Women, marketplaces and exchange partners amongst the Marakwet of northwest Kenya

Abstract

Based on recent fieldwork, this paper examines the intersecting economic activities of Marakwet women in northwest Kenya with a particular focus on exchange friendships. We highlight the need to expand previous definitions of tilia, based on male exchange of livestock, to include a variety of exchange friendships including those between women. Through investigating women's economic activities in local marketplaces, we demonstrate that marketplaces facilitate the formation of tilia partnerships between women from different areas, and shape women's kinship and friendship interactions within the context of their market activities. We argue that there is a synergy between women's market activities and exchange relationships, but we also emphasise that market activities and tilia exchange relationships are part of the matrix of household economic decision-making navigated by Marakwet women. This has important implications for how we view and support the social and economic contributions of women's activities. Women's tilia relations provide a number of benefits to their trading activities, households and communities, and as such we suggest that rural development interventions would do well to consider and build upon these networks of exchange relations.

Keywords:

• markets
• economy
• exchange
• women
• tilia
• Marakwet
• Kenya

Acknowledgements

We especially wish to thank the Marakwet community, particularly at Tot-Sibou, and the staff of the Marakwet Research Station (http://www.biea.ac.uk/research/marakwet-research-station/) who collected and interpreted much of these research data: Helena Cheptoo, Willy Chukor, Nelson Bailengo, Noah Kiplagat Rutto, Felix Krellkut Kiptoo, Sammy Kimwole and Florence Cheptum. We would like to thank all of the other numerous students and other researchers who have assisted and participated in the development of this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. House-Midamba, “Kikuyu Market Women Traders”, 81–99; and Downing, “The Growth and Dynamics”, 177–197. See also Spring, “African Women”, 11–30, for a discussion of women's informal economic activities within the context of the wider African economies.

2. For exceptions see: Aspaas, “Heading Households”, 192–193; and on the trading of goods between rural and urban areas and the impact for rural households see Kiteme, “The Socioeconomic Impact”, 135–151.

3. See: Spring, “African Women”, 21–23, for a discussion of both larger-scale formal organisation and informal business and family social networks across the formal and informal sector. Also Akong'a, “Drought and Famine Management”, 99–120, for a discussion of women's networks of reciprocity and how these have extended to the formation of work groups and income gathering cooperative.

4. On tilia amongst the pastoral and agricultural Pokot see: Schneider, “The Subsistence Role”, 278–300; Meyerhof, “The Socio-Economic and Ritual”; Dietz, “Crisis Survival Strategies”, 86–108; Bollig, “Moral Economy and Self-Interest”, 144; Nangulu “Food Security”, 168; and Davies, “An Applied Archaeological”, 125. For description of ‘cattle friends’ between the Pokot and the Marakwet see Östberg, “The Expansion”, 30.

5. Schneider, “The Subsistence Role”, 284.

6. Dietz, “Crisis Survival Strategies”, 96.

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid.; Bollig, “Moral Economy and Self-Interest”.

9. Schneider “The Subsistence Role”, 284.

10. Bollig, “Moral Economy and Self-Interest”, 146.

11. Davies, “An Applied Archaeological”, 125.

12. Ibid.

13. Kipkorir, “Historical Perspectives of Development”; Östberg, “The Expansion”.

14. Thomson, Through Masai Land; Bollig, “An Outline”; Davies, “An Applied Archaeological”.

15. Davies, Kiprutto and Moore, “Revisiting the Irrigated”.

16. Ibid.

17. Ibid.

18. Bohannan and Dalton, “Introduction”, 1–26; Clark, Onions are My Husband; Clark “Small-Scale Trades”, 253–273; Ekechi “Gender and Economic Power”, 41–59; Falola, “Gender, Business and Space”, 23–41; and VerEecke “Muslim Women Traders”, 59–81.

19. House-Midambe and Ekechi, “Introduction”, i–xix; House-Midamba, “Kikuyu Market Women Traders”, 81–99; and Robertson, “Comparative Advantage”, 99–121.

20. Coquery-Vidrovitch, African Women, 32–33; Robertson, “Comparative Advantage”, 100–101.

21. Coquery-Vidrovitch, African Women, 32–33.

22. Ibid.

23. Aspaas, “Heading Households”, 192–193; and Kiteme, “The Socioeconomic Impact”, 135–151.

24. Aspaas, “Heading Households”, 192–193.

25. Akong'a, “Drought and Famine Management”, 110–113.

26. Ibid.

27. Kurita, “A Market”; Kurita, “A Preliminary Report”.

28. Kurita, “A Preliminary Report”, 70.

29. Kurita, “A Market”; Kurita, “A Preliminary Report”.

30. Caretta and Börjeson, “Local Gender Contract”.

31. Ibid.

32. Kipkorir, “Historical Perspectives of Development”; Kurita, “A Preliminary Report”; Moore, Space, Text and Gender.

33. For a discussion of why this simple distinction is problematic see Parry and Bloch, “Introduction”, 7–8.

34. Parry and Bloch, “Introduction”, 12.

35. For a discussion on social capital, reciprocal networks and the potential for their incorporation into rural development see Vermaak, “Reassessing the Concept”, 406–409. See also Fafchamps and Lund, “Risk-Sharing Networks” for a development economics case-study on the role of reciprocal non-market exchange, 261–287.

36. Thomson, Through Masai Land describes the Swahili caravan trade at nearby Baringo in the 1880s and recounts camping in Marakwet suggesting that extensive regional exchanges and contacts were well established by the late nineteenth century.

37. Moore, Space, Text and Gender, 10.

38. Ibid, 23.

39. Kipkorir, The Marakwet of Kenya; Moore, Space, Text and Gender; Moore, Men, women and the organisation of domestic space; Östberg, “The Expansion”, 19–48.

40. Soper, “A Survey”, 77–95. Davies Kiprutto and Moore, “Revisiting the Irrigated”.

41. Adams and Watson, “Soil Erosion, Indigenous Irrigation”, 109–122; Watson, “Agricultural Intensification”, 49–67.

42. Widgren, “Towards a Historical Geography”, 1–18.

43. Ssennyonga, “The Marakwet Irrigation System”, 96–111. Adams et al., “Water, Rules and Gender”.

44. Kipkorir, Soper and Ssennyonga, Kerio Valley.

45. Moore, Space, Text and Gender, 18.

46. Dietz et al., “Locational Development Profile”,16–22.

47. Davies, Kiprutto and Moore, “Revisiting the Irrigated”; Soper, “A Survey”.

48. Dietz et al., “Locational Development Profile”.

49. Ibid.

50. Östberg, “The Expansion”, 30–31; and Davies, “Some Thoughts”, 341.

51. Östberg, “The Expansion”, 30–31.

52. See also Davies, “Some Thoughts”, 341–342.

53. See Moore and Davies 2011–2013; www.farminginafrica.wordpress.com/marakwet; Davies, Kiprutto, and Moore, “Revisiting the Irrigated”.

54. Kurita, “A Market”; Kurita, “A Preliminary Report”.

55. There is considerable scope for a more historically focused study on marketplaces and exchange in Marakwet which we hope will be forthcoming. See Davies, “Some Thoughts”, 319–353.

56. For a history of marketplaces in the area, with particular reference to West Pokot see: Zaal and Dietz, “Of Markets, Meat, Maize”, 163–169; and Nangulu, “Food Security”.

57. Bohannan and Dalton, “Introduction”, 18–19.

58. Aspaas, “Heading Households”, 195.

59. Kurita, “A Market”; 89.

60. Ibid. 193.

61. Research Team, Personal Communication.

62. Caretta and Börjeson, “Local Gender Contract”.

63. There are parallels here to Carsten's argument that relatedness is a continuous process carried out through everyday practice; see Carsten, Cultures of Relatedness.

64. It would be interesting to further investigate male tilia relations in order to understand whether in daily practice they are often more informal and more variable than described in previous accounts (Schneider “The Subsistence Role”, 278–300; Dietz, “Crisis Survival Strategies”, 86–108; Bollig, “Moral Economy and Self-Interest”, 135–157; Nangulu, “Food Security”, 168; and Davies, “An Applied Archaeological”).

65. Definitions of male tilia see: Schneider, “The Subsistence Role”, 278–300; Meyerhof, “The Socio-Economic and Ritual”; Dietz, “Crisis Survival Strategies”, 86–108; Bollig, “Moral Economy and Self-Interest”, 135–157; Nangulu, “Food Security”, 168; and Davies, “An Applied Archaeological”.

66. Vaughan, “Which Family?”, 275–283.

67. Ibid. 282.

68. Ibid.

69. Östberg, “The Expansion”, 30–31.

70. Bollig, “Moral Economy and Self-Interest”, 138. Bollig “Risk Management”.

71. On social credit see: Håkansson, “Rulers and Rainmakers”, 265.

72. Akong'a, “Drought and Famine Management”.

73. Kiteme, “The Socioeconomic Impact”, 135–151; Aspaas, “Heading Households”, 192–193; Marsden, “African Entrepreneurs”; Atieno, “Female Participation”.

Additional information

Funding

We would also like to thank the Kenyan National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI) for research permission and the National Museums of Kenya for support and affiliation; the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge and the British Institute in Eastern Africa for financial and logistical support; as well as Mr. Benson Kimeu who processed some of the initial GIS map data.