Ecology of African Pastoralist Societies (review)

Katherine Homewood has done a tremendous service for those of us who study pastoralist societies and ecology in Africa. Her new book, Ecology of African Pastoralist Societies, aggregates in one source the important literature and theoretical insights about pastoralism on the continent, including studies and data from the often overlooked region of North Africa. It covers a range of different pastoral systems and ecologies, from camel pastoralists and deserts of North Africa to cattle herders and savanna grasslands of East and southern Africa. Indeed, the book encompasses most of the key pastoral cultural groups and production zones of Africa. These cross-cultural and interregional comparisons alone make the book a valuable addition to the literature and one without precedence in the field.

However, just as important as the book's geographic and ethnographic scope is the interdisciplinary lens and topical treatments that Homewood brings to the project. The author draws on insights from linguistics, archaeology, economics, religious studies, anthropology, biology, and ecology, as well as other fields. This interdisciplinary optic allows the reader a glimpse of several interdisciplinary themes (such as how animal disease ecology and bimodal rainfall patterns help explain the emergence of specialized cattle pastoralism in parts of eastern Africa). Most considerations of these specialized issues are buried in obscure scientific journals, but to our benefit Homewood is as comfortable in presenting complex biological and ