Territorializing ethnicity: the imposition of a model of statehood on pastoralists in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia

Abstract

The idea of the nation state has penetrated Kenya and Ethiopia deeply at a level much below the 'nation' state. In the colonial period districts and grazing reserves were delineated according to perceived 'tribal' boundaries, which were often only created in the process. Ethnicity in that process was not invented (as has been claimed for other parts of Africa) but it has changed: it has acquired a territorial character of a new kind. Ethnic territoriality in the mind of policy makers combined with ideas of preservation of the range which modern range ecology would regard as misconceived. These ideas led to policies that restricted the range of movement of pastoral nomads. This paper draws a line from colonial policies to modern politics, in which territorial subdivision continues. This process seems to be guided the interests of self-styled elites, while the pastoralists are adversely affected by them.

Notes on Land-based Conflicts in Kenya's Arid Areas

“…1. In the past two decades, patterns of violent conflict in pastoralist areas have been increasingly triggered by highly politicized claims to land (Schlee 2011). Competing political elites in these areas often aggressively refer to past "injustices" and current "infringements" in order to gain symbolic capital with their electorate.…”

Open Access, Open Systems: Pastoral Management of Common-Pool Resources in the Chad Basin

“…Pastoralists in East Africa are also continuously on the move and their territories have changed over time and continue to change despite being circumscribed by other pastoral groups (Schlee 2010), but at smaller spatial scales and longer temporal scales than in West Africa, where pastoralists move across multiple countries into different Fig. 3 Distribution of Fulfulde speakers in sub-Saharan Africa.…”

Analysis of dynamics of politicized collective identity in post-Dergue Ethiopia: A sociological and social-psychological analysis

“…They also expressed concerns regarding the impacts of extra-institutional behaviours on the survival and rights of innocent community members such as those who are straddled along the Oromo-Somali ethno-territorial frontiers. On his part, Schlee (2013) makes similar remarks about the impacts of territorialization of ethnicity and ethnic-based boundary-making on the traditional patterns and range of movements of pastoral nomads in southern Ethiopia. Tache and Oba's (2009) study provided more specific cases to reveal the manner in which ethno-territorial arrangement and boundary-making efforts along disputed pastoral areas turned the Somali clans like the Garre into strategic beneficiaries and the Boran into strategic losers.…”