Adaptive cycles in the savannah: pastoral specialization and diversification in northern Kenya

ABSTRACT

Comparative evidence from Eastern Africa suggests the emergence of a highly specialized mobile pastoral livelihood came about in the early- to mid-nineteenth century. Developments in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have seen a distinct turn away from this model of pastoral specialization, towards a more mixed and spatially varied set of livelihood strategies. Low intensity warfare, environmental degradation, rapid population increase, and a shift away from cattle pastoralism and towards goat and camel herding are all evident in the current transition of Pokot livelihoods. Lifestyles have become more sedentary and diversified, while agricultural activities have rapidly spread, with the increased marketing of livestock and other commodities. This article traces the history of these changes among the pastoral Pokot of north-western Kenya (today's Baringo County), using the notions of the adaptive cycle and resilience as key explanatory tools in seeking to understand the patterns and drivers of change over time.

KEYWORDS:

• Pastoralism
• Pokot
• resilience
• adaptive cycle
• environmental history

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. See: Österle, “Innovation und Transformation”; Vehrs, “Changes in Landscape”; Greiner, “Unexpected Consequences”; Greiner and Mwaka, “Agricultural change”.

2. Bollig, “Resilience”; Gunderson and Holling, Panarchy; Resilience Alliance, “Key Concepts”.

3. Gunderson and Holling, Panarchy.

4. Bollig, “Resilience”.

5. For examples: Redman and Kinzig, “Resilience,” 14; Redman, “Resilience Theory,” 70–7; Dearing, “Landscape Change,” 117–27; Gronenborn et al., “Adaptive Cycles,” 73–83.

6. Redman and Kinzig, “Resilience,” 14.

7. Gronenborn et al., “Adaptive cycles,” 73–83; See also Widlok et al., “Towards,” 259–72.

8. Ibid.

9. In contrast to Anderson, Eroding the Commons, 29–30: Il Chamus ancestors came predominantly from Maa-speaking communities further south or east.

10. Bollig, Die Krieger, 55, quotes a longer tradition portraying the pastoral Pokot as closely linked to the Karimojong.

11. Addressed as the ‘sons of the Kaplelach’: Bollig, Die Krieger, 54–5.

12. I collected traditions which emphasized that new pastoral standards were forced upon others by direct threats and the ridiculing of older traditions.

13. Bollig, Die Krieger, 53.

14. Bollig and Österle, “Political Ecology,” 289–315.

15. Straight et al, “Dust People”, describes similar concepts of ‘surviving' among Samburu.

16. Based upon known intervals between initiation ceremonies for Chumwö, Koronkoro and Kapelach generation sets, each generation can be assumed at 25–30 years. The processes described may therefore have commenced in the first half of the nineteenth century.

17. Bollig and Österle, “Political Ecology,” 289–315. Davies and Moore, “Landscape,” indicate droughts from1760s to 1790s, and 1820s–1840s.

18. Verschuren et al., “Rainfall,”410–14.

19. Kiage, “Vegetational,” 146.

20. Lamphear, “People,” 32. Lamphear, “Aspects,” 90, refers to a major drought named Laparanat around 1800 in eastern Uganda. This he equates with the contemporaneous Aoyate drought.

21. Lamphear, “Aspects,” 90.

22. Lamphear, “People,” 27–39; Lamphear, “Aspects,” 90–4.

23. Lamphear, “People,” 28.

24. Anderson, Eroding the Commons, 27.

25. Anderson, “Some Thoughts,” 108.

26. Anderson, Eroding the Commons, 28–9, dates this process to the 1840s–1850s.

27. Galaty, “Maasai Expansion,” 61–86.

28. Anderson, “The Beginning of Time?”

29. There is no evidence that prophets were central to the organization of raids among pastoral Pokot. Lamphear, ”Aspects,” 87–104, argues that prophets were critical to the organization of large-scale raids among the Turkana.

30. Jacobs, “Maasai,” 43f; Galaty, “Maasai Expansion,” 61–86.

31. Lamphear, Traditional History.

32. For a fuller presentation of this episode see Bollig, Risk Management, 130–1.

33. This from Kenya National Archives (KNA), file DC WP 3/42.

34. von Höhnel, Discovery, 768.

35. Beech, The Suk.

36. Schneider, The Päkot, 240, Schneider, “Päkot Resistance,” 144–67.

37. Bollig and Österle, “Political Ecology,” 289–315; Bollig, Risk Management.

38. Beech, The Suk, 26.

39. Lamphear, “Aspects,” 92; Lane, “Trajectories,” 104–44.

40. Lamphear, “Aspects,” 93–7.

41. Galaty, “Maasai Expansion,” 68–70.

42. Anderson, “Some Thoughts,” 116.

43. Davies and Moore, “Landscape”.

44. Thanks to an anonymous reviewer for recognizing that the adaptive cycle for Maasai communities may differ from those of communities in northern Kenya.

45. Hobley, “Notes,” 472; Bollig, Die Krieger, 48.

46. The first Somali herders bought sheep and exchanged them with the Pokot for heifers – see KNA DC BAR 3/5. By the 1920s, trade goods included sugar, tea, blankets, and cereals.

47. The Kolloa Affray of 1950, in which a Pokot movement under the leadership of Lukas Pkech clashed with colonial police forces, left three police men and several dozen of Pokot dead.

48. Schneider, “Päkot Resistance,” 144–67.

49. In 1960, the District Officer noted: ‘In spite of great progress in the rest of the District the Suk once more showed little desire for advance in any direction. Every encouragement has been given to them to keep pace with development elsewhere, they spurn it': KNA, DC BAR 1/5, Annual Report 1959.

50. Bollig and Schulte, “Environmental Change,” 493–514.

51. Hughes, Moving the Maasai.

52. Lokuruka and Lokuruka, “Ramifications,” 121–41.

53. Kerven, Customary Commerce.

54. Hodgson, “Pastoralism,” 97–120.

55. Enforced destocking was applied by the colonial authorities from the 1930s.

56. Conant, “Thorns Paired,” 111–122.

57. Bollig, Risk Management, 367.

58. Bollig and Schulte, “Environmental Change,” 493–514.

59. Bollig, Risk Management, 66–74.

60. Bollig and Österle, “We Turned Our Enemies,” 25–51.

61. Bollig, Risk Management, 186.

62. Ibid., 181–5.

63. Bollig and Österle, “Political Ecology,” 289–315.

64. For summaries, see Fratkin, “East African Pastoralism,” 1–25; Spencer, Pastoral Continuum.

65. Hogg, “New Pastoralism,” 519–55.

66. Fratkin and Roth, As Pastoralists Settle.

67. Fratkin, “East African Pastoralism,” 1–25.

68. Galaty, “Indigenisation,” 473–510.

69. Mkutu, Guns and Governance; Bollig and Österle, “We Turned Our Enemies,” 25–51.

70. Vehrs, “Changes in Landscape”; Becker et al., “Land Use Changes”.

71. Österle “Innovation und Transformation”; Österle, “From Goats to Cattle,” 81–91.

72. Desta and Coppock, “Pastoralism,” 465–86.

73. Greiner and Mwaka, “Agricultural Change”.

74. Also, Zaal and Dietz, “Of Markets,”169.

75. Saltlick, “Baseline Data Survey,” 24.

76. Desta and Coppock, “Pastoralism,” 465–86.

77. Österle, “Innovation und transformation”.

78. Greiner and Mwaka, “Agricultural Change”.

79. Dyson-Hudson and Meekers, “Migration,” 303–14.

80. Leslie and McCabe, “Response,” 114–43; McCabe et al., “Adopting Cultivation,” 321–34.

81. McCabe et al., ”Livelihood Diversification,” 389–400.

82. Archambault, “Recreating”.

83. Fratkin and Roth, As Pastoralists Settle.

84. Ibid.

85. Greiner and Mwaka, “Agricultural Change”.

86. Available at http://ltwp.co.ke/the-project/project-profile.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the German Research Council [BO1123].