Ciinna- the Borana Oromo narration of the 1890s Great Rinderpest epizootic in North Eastern Africa

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2182187
AutoresWaktole Tiki (Norwegian University of Life Sciences), Gufu Oba (Norwegian University of Life Sciences)
Ano2009
Volume3
Fascículo3
Páginas479-508
Data de publicação2009-11-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Eastern African Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1753-1055 • E-ISSN: 1753-1063
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17531050903273750
OpenAlexW2045320689
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas8
Referências citadas40

During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, consecutive natural calamities occurred in North Eastern Africa that collapsed pastoral economies and forced human adaptations. A rinderpest epizootic and devastating famine characterized the period. Using oral narrations of the Borana Oromo of Southern Ethiopia, this paper discusses the impact of the Great Rinderpest of the 1890s on cattle, as well as the subsequent famine, and the beginning of predation by carnivores on humans. Societal memory is utilized to reconstruct that particular historical period, referred to by the Borana as ciinna tiittee guracha – the "extermination of cattle whose corpses were covered by swarms of black flies". The pastoral economy and human population collapse that occurred left imprints on historical traditions. The impact of the pandemic was explored in this study by discussing family traditions of the unusual danger of man-eating carnivores, the practice of pawning children, the dispersal of populations, the wiping-out of entire families and, most critically, the crisis of social identity. We examine societal responses and the revival of those social institutions that coordinated recovery and the redistribution of resources. We attempt to understand the process of recovery: the importance of head counting the survivors, the social and ritual re-organization of the gada, and the revival of social institutions that re-created social harmony and promoted pastoral economic recovery

Ancient history · Archaeology · Development economics · Epizootic · Ethnology · Famine · Geography · Livestock · Pastoralism · Plague (disease · Political science · Population · Rinderpest · Social organization · Socioeconomics · Sociology · African history and culture analysis · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Demography · History · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology