Abstract
This chapter charts the tragic consequences of pastoralist poverty. Despite the hardship, impoverished pastoralists continue to try and maintain their traditional practices. Since the Second World War, holding onto these practices has meant extreme suffering for many. Routine short-term droughts have become real crises, precipitating famines in 1947–1949, 1972–1974, and 1984–1985. The new herd-less and land-less class of pastoralists that emerged after the war was left with few viable economic strategies. Working for wages was not possible for most because the growth in the labor supply had been much higher than the increase in demand. Using violence, either through banditry or armed rebellion, allowed some to take what could not be acquired through pacific means. However, it also forced many to flee, and these refugees were left with no means to independently support themselves.
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Notes
- 1.
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This was the local consequence of the shortcomings of the post-war Bretton Woods system which required all countries to maintain a fixed exchange rate for their currencies. This system posed a structural problem for the Sudanese pound and the Ethiopian birr. The balance of trade for both Sudan and Ethiopia was generally in favor of imports. The federation of Eritrea to Ethiopia in 1952 and its subsequent annexation in 1962 did not change this. Neither Sudan nor Ethiopia could earn the foreign currencies needed to both pay for imports and maintain their currencies.
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Serels, S. (2018). Conclusion: Being Poor. In: The Impoverishment of the African Red Sea Littoral, 1640–1945. Palgrave Series in Indian Ocean World Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94165-3_7
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