Risk Management in a Hazardous Environment: A Comparative Study of Two Pastoral Societies (review)

Michael Bollig takes an interdisciplinary approach to the Pokot of northern Kenya and the Himba of northern Namibia in this accessible textbook, part of a new series called "Studies in Human Ecology and Adaptation." The detailed case studies are the result of nearly six years of archival and field research in Kenya and Namibia from 1987 to the present. The author learned Otjiherero, the Himba language, and Pokot and lived in wealthy, well-established households.

Pastoral studies have been strong on ethnography but weaker when it comes to generalization. The comparative approach enables Bollig to understand how hazards are generated, what impacts they have on individuals, households, and institutional structures, how these impacts vary for people of different socioeconomic status and gender, and the extent to which risk minimization is affected by cultural change. He looks at two societies engaged in mobile livestock husbandry typical of arid lands in eastern and southern Africa which were not integrated into states, as in western and northern Africa or southwest and central Asia, and for which no overarching religious system was of major importance. The Pokot and Himba have marked differences in terms of precolonial history, household size, household cycle, and herd and power structures. The Pokot have had a relatively rapidly growing human population, their environment has suffered greater degradation than that of the slow-growing Himba population, and they have had decades of interethnic violence and raiding, whereas the Himba have experienced more stable environments and social relations. Pokot herds are more susceptible to disease than those of the Himba. The Himba have better veterinary services, and the arid climate in northern Namibia keeps down populations of flies and ticks which spread disease. By comparing the major hazards in two rather different pastoral societies, the author seeks to generate hypotheses on hazards and risk management in pastoral societies more generally. Hazards discussed include demographic growth, degradation of resources, entitlement decline, drought, violent conflicts, and epidemics.

Bollig offers a comprehensive survey of the existing literature on pastoral societies in Africa and notes the specific contributions of his own research. His case studies provide information on growth rates in pastoral societies and demographic growth in relation to specific production systems, information rarely included in studies of pastoral societies. Prior studies of the Himba have presented general information on Himba economy but with none of the detail Bollig conveys. The depth and breadth of both studies are outstanding. Among the areas covered exhaustively are the histories of individual famine events, perceptions of the causes of drought, and coping strategies of communities, families, and individuals. Indeed, he discusses virtually every imaginable aspect of pastoral life, from the changing composition of pastures in terms of grasses of different nutritional values and changes in herd composition and mobility during crisis, to sales of livestock by age and sex over time, types of goats and cattle used for bridewealth payments, and substitute foods during drought. There are numerous charts and high-quality maps as well as satellite, historical, and present-day photographs. Transcriptions of interviews, prayers, and songs add another dimension to the impressive variety of topics covered.

Michael Bollig succeeds well in achieving his goals, and the significant differences in the two societies make the conclusions presented in the final chapter all the more compelling. Risk Management in a Hazardous Environment will be welcome reading for graduate students and faculty with interest in pastoral or environmental studies, indigenous knowledge, Kenya, or Namibia. It would be an appropriate text for upper-level courses on Africa in anthropology, geography, and environmental studies.