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Abstract
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African indigenous knowledge and the potential for development resources
Gebre Yntiso, Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology,
Addis Ababa University
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Creativity and indigenous techniques in Southwestern Ethiopia:
The case of the women potters among the Ari.
Morie Kaneko: kaneko@jambo.africa.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University
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The aim of this presentation is to describe the process of woman potters’
creativities by focusing on the interrelation between technological changes
and potters’ social relationships. Firstly, I analyze the process of creating
the unique shapes of pots by social relationships between makers and users.
Then I examine twenty potters’ lifehistories and technological change
(which I define them as techno-lifehistory) to describe the history of the
unique shaped pots. Finally, I examine the positive aspects of their creativities.
This presentation is based on the life histories of twenty potters were,
which I collected between 1998 and 2002 through interviews and participant observation.
The research findings reveal four characteristics of their indigenous pottery making
techniques and their creativities. (1) Potters always make common shapes of pots, which
almost all Ari household have. Less than one forth is the unique shaped pots which potters
make in a month. (2) The order from users let potters create new shapes of pots and techniques.
(3) Women potters showed their creativities which were always influenced by makers and users
relationships. (4) Some Ari potters have continued to make a few unique pots even low demand.
A few makers had started to make unique pots, but it became the common pots because those pots
were common to users and makers developed their techniques.
These findings suggest that Ari women’ indigenous pottery making technique is community-based
technology which can react to the change of their lifestyle and social influences. I conclude
that women potters always develop indigenous technology which is influenced by their social
relationships in local context. Their creativities are one of the clues to make their social
and economical situation change positively.
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Gender and positive cultural practices among the Sidama, Southwestern Ethiopia
Dilu Teshome, Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Addis Ababa University
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In most development related literature and practice, the link between gender and culture
has been conceptualized as being negative. Culture has been held largely responsible for
the all-pervasive inequality between men and women. Norms of care and behavior that
discriminate women have therefore received a lot of attention in the academia, policy making
and practice as well. Notwithstanding the fact that there are cultural practices and
prescriptions condoning violation of the human rights of women, restricting their access
and opportunities to resources and ensuring the transmission of the unfair arrangement from
generation to the next of society; it is important to document and appreciate that there are
cultural practices which promote the participation of women and ensure the protection of their
rights. The latter aspect has been less recognized, under-researched and very little done by
way of fostering it and using it as a tool in addressing gender issues.
A traditional, women-only, community based association among the Sidama of south western
Ethiopia, which they locally refer to as “Yakka’’ is such a positive cultural practice.
“Yakka” functions to protect the rights of women as defined by the Sidama culture, to maintain
solidarity among the community of women and creates a forum where women can get together, share
their troubles and concerns. Organized and led by women, it sees into issues involving physical,
sexual and psychological abuses endured by women as wives and mothers, actively engages its
membership in decision making process and serves as an emotional refugee in times of need.
As it’s deeply engrained into the social system and a culturally sanctioned institution,
“Yakka” enjoys legitimacy and authority in the Sidama society. Such age old, time- honored
local mechanisms should be identified, strengthened and tuned as good forces in the fight against
gender inequality, poverty and other development challenges. Only then can development interventions
could be effective and fruitful ways of sustainably transforming society.
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Female-centered social space in the ‘patriarchal’ pastoral society:
Wives’ activities in the space of coffee drinking among the Daasanetch
Toru SAGAWA : sagawa@jambo.africa.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University
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The pastoral societies in East Africa had been represented as a typical of ‘patriarchal’
societies in which men have economic, political, and cultural powers superior to women.
Since the mid-1980s, many researchers have reconsidered this representation by shedding
light on the women’s roles and statuses. But they often failed to question the Western-biased
analytical framework, public -political-men/ private-domestic-women dichotomy, which is a tacit
premise of male-centered analysis. In this presentation, I focus on the space of coffee drinking
in the house which is one of the most daily spaces among the Daasanetch of Southwestern Ethiopia
to examine the applicability of this dichotomy.
Firstly, I show that coffee is wife’s good and only she can cook and allocate it, so that the
space of coffee drinking fundamentally depends on wife’s work. Secondly, I analyze that this
space is the most ‘democratic’ space of gathering in the Daasanetch where people of all social
categories can participate equally. Thirdly, I describe that this space has ‘political’
importance such as to entertain guests, to bless the peace of the whole society, to do many rite
de passage, and to discuss various topics from ‘private’ to ‘public’ one. I show that a wife
always participates in this space not only as a ‘laborer’ but actively involves herself in the
processes of rituals and discussions.
