The Poor are Not Us: Poverty and Pastoralism in Eastern Africa(Eastern African Studies)

This collection concerning East African pastoralists rejects the premise of pastoral egalitarianism and poses questions about the gradual creep of poverty, changing patterns of wealth and accumulation, the impact of diminishing resources on pastoral communities, and the impact of external values. North America: Ohio U Press

Table of Contents:
Part 1 Introduction - poverty past and present: poverty and the pastoralist - deconstructing myths, reconstructing realities, Vigdis Broch-Due and David M. Anderson; pastoral poverty in historical perspective, Richard D. Wallet; remembered cattle, forgotten people - the morality of exchange and the exclusion of the Turkana poor, Vigdis Broch-Due. Part 2 Metaphors and meanings: power and poverty in southern Somalia, Bernhard Helander; pastoralists at the border - Maasai poverty and the development discourse in Tanzania, Aud Talle; why hyenas chase the lion -Iraqw and Datooga discourses on fortune, failure and the future, Ole Bjorn Rekdal and Astrid Blystad. Part 3 Coins and calories: health consequences of pastoral sedentarization among Rendille of northern Kenya, Elliot Fratkin et al; of markets, meat and milk -pastoral commoditization in Kenya, Fred Zaal and Ton Dietz; mutual assistance among the Ngorongoro Maasai, Tomasz Potkanski. Part 4 Development dialogues: images and interventions - the "problems" of "pastoralist" development, Dorothy L. Hodgson; rehabilitation, resettlement and restocking - ideology and practice in pastoralist development, David M. Anderson.

Review :
... essential reading ... This book's great merit is to have managed to make the study of what are minority communities in eastern Africa interesting and relevant to those who are concerned with the ways in which the continent has tackled the thorny question of development. The papers make it clear that pastoralist communities throughout eastern Africa are aware of the changing nature of poverty. There is a lively and robust indigenous discourse about how poverty should be understood, and how it can be ameliorated. Pastoralists increasingly recognise that the poor are now among them. But, although the alleviation of poverty is a central tenet of the development dialogue, there is still much to be done to engage the pastoralists themselves in that dialogue... . For those who are interested in, and concerned with, this subject, this book is essential reading. ... the readableand provocative fashion ... with which various approaches have been pulled together between one set of covers. ...this insightful edition reviews most of the significant factors concerning the slide of pastoralists down the continuum from prosperity to impoverishment... .Through excellent case studies, the volume paints a sad but convincing canvas of pastoral poverty, but also establishes an argument, often only implicitly developed, for giving support to the productive enterprise of raising livestock in rangelands best suited for that purpose - precisely the terms on which pastoral communities are prepared by tradition, knowledge and commitment to encounter modernity. Structural poverty today can best be reduced by strengthening the animal economy and securing herders' rights over resources, as well as selectively pursuing settlement, commercialization and diversification. Such shifts in policy also require reconfiguring the metaphorical state-of-mind, long propagated through misguided interventions by international and national agencies, that has too long associated pastoralists with poverty rather than their wealth of land, livestock and adaptability.