Aneesa Kassam
Biographic Data
| ID | 79812 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Aneesa Kassam |
| GIVEN NAMES | Aneesa |
| FAMILY NAME | Kassam |
| SIGNATURE | KASSAM A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Durham University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 42 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1986 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Top‐Down and Bottom‐Up Approaches in Development
In development theory and practice, “top‐down” and “bottom‐up” approaches refer to two modes of inducing economic, social, political, and technological change in non‐Western societies. They have also been described as “mainstream” and “alternative” approaches. The mainstream approaches began to be applied by Western governments and international institutions between the 1950s and 1960s while the alternative ones emerged in the 1980s in response t…
Obituary of Paul T.W. Baxter (1925-2014): Tribute to an Engaged Anthropologist
In Search of the Good Life: Life-History of a Kenyan Indian Settler. A Sartrean Approach to Biography and History
This article recounts how a young Shi’a Muslim Indian born in north-west India migrated to Kenya in the early twentieth century in the context of the evolving trade linking the two continents, and rose to become a successful merchant and respected member of the community. It portrays the struggles that he undertook with fellow Kenyan Indians against British colonial policies of racial discrimination and political marginalization, and shows some o…
A man of principle: The Life-History of an Early Kenyan Indian Settler (1892-1988)
This article reconnu the story of a how a young Indian born into an Ismaili family of relatively modest means in Gujarat in northwest India settled in Kenya in the early part of the twentieth century and rose to become a successful merchant and respected member of the Kenyan Indian community. It portrays the struggles that he undertook with other members of the Indian community against colonial policies of racial discrimination and political marg…
Community-based Approaches to Reforming Female Genital Operations in Africa: A Case Study From the Oromia Regional State of Ethiopia
In the past, numerous attempts by colonial governments and international agencies to abolish the practice of female genital cutting in Africa failed to make any significant impact on behaviour. In this article, we describe how, since 1996, an indigenous NGO has been attempting to reform the practice in the rural communities of Oromia (Ethiopia). We show that it has brought about enduring change by creating awareness about the health consequences …
"The People of the Five "Drums: Gabra Ethnohistorical Origins
The "ethnic" origins of the Gabra camel pastoralists who live on the Kenyan-Ethiopian border and their relationship to the territorially adjacent Borana cattle pastoralists are matters of ongoing academic debate. This article, which is based on Gabra clan traditions, suggests that the five phratries are an aggregate of some of the communities that live in the Lake Turkana region and beyond it. It describes the precolonial relationship of the Gabr…
Marginalisation of the Waata Oromo Hunter-Gatherers of Kenya: Insider and Outsider Perspectives
This paper examines how the way of life of a little known group of hunter–gatherers, the Waata Oromo, was brought to an end through British colonial wildlife conservation laws and the creation of national parks in Kenya. Through this policy and that of the containment of ethnic groups to 'tribal reserves', the Waata lost their place in the regional economic system and suffered loss of cultural identity. It also meant that when Kenya gained indepe…
The Gabra: Camel Nomads of Northern Kenya
When Will we be People as Well? Social Identity and the Politics of Cultural Performance: The Case of the Waata Oromo of East and Northeast Africa
This essay describes the struggle of an indigenous rights activist to obtain ethnic status and political representation for the Waata, former hunter-gatherers who belong to the Oromo-speaking people of East and Northeast Africa. It discusses how this leader is trying to positively redefine the label of 'caste' attributed to the Waata by scholars to explain the ambivalent position occupied by the group in traditional Oromo society. The essay exami…
Ritual and classification: A study of the Booran Oromo terminal sacred grade rites of passage
In her deconstruction of the category 'ritual', Bell (1992: 6) suggests that all theoretical discourse on this subject is based on the opposition between thought (beliefs, symbols and myths) and action (the enactment of such cultural templates). Bell further demonstrates that this basic distinction has generated two other homologized structural patterns in ritual theory. In the second pattern, (represented in the works of Durkheim, Tambiah and Tu…
On Becoming an Oromo Anthropologist: Dream, Self and Ritual Three Interpretations
In this autobiographical essay, I reflect on my practice as an anthropologist through the medium of a dream experience. This dream occurred shortly before I was due to attend a ritual among the Booran Oromo in northern Kenya. In my discussion, I draw on analytical materialfrom anthropology, psychology, literature and philosophy. Using these different, but complementary approaches, I give three interpretations of the dream. The first two were prov…