As the same with other pastoral societies in East Africa, women cannot participate in some ritual
processes and communal meetings ruled by men among the Daasanetch. However, even these male-centered
activities are often constructed from a series of practices and discussions in this female-centered
space, the space of coffee drinking. We can represent the actual gender relations only by examining
the processes of dynamic interactions between seemingly ‘private’ and ‘public’ spaces in fine
detail.
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Sustainable plant use in Gera, the forest area of Southwestern Ethiopia
Yoshimasa Ito: y-ito@jambo.africa.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University
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“Ensure Environmental Sustainability” is one of the goals included in the United Nation’s
Millennium Goals. It is clear that the conservation of the natural resources is now considered
as one of the important issues in the field of development worldwide. In case of Ethiopia,
natural forest, an important natural resource, is largely lost in the past century, according
to FAO, from 37% of the total land to 4%. International organizations and Ethiopian governments
are conducting several projects to protect the natural forest in the country. Gera wereda located
in the Southwestern Ethiopia is one of the forest areas and Ethiopian government designated the
area as a part of “Belete-Gera Forest Priority Area” in 1994. The government even had
resettlement project of the people living in some areas of Gera.
The presentation explores the plant utilization of the people living in the village of Secha
in Gera wereda and its effect on the natural forest. People living in Secha moved into the
village about a half-century ago and it is clear that they turned forest into the cultivation
fields. However, once village was established and enough cultivation fields were opened, people
stop going to the forest to collect useful plants. This is partly because usable tree species
have been introduced, cultivated and maintained in the residential area. For example, the villagers
make fences with living trees and use their branches as firewood.
The study reveals that the local people’s pressure on the forest is minimized due to their mode
of plant utilization such as cultivation and maintenance of useful plants in the residential area
and introduces their mode of plant utilization as a positive culture for the conservation or the
development.
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Belete -Gera regional forest priority area, local wisdom on participatory forest management
Mohammed Seid, Leader of Natural Resource and Rural Energy Team, Agriculture and Rural
Development Office in Jimma Zone Administration (Project Manager,
Participatory Forest Management Project in Belete-Gera Oromia Forest Priority Area)
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Belete -Gera forest is one the remaining mountain rain forest in Ethiopia. This forest is found
in Gera and Seka Chokorsa districts, Jimma zone. According to the demarcation which was carried
out about 12 years ago, the total area of this forest is estimated to be around 112,000ha. About
70% of this forest comprises natural coffee. This forest is still in a good condition when compared
with other forests in the country. The people living in and around this forest have great dependency
on the forest. They generate much of their livelihood support from this forest. The secret behind
this is the good traditional forest conservation system they have followed for centuries. They
recognized that, the existence of forest coffee, honey, spice, and medicinal plants is directly
linked with the existence of forest. Since the above mentioned forest products affects their
livelihood, they have given a great concern for the protection of the forest. There is no culture
of charcoal making, sawing timber and fuel wood selling to the market among this people. However,
as far as poverty is there, this forest cannot be totally free from the fate of deforestation.
In many cases, the farmer act negatively to the forest to sustain his family as of today than
anticipating bright tomorrow. In this fact, the Belete-Gera Participatory Forest Management
Project started implementing its program based on the good practice of the people.
This project has accomplished a lot of activities since its realization. Among this, the provisional
forest management agreement is above all. In this agreement the farmers have agreed to practice proper
forest conservation and utilization.
Participatory forest management is a process and always dynamic. Usually it dealt with thoughts,
culture and traditions of the people. To convince the heart and mind of the people it needs continuous
effort and patience. To this end, our project has achieved successful results.
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A potential for development among the Rendille pastoralists in Northern Kenya
Sun Xiaogang: sun@jambo.africa.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University
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Nomadic pastoralism in East Africa has been considered as conservatism by both international development
agencies and national governments in last three decades. However, few researches have been done on
understanding the realities of pastoral societies. This study investigates how the Rendille pastoralists
of northern Kenya have coped with complex natural and socio-economic environmental changes. The study
is based both on analysis of data collected in 20 months’ fieldwork, and on detailed comparisons
with previous studies from ecological and anthropological perspectives.
The result shows that the Rendille have changed from nomadic pastoralists to semi-nomadic pastoralists
after their settlements settled near the developing towns. This change of residential pattern has both
influenced their livestock management, and increased cash economy between people of pastoral settlements
and people in the town.
However, by continuing the custom of communal land and water use, reorganizing the dual-residential
system of settlement and herding camps and specializing livestock management tasks in herding camps,
maintaining the age system and the distribution of labor in herding tasks, the Rendille have successfully
maintained high mobility of livestock.
On the other hand, challenging new opportunities, such as digging new wells, watering animals at wells
and passing them through settlements, have given people of settlement access to livestock products, and
improved the condition of raising cattle. Furthermore, raising and selling cattle has become an important
strategy to deal with the growth of cash economy in recent years.
The implication of this case study is that pastoralists not only have ability to adapt to uncertain
natural environment, but also are very capable of responding to profitable opportunities brought from
outside. Therefore, a successful project should focus on such potentials of pastoralists for improving
their livelihood and development.
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Improving conservation through better understanding of factors that enhance and maintain landrace diversity at farm level:
The case of the bottle gourd in Kenya
Y.Morimoto1 and P.Maundu1,2
1 International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI), Sub-Sahara Africa regional office, c/o ICRAF, PO Box 30677, 00100 Nairobi, Kenya;
2 National Museums of Kenya (NMK), PO Box 40658 00100, Nairobi, Kenya
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Rapid globalization and increasing shift to market-oriented agricultural production are likely to
accelerate the loss of genetic diversity that has been handed down for generations. In spite of this,
we are still able to find abundant local landraces that are deeply associated with local people and
maintained in indigenous farming systems. The bottle gourd（Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standley）
is a good example. The gourd is one of the earliest crops known to have been cultivated. It was probably
domesticated in pre-historic times for use as a container. The gene centre of L. siceraria is believed
to be Africa. In most African communities, a myriad of shapes of bottle gourd is cultivated for a wide
range of uses such as food and containers depending on the cultivar and customs.
In order to understand the inter-relationships between people and the diversity of the bottle gourd,
the author focused on Kenya as one of the bottle gourd gene centers and looked at factors that have
enhanced and maintained the bottle gourd diversity. Both biological and cultural factors were
investigated. In the biological factor analysis, mating system, reproductive isolation including
flowering behavior, self-compatibility, and hetelozygosity were studied. In the cultural factor
analysis, fundamental elements underlying human selection such as cultivation methods, various uses
and differences in human perceptions as a result of socio-cultural factors were studied.
As a result of the findings of this research, a two-year community-based project aimed at
“conserving the diversity of bottle gourd and its associated Indigenous Knowledge (IK) through
awareness creation, increased cultivation, documentation and dissemination of IK” was initiated in
Kitui District, Kenya and community motivation in safeguarding bottle gourd diversity enhanced.
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The creative aspect of the code of communication shared by Ethiopian minorities
Itsushi Kawase: kawase@jambo.africa.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University
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The presentation highlights the sociolinguistic aspect of itinerant minorities in northern Ethiopia:
two different musical groups called Azmari and Lalibalocc.
Azmari with the one-stringed fiddle called Masinqo is one of the most popular figures in Ethiopian
music scene. Azmari’s performance can be found in local bars quite often but it is also in strong
demand in the life cycle celebrations of the people in Gondar where they lead the people in processions.
Lalibalocc (or Lalibala, singularly) are the group of people from Shoa, Wollo and Gojjam who sing, beg
and bless for alms in the morning. They have been believed by outsiders to share the oral tradition,
which condemns them and their descendants to leprosy unless they stop their activity.
The communication through the secret argot of Azmari and Lalibalocc allows the group to share a sense of
community and exclusivity. Thus, it can be considered as a self-imposed group marker which separates
their group from the others as well as secret group category and close kinship relations they maintain.
Moreover, it helps as a means of exchanging information they do not want outsiders to know.
Communication by the argot can occur most advantageously when used during performances in front of
an audience of outsiders. The great majority of the vocabulary of the argot are a deformation of Amharic
words. Several deformation patterns of Amharic will be analyzed in my presentation and the
creative/dynamic aspect of the language of minorities based on the interaction with the outsiders are
going to be discussed.
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