The Persistence of Pastoral Activities and Response to the New Social Environment among the Rendille in Northern Kenya

During the last thirty years, pastoralists of Eastern Africa have suffered from both natural hazards, such as repeated droughts, and from changes in the social environment, due to integration into the state system, expansion of the market economy, etc. Much research has focused on these problems and their impacts since the 1980s. The future of pastoralism described by these studies suggests that pastoralists are no longer able to exist as viable communities with livestock-based economies.This paper presents the current pastoral activities of the Rendille through comparisons of data collected in 1999-2000 and previous studies of the 1970s, from both social and ecological viewpoints. It then analyzes the Rendille's responses to the new social environment, which leads to a discussion of the persistence of pastoral activities among East African pastoral societies.The Rendille inhabit the and lowlands of northern Kenya, and have a population of about 27, 000. The prominent features of their current pastoral activities and the results of comparative studies can be summarized as follows:1. The ownership of the Rendille rangeland is still communal and more than 80% of the Rendille population still subsist on a livestock-based economy.2. The camel is still recognized as the most important livestock species, but the Rendille have begun to raise more cattle because of cattle's high market value.3. Clanship and lineage structures are still regarded as the ruling principles when people form settlements or homesteads. Moreover, cooperative relationships involving both pastoral activities and daily lives are maintained among households, homesteads, and clan members.4. The age system is still significant in terms of the division of labor.5. The seasonal fission and fusion of settlements and camps has ceased because of the sedentarization of settlements near developing towns. Nevertheless, settlements and livestock herding camps remain a sort of “set”. Pastoral activities are maintained in herding camps and supported by settlement members.6. In response to the new socio-economic situation, people have begun to diversify their income sources to include wage labor and cattle sales, and to utilize credit systems in local shops. Contrary to the pastoral activities that are carried out in cooperation by several families, these new economic activities are undertaken only by individuals.In conclusion, these findings suggest that the Rendille are responding to the new social environment by maintaining different levels of cooperative relationships among households, homesteads, and clan members. By reorganizing the settlements and herding camps as a “set” of the social system, they have stabilized their livestock-based economy and also utilized the new opportunities present in the new social environment

Biology · Geography · Human settlement · Livestock · Pastoralism · Persistence (discontinuity) · Population · Rangeland · Sociology · Viewpoints · Animal Diversity and Health Studies · Ecology · Forestry · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology

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