Woman Between Two Worlds: Portrait of an Ethiopian Rural Leader
The Process of Becoming: Gabra Oromo Transition Rites (Jilla)
The fertile past: The Gabra concept of oral tradition
Opening ParagraphThis study on the concept of oral tradition is based on three years of fieldwork, between 1980 and 1983, amongst the Gabra of northern Kenya, an Eastern-Cushitic (Oromo) speaking people who originated in southern Ethiopia and who live today on both sides of the Kenya-Ethiopia border. According to the 1978 national census figures, there are about 30,553 Gabra living on the Kenyan side of the border, mainly in the arid waste of the…
Marginalisation of the Waata Oromo Hunter-Gatherers of Kenya: Insider and Outsider Perspectives
This paper examines how the way of life of a little known group of hunter–gatherers, the Waata Oromo, was brought to an end through British colonial wildlife conservation laws and the creation of national parks in Kenya. Through this policy and that of the containment of ethnic groups to 'tribal reserves', the Waata lost their place in the regional economic system and suffered loss of cultural identity. It also meant that when Kenya gained indepe…
"The People of the Five "Drums: Gabra Ethnohistorical Origins
The "ethnic" origins of the Gabra camel pastoralists who live on the Kenyan-Ethiopian border and their relationship to the territorially adjacent Borana cattle pastoralists are matters of ongoing academic debate. This article, which is based on Gabra clan traditions, suggests that the five phratries are an aggregate of some of the communities that live in the Lake Turkana region and beyond it. It describes the precolonial relationship of the Gabr…
When Will we be People as Well? Social Identity and the Politics of Cultural Performance: The Case of the Waata Oromo of East and Northeast Africa
This essay describes the struggle of an indigenous rights activist to obtain ethnic status and political representation for the Waata, former hunter-gatherers who belong to the Oromo-speaking people of East and Northeast Africa. It discusses how this leader is trying to positively redefine the label of 'caste' attributed to the Waata by scholars to explain the ambivalent position occupied by the group in traditional Oromo society. The essay exami…
The fertile past: The Gabra concept of oral tradition
Opening ParagraphThis study on the concept of oral tradition is based on three years of fieldwork, between 1980 and 1983, amongst the Gabra of northern Kenya, an Eastern-Cushitic (Oromo) speaking people who originated in southern Ethiopia and who live today on both sides of the Kenya-Ethiopia border. According to the 1978 national census figures, there are about 30,553 Gabra living on the Kenyan side of the border, mainly in the arid waste of the…
The Gabra: Camel Nomads of Northern Kenya
Ritual and classification: A study of the Booran Oromo terminal sacred grade rites of passage
In her deconstruction of the category 'ritual', Bell (1992: 6) suggests that all theoretical discourse on this subject is based on the opposition between thought (beliefs, symbols and myths) and action (the enactment of such cultural templates). Bell further demonstrates that this basic distinction has generated two other homologized structural patterns in ritual theory. In the second pattern, (represented in the works of Durkheim, Tambiah and Tu…
In Search of the Good Life: Life-History of a Kenyan Indian Settler. A Sartrean Approach to Biography and History
This article recounts how a young Shi’a Muslim Indian born in north-west India migrated to Kenya in the early twentieth century in the context of the evolving trade linking the two continents, and rose to become a successful merchant and respected member of the community. It portrays the struggles that he undertook with fellow Kenyan Indians against British colonial policies of racial discrimination and political marginalization, and shows some o…
Woman Between Two Worlds: Portrait of an Ethiopian Rural Leader
On Becoming an Oromo Anthropologist: Dream, Self and Ritual Three Interpretations
In this autobiographical essay, I reflect on my practice as an anthropologist through the medium of a dream experience. This dream occurred shortly before I was due to attend a ritual among the Booran Oromo in northern Kenya. In my discussion, I draw on analytical materialfrom anthropology, psychology, literature and philosophy. Using these different, but complementary approaches, I give three interpretations of the dream. The first two were prov…
The fertile past: The Gabra concept of oral tradition
Opening ParagraphThis study on the concept of oral tradition is based on three years of fieldwork, between 1980 and 1983, amongst the Gabra of northern Kenya, an Eastern-Cushitic (Oromo) speaking people who originated in southern Ethiopia and who live today on both sides of the Kenya-Ethiopia border. According to the 1978 national census figures, there are about 30,553 Gabra living on the Kenyan side of the border, mainly in the arid waste of the…
The Process of Becoming: Gabra Oromo Transition Rites (Jilla)
Woman Between Two Worlds: Portrait of an Ethiopian Rural Leader
