Guns, cattle and no grain: Pokot pastoralists in northern Kenya - ASC Research Seminar

Prof. Michael Bollig is an anthropologist at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology and speaker for the Special Research Project 389 (Arid Climate, Adaptation and Cultural Innovation in Africa) of the German Research Foundation at the University of Cologne, Germany. Thematically Prof. Bollig is particularly interested in economic anthropology, cultural ecology, the anthropology of conflict, network analysis and interdisciplinary research initiatives. His regional focuses are the arid and semi-arid regions of East and Southern Africa. Currently his research projects deal with crisis management and risk minimization strategies within two pastoral societies, namely the Pokot in Kenya and the Himba in Namibia. Prof. Bollig has co-authored or edited seven monographs and published no fewer than 35 articles and books contributions.

The economy of the pastoral Pokot in Kenya has changed dramatically in recent years. Population growth, a reduction in stock and the continuing degradation of grazing lands have led to the increasing vulnerability of pastoral households. Droughts, frequent stock epidemics and in particular the escalation of violent inter-ethnic conflicts have meant that pastoralist strategies for land use have come to be questioned. The threat to pastoral economies has been described in similar ways in other eastern and northeastern regions and pastoral societies have altered due to the changed subsistence potential. Market orientation, labour migration, increasing stratification, as well as the abandonment of communal land-use forms in favour of privatized forms illustrate this process. Data gathered between 1987 and 1997 indicate that very few Pokot households are still able to cover their subsistence needs by following pastoral strategies. Pokot actors have, therefore, on the basis of diversification changed rights of access to resources, and changed conflict strategies in an attempt to find a way out of the structural crisis in their economic system.