Citation

Fujimoto T. Jpn. J. Cult. Anthropol. 2010; 75(3): 347-370.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

Conflicts in Africa, especially on a local small-scale, are often discussed in terms of 'conflicts over scarce resources' in the context of environmental change or 'degradation.' That also applies to conflicts between herders and farmers (herder-farmer conflict), which represent the majority of cases reported in West Africa, and typically involve disputes between immigrant herders looking for better grazing land and indigenous farmers seeking extra land for the cultivation of crops. This study examines herder-farmer conflict in southwest Ethiopia by focusing on four cases: conflict in Malo (between the Me'en and the Malo), Konta (between the Me'en and the Konta), Dime (between the Me'en and the Dime), and Dizi (between the Suri and the Dizi). The first case is based on the author's field research, whereas the others derive from a literature review. In all cases, cattle-herding agropastoralists who are sparsely populated in the lowlands (the Me'en and Suri) waged raiding conflicts against mountain farmers who are densely populated in the highlands (the Malo, Konta, Dime and Dizi) in those decades. The former speak Surmic in the Nilo-Saharan tradition, whereas the latter speak Omotic in the Afro-Asiatic tradition. The Me'en began raids by occasionally rustling cattle and killing a few local farmers from neighboring Dime in the late 1960s. The raids subsequently intensified to the extent of massacre, and did not come to an end until 1971 when the imperial government forces intervened. Although the murderous violence towards the Dime ended after this period, the land and other property held by the Dime nevertheless continued to be gradually taken over by the Me'en, who now almost totally occupy the territory to the extent that the Dime appear to have become subordinate to the Me'en. The Wen raids have continued to gravitate toward both the Konta (including part of the Dawro) and Malo territories, which are located in the middle Omo Valley (Konta in the north and Malo in the south) and some distance beyond the Me'en territory to the east. In an organized group often several hundred strong, the Me'en carry out armed attacks by stealthily infiltrating into their targeted areas via the Omo riverbank when the water is at its lowest. Then they conduct a surprise attack on peripheral settlements at dawn by rustling as many cattle as possible and stealing other property, often ruthlessly killing local inhabitants, mostly mothers and their children who fail to escape; after the raid, the intruders immediately return home to avoid remaining in the settlements overnight. In that way, since the mid-1970s, both the Konta and Malo have been repeatedly attacked by the Me'en, while the Konta have been more frequently and viciously raided than the Malo. The rise in the number of such violent incidents seems to have occurred along with the decline and sometimes complete lack of state control. On the other hand, the Suri attacks against neighboring Dizi commenced relatively late in their shared history, but now seem to be on the rise because the traditional ways of reconciliation have almost vanished. The main causes of the herder-farmer disputes in these cases may be summarized as follows. The first concerns the historical impact of state governance. Following the region's incorporation into the Ethiopian empire at the end of the 19th century, an inconsistent state policy was imposed upon lowland agropastoralists and mountain farmers in southwest Ethiopia during the imperial era. Whereas nomadic lowland herders were largely left alone, sedentary mountain farmers were heavily controlled by numerous state agents known as naft'anna (pl. ngft'annoch) who settled in farming areas during the early 20th century. Although the settlers managed to prevent the farmers from owning firearms, they provided copious supplies of weapons to the agropastoralists to enable them to hunt wildlife for valuable trade commodities such as ivory, leopard skins, and so forth. Eventually a number of agropastoralists began to collaborate with the settlers in raids to acquire slaves, and the populous mountain farmers became the major targets. Before incorporation into the Ethiopian empire, Omotic-speaking mountain farmers had lived for centuries in autonomous kingdoms and chiefdoms, and had largely driven away Surmic-speaking agropastoralists into the lowlands. Subsequently, however, the power balance changed in favor of the agropastoralists as a result of the state's inconsistent and uneven administration of local peoples. That change was most obvious with regard to the raids, where the agropastoralists had the advantage of a large supply of firearms, to which the farmers did not have access. Following the decline of imperial power in the late 1960s and its final collapse during the mid-1970s, the agropastoralists resorted to arms for raids against neighboring Dime and, subsequently, more distant Konta and Malo. Since that time, raiding attacks have sporadically taken place in periods of weak or vacant state power. That implies that recent herder-farmer conflicts in southwest Ethiopia mainly stem from previous political failures such as inconsistent state administrations, rather than from ecological issues such as resource scarcity. Herder-farmer disputes in other parts of Africa seem, at least superficially, to be associated with problems regarding natural resources such as land and water, suggesting the primacy of ecological or environmental factors in such instances. When looked at more carefully, however, all such cases are strongly influenced by external factors such as the national development policy for enhancing cash crops and livestock production, or socio-historical factors such as the herders' past dominance over the indigenous farmers, which led to the former's disparaging attitude towards the latter. The conflict between herders and farmers cannot, therefore, be understood simply as a 'conflict over scarce resources.' In that respect, anthropologists are expected to not only provide academic insights into human issues based on case studies that may challenge conventional wisdom, but also, through long-term commitment, contribute in a unique way to conflict resolutions and preventions in particular cases through, for example, supporting and promoting local efforts.