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“Droughts have Different Tails”: Response to Crises in Mukogodo Division, North Central Kenya, 1950s‐1980s
Author(s) -
HERREN URS J.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
disasters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.744
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1467-7717
pISSN - 0361-3666
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7717.1991.tb00438.x
Subject(s) - maasai , pastoralism , geography , politics , population , socioeconomic status , division of labour , development economics , socioeconomics , political science , demography , sociology , economics , environmental planning , livestock , law , forestry , tanzania
In this essay I discuss the response to crises of Maasai speaking pastoralists in Mukogodo Division, North Central Kenya. I begin with the reminder that the Maasai term currently translated as “drought”, olamei, refers primarily to any situation of want of which meteorological drought is only one possible cause. It is therefore preferable to speak of crises, rather than of “droughts”. 1 then review the crises which have affected Mukogodo pastoralism since the turn of the century in a wider socioeconomic and political perspective. I then show how the crises of 1981 and 1984 have led to a process of stratification, which locks the poorer half of the population into an unviable and residual “labour reserve pastoralism” with declining chances of recovery.