Ritual and classification: A study of the Booran Oromo terminal sacred grade rites of passage
In her deconstruction of the category 'ritual', Bell (1992: 6) suggests that all theoretical discourse on this subject is based on the opposition between thought (beliefs, symbols and myths) and action (the enactment of such cultural templates). Bell further demonstrates that this basic distinction has generated two other homologized structural patterns in ritual theory. In the second pattern, (represented in the works of Durkheim, Tambiah and Tu…
On Becoming an Oromo Anthropologist: Dream, Self and Ritual Three Interpretations
In this autobiographical essay, I reflect on my practice as an anthropologist through the medium of a dream experience. This dream occurred shortly before I was due to attend a ritual among the Booran Oromo in northern Kenya. In my discussion, I draw on analytical materialfrom anthropology, psychology, literature and philosophy. Using these different, but complementary approaches, I give three interpretations of the dream. The first two were prov…
When Will we be People as Well? Social Identity and the Politics of Cultural Performance: The Case of the Waata Oromo of East and Northeast Africa
This essay describes the struggle of an indigenous rights activist to obtain ethnic status and political representation for the Waata, former hunter-gatherers who belong to the Oromo-speaking people of East and Northeast Africa. It discusses how this leader is trying to positively redefine the label of 'caste' attributed to the Waata by scholars to explain the ambivalent position occupied by the group in traditional Oromo society. The essay exami…
The Gabra: Camel Nomads of Northern Kenya
Marginalisation of the Waata Oromo Hunter-Gatherers of Kenya: Insider and Outsider Perspectives
This paper examines how the way of life of a little known group of hunter–gatherers, the Waata Oromo, was brought to an end through British colonial wildlife conservation laws and the creation of national parks in Kenya. Through this policy and that of the containment of ethnic groups to 'tribal reserves', the Waata lost their place in the regional economic system and suffered loss of cultural identity. It also meant that when Kenya gained indepe…
Community-based Approaches to Reforming Female Genital Operations in Africa: A Case Study From the Oromia Regional State of Ethiopia
In the past, numerous attempts by colonial governments and international agencies to abolish the practice of female genital cutting in Africa failed to make any significant impact on behaviour. In this article, we describe how, since 1996, an indigenous NGO has been attempting to reform the practice in the rural communities of Oromia (Ethiopia). We show that it has brought about enduring change by creating awareness about the health consequences …
"The People of the Five "Drums: Gabra Ethnohistorical Origins
The "ethnic" origins of the Gabra camel pastoralists who live on the Kenyan-Ethiopian border and their relationship to the territorially adjacent Borana cattle pastoralists are matters of ongoing academic debate. This article, which is based on Gabra clan traditions, suggests that the five phratries are an aggregate of some of the communities that live in the Lake Turkana region and beyond it. It describes the precolonial relationship of the Gabr…
A man of principle: The Life-History of an Early Kenyan Indian Settler (1892-1988)
This article reconnu the story of a how a young Indian born into an Ismaili family of relatively modest means in Gujarat in northwest India settled in Kenya in the early part of the twentieth century and rose to become a successful merchant and respected member of the Kenyan Indian community. It portrays the struggles that he undertook with other members of the Indian community against colonial policies of racial discrimination and political marg…
In Search of the Good Life: Life-History of a Kenyan Indian Settler. A Sartrean Approach to Biography and History
This article recounts how a young Shi’a Muslim Indian born in north-west India migrated to Kenya in the early twentieth century in the context of the evolving trade linking the two continents, and rose to become a successful merchant and respected member of the community. It portrays the struggles that he undertook with fellow Kenyan Indians against British colonial policies of racial discrimination and political marginalization, and shows some o…
Obituary of Paul T.W. Baxter (1925-2014): Tribute to an Engaged Anthropologist
Top‐Down and Bottom‐Up Approaches in Development
In development theory and practice, “top‐down” and “bottom‐up” approaches refer to two modes of inducing economic, social, political, and technological change in non‐Western societies. They have also been described as “mainstream” and “alternative” approaches. The mainstream approaches began to be applied by Western governments and international institutions between the 1950s and 1960s while the alternative ones emerged in the 1980s in response t…
Sociology (12 works) · History (9 works) · African history and culture analysis (8 works) · Political science (8 works) · Law (7 works) · History (6 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (5 works) · Anthropology (5 works) · Gender Studies (5 works) · Geography (5 works)