ERJJSH 02-01 Ethiopian Renaissance Journal of Social Sciences and the Humanities (original) (raw)
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Reflections on a Journey Through the Southern Omo Valley, Ethiopia
2015
17 The Digging Stick The southern Omo region is a social melting pot. Here, the cultural frontier is not a point at which groups arrive and interact, but a normative condition within which groups constantly manifest and maintain their identities (Brittain et al. 2013). This does not imply that group identity is meaningless; it is in fact a dynamic and changing unit of cohesion providing a rich source of belonging (see Abbink 2000: 3 and Brittain et al. 2013). Travelling through the southern Omo, one is immediately aware of the distinction between, for example, the Hamer and the Mursi people, and the elaborate measures to which people go to identify themselves with their community in a unique manner.
Human stewardship or ruining cultural landscapes of the ancient Tula wells, southern Ethiopia
Geographical Journal
This article uses the concepts of 'human stewardship' and 'ruined landscape' as a theoretical framework for analysing the community's perception of landscape change in the ancient tula well system of Borana in southern Ethiopia. The ancient tula well system, the main permanent water source, has been in operation for more than five centuries and it closely links human activity and the environment. The welfare of the tula well system and the performance of the Borana pastoral system are directly related. Borana management of the tula wells uses concepts such as laaf aadaa seeraa and laaf bade to differentiate between 'land managed by customary laws' (hereafter human stewardship) and 'lost' or 'ruined' land (laaf bade). The cultural landscapes of the ancient wells have undergone changes from ecosystems featuring 'human stewardship' (before the 1960s), that is, laaf aadaa seeraa to 'ruined landscapes' (after the 1960s), that is, laaf bade. Our interest is in understanding how the Borana perceive the impact of land use changes from these two conceptual perspectives. In group discussions, key informant interviews and household surveys across five of the nine well clusters, we found that the society described the changed tula cultural landscape in terms of drivers of well dynamics (i.e. use and disuse), break up of land use zonations, patterns of human settlement (traditional versus peri-urban), expansion of crop cultivation, and changes in environmental quality. Using the two concepts, we analysed linkages between changing patterns of land use that transformed the system from laaf aadaa seeraa, which ensured human stewardship, to laaf bade, which resulted in ruined landscapes. From these we analysed environmental narratives that showed how the society differentiated the past human stewardship that ensured sustainable landscape management from the present ruining of tula well cultural landscapes.
Living in the navel of Waag: ritual traditions among the Daasanech of South West Ethiopia
2011
Fieldwork might be exciting, but writing the experiences down was a lonely process, full of hardship. Sixteen years have passed since I first travelled to Ethiopia in 1995. In all that time, many people have assisted, supported and encouraged me, giving me the strength to finish my work. First and foremost, I would like to thank my promoter, professor Hendrik Pinxten. He offered me the unique opportunity to participate in this project, guided me through the process of writing and remained confident that all would go well. I'm also very much indebted to Gustaaf Verswijver of the Museum of Central Africa (KMMA), Tervuren. His feedback and probing questions were often both inspiring and motivating. He, more than any other, provided me with secondary sources and always took an interest in my results. For financial support I thank the Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO) and the Museum of Central Africa. Other anthropologists who inspired me were Serge Tornay, who I visited in Paris, Ivo Strecker and Jean Lydall with whom I shared a guesthouse in Trondheim during the "Sixteenth conference of Ethiopian Studies" in 2007, Toru Sagawa and Echi Gabbert whom I met in Trondheim too, Shauna La Tosky who was my travelling companion on the route from Addis to Jinka, and, of course, Suzanne Epple, who convinced me to finish this dissertation. She and her husband Gebre were the perfect hosts in Addis during my last visit. Also my thanks to Steven Van Wolputte who commented on my first draft many years ago. Many non-anthropologists were also of great help in supporting me during my time in Ethiopia. My discussions with Elsa Lindjörn of Mekane Yesu about diseases were inspiring. Bert Gorissen who worked for the Rinderpest Eradication Project in Ethiopia at that time saved my life when I was sick with typhoid and allowed me to stay with him when I was in Addis. He also proofread a draft. Many thanks also go to Barbara Swinnen, consul at the Belgian embassy in Ethiopia at that time, who extended me her hospitality after Bert had left. Awassa and his wife offered me a room in Omoraate and Fikre, Seyoum, Ari, Abebe, Aynalem and Habune were all excellent company when I was vi in Omoraate, Dus, Turmi or Jinka. I would also like to thank Gwennael Legars for the time we shared in Hamar and later, in France and Belgium. My special thanks go to Anniek Beernaert who remained at my side for eight months during my fieldwork. Her courage and loving care were a big help to me. Unfortunately, our relationship didn't survive this dissertation. I hope its completion may improve our friendship. Many translators helped me during my stay. Here, I would like to thank Myeri, Gosh, Lokono, Moses and Paul. Jackson Achinya, whom I met on my last visit, was the most philosophical and I wish I had met him earlier in my fieldwork in order to get his opinion on the subtle meanings of certain concepts. Our discussions were really inspiring. Thanks also to Hailu Moroken for the many stories he told me about the way things used to be. Most of all, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the Daasanech who collaborated with me throughout my fieldwork and were patient enough to answer my constant questions. Special thanks to Lokasiamoi, the ritual leader of the Inkabelo, Lokirikimide, an inspiring diviner, Boote Naarama, a female healer and Mana Yergeleb, an Elele elder. Furthermore, thanks to my neighbours and bond-friends in Aoga, Loboros and his wives Nakan and Nathil, Loya and Nyunyu. They took me into their family and we enjoyed many, many evenings together. And of course, I shouldn't forget Lokwasep, my old Nyimor neighbour at Afwork. He was still alive in 2010, but became blind and couldn't walk anymore. I keep him in my heart. Back home, I greatly appreciate the work of Trisha Rose Jacobs who went through the English and the editing and that of Gitte Callaert who worked on the layout. Thanks go to Ides Van Damme, who visited me during fieldwork, Barbara Meyer, Jan Brigou, An Cornelis, Lieven Plouvier and Jan Boudry for their support and friendship, they kept me going when I wanted to give up. My son Tristan distracted me from my work, when I did need it and it is to him I dedicate this work. Last but not least, I would like to thank my parents Guido and Mireille, who are celebrating their fiftieth wedding anniversary as this dissertation is completed.
More than just a terrace: a past perspective on the multifunctional agriculture of Konso, Ethiopia
Terracing can be visually stunning. Your eye is drawn to follow the lines, contours and colours of what is visible today. But the focus on the framed picture of the here and now, whilst beautiful, tells little of how this terraced landscape came to be. It misses the evolution of these terraces over generations and the interconnectedness of the terraced landscape with other parts of the agricultural system. Most farming systems are multifunctional in nature with roles and functions that are social, economic and environmental in nature – but these have also changed over time. Using an archaeological example from Konso, Ethiopia, the EU-funded projects of Archaeology of Agricultural Resilience in East Africa (AAREA) (www.aarea-project.eu) and tRRACES: Resistance and Resilience of ancient agricultural soils, are exploring how understanding these changes across time and space can help us to unpick the mechanisms that drive an agricultural system’s growth.
Frontiers in Communication: Science and Environmental Communication, 2017
This study investigates ecocultural discourses and practices among the Gedeo in southern Ethiopia within the contexts of globalizing commodification of nature, successive governmental extractivist and conservationist discourses, and increasingly influential colonial present religious systems. Our analysis illustrates ways in which indigenous Gedeo understandings of reciprocal ecological coexistence are rooted in cultural knowledge, values, and customs. However, competing forms of knowledge introduced in the form of governance, commerce, conservation, and religion have resulted in an in-process shift from traditionally, spiritually maintained mutualist human–environment relations to dualist commodified relations, particularly among youth, and dualist expert-reliant conservation-ist relations emanating from governmental bodies. By examining a traditional meaning system during an explicit process of erasure, the study points to ways local meanings of, and narratives about, ecocultural interactions are produced and communicated within wider contexts of power, and illustrates tensions among traditional, governmental, capitalist, conservationist, and religious environmental ontologies in everyday and institutional practice. Within a short drive from Dilla 1 town in southern Ethiopia to its rural environs, one can vividly observe two contrasting aspects of human–environment relations. On the one hand are the Gedeo youth, engaged in cutting trees for firewood, charcoal, and construction materials, and the truck drivers, loading the resulting lumber to sell in nearby towns. On the other hand, a bit further into the hinterlands from the main road, are the elders who continue their sacred beliefs and practices of agroforestry, which protect trees from being cut down, harbor diverse aspects of the ecosystem, and sustain a long-standing coexistence. Whereas Gedeo elders are worried about the decline of indigenous knowledge and the rise of environmental degradation, the youth and government authorities interpret human–environment relations differently. The elders' worry is rooted in the shift that is poignantly illustrated in an ongoing transformation of the core Gedeo mutualist premise of " tree is life " to the increasingly predominant dualist premise, especially among Gedeo youth, of " tree is money in pocket. " In this study, we focus on environmental conservation in the contexts of agroforestry in Gedeo in southern Ethiopia and, more specifically, on hierarchically ordered forms of knowledge and 1 Dilla town, located about 360 km to the south of Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, is an administrative headquarters of the Gedeo zone in southern Ethiopia.
Trends of Writing Environmental History in Ethiopian Historiography
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2021
The main objective of this manuscript is deals with the history of writing environmental history in Ethiopia Studies. It has shown that particularly after the 1960s, as a new discipline, scholastic works and publications are produced on environmental history in Ethiopia. Various authors repeatedly made their researches on the history of environmental thought, forest history, drought history, famine history, agricultural history and etc. Among others drought and famine history received a considerable attention of scholars and researchers; famine history, especially after the 1984/85 famine has attracted a growing number of practitioners on the field. In the other side, the study of the natural environment in the past has not gain enough consideration. Furthermore, most of those research works and publications on environmental issues like drought, famine, deforestation, land degradation, soil erosion, and are focused on northern and central Ethiopia through ignoring the rest parts of the country. In general, while it is not adequate, the last century shows the production of numerous researches on different thematic areas of environmental history in Ethiopia. Then, it suggests the need for more research works in the area to fill the above-mentioned gaps.