsesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Dasanech of the Lowermost Omo Basin: From Adaptation to Development Debacle

Carr

2016

River Basin Development and Human Rights in Eastern Africa — A Policy Crossroads

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“…The Nyangatom agropastoralists have been studied in-depth by Tornay (1979Tornay ( , 1981, Tornay et al (1997), Mark and Tornay (1992), Savary (2003) and Schroder (2003), with recent cultural investigation by Bassi (2011). Dasanech socioeconomy and human ecology has been the subject of early work by this writer (e.g., Carr 1977), while Almagor (1978Almagor ( , 1992 has produced major valuable ethnographic analysis.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A critical cultural history of the Ethiopia-Sudan lands is provided by Donham and James (1986). Sobania (2011) has recently written about 'Dassanech' history, and Bassi (2011) has extended cultural history understanding by research with the Dasanech and Nyangatom). The Hamar people residing in the higher lands east of the Dasanech and the Nyangatom and closely interacting with others in the region, are not considered in this volume.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Transboundary Survival Systems: A Profile of Vulnerability

Carr

2016

River Basin Development and Human Rights in Eastern Africa — A Policy Crossroads

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The transboundary region is culturally diverse, with indigenous languages of Cushitic, Eastern Nilotic, and Omotic and Afroasiatic origin. Several ethnic groups-the Nyangatom, Turkana and Toposa-are members of the Karamojong Cluster of cultures and speak mutually intelligible languages. The Dasanech, on the other hand, are Cushitic in linguistic affiliation. At the core of the region's indigenous economies are longstanding survival systems that are highly adapted to shifting environmental and social conditions, with ethnic groups linked through complex exchange networks. In recent decades, increasing dispossession and marginalization imposed by powerful external political and economic powers since colonial times have recently forced much of the region's populationparticularly the Dasanech and northern Turkana-to settle at the Omo River or Lake Turkana as a last option means of survival. Despite centuries of resilience from even the most difficult times, these groups have now been pushed into extreme dependency on these two major water bodies and they have greatly increased vulnerability, even to stresses once familiar to them. They are now vulnerable in the extreme to massive scale destruction of their survival systems, with region-wide hunger and new mortality caused by the Gibe III dam and dam enabled irrigated agriculture along the Omo. Indigenous Livelihoods and Survival Strategy Systems➢ The survival strategy systems of transboundary ethnic groups have emerged from centuries of indigenous knowledge and highly adaptive survival strategy systems.The region's ethnic groups most heavily dependent on the Omo River or Lake Turkana are the Mursi, Bodi, Kwegu, Suri, Kara, Nyangatom, and Dasanech, in the lower Omo River basin, and the Turkana, El Molo, Rendille, Samburu, Gabbra and Dasanech along the shores of Lake Turkana ( Fig. 1.3). 1 Numerous neighboring groups also rely on the 1 Some of the most detailed ethnographic information in the region is that for the indigenous Mursi ethnic group-residing well upstream from lowermost Omo basin and Lake Turkana region that forms the core of this book. The majority of literature for the Mursi region has emerged from research by the anthropologist, Turton (1977, 1991, 1995, 2013) and his associates, who have written numerous pieces concerning the changes in that region-most recently the major scale land grab underway along the Omo River, for Gibe III enabled commercial scale irrigated agriculture plantations. This expanding crisis, particularly as it is affecting for the Mursi and Bodi peoples ( Fig. 1.3), is relatively well reported and can be accessed both at the Oxford based website, www.mursi.org, and at a number of non-governmental and other websites web sites, including Survival International, International Rivers and the Oakland Institute. Other key literature for the Omo River region, near the related Mursi group, is that for the Suri agropastoralists ( Fig. 1.3)-with particularly detailed accounts and interpretations of the region produced by Abbink (1997...

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“…(Footnote 1 continued) Anthropology (1986). The Nyangatom agropastoralists have been studied in-depth by Tornay (1979Tornay ( , 1981, Tornay et al (1997), Mark and Tornay (1992), Savary (2003) and Schroder (2003), with recent cultural investigation by Bassi (2011). Dasanech socioeconomy and human ecology has been the subject of early work by this writer (e.g., Carr 1977), while Almagor (1978Almagor ( , 1992 has produced major valuable ethnographic analysis.…”

Section: Indigenous Livelihoods and Survival Strategy Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1.3). In the face of recent decline and government expropriations, many young Nyangatom men 3 Research by Bassi (2011) in recent years provides some excellent perspective on Nyangatom cultural history.…”

Section: Nyangatom Omo Settlements and Dependence On Riverine Resourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

River Basin Development and Human Rights in Eastern Africa — A Policy Crossroads

Carr

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Primary identities in the lower Omo valley: migration, cataclysm, conflict and amalgamation, 1750–1910

Cited by 23 publications

References 13 publications

The Dasanech of the Lowermost Omo Basin: From Adaptation to Development Debacle

The Dasanech of the Lowermost Omo Basin: From Adaptation to Development Debacle

Transboundary Survival Systems: A Profile of Vulnerability

River Basin Development and Human Rights in Eastern Africa — A Policy Crossroads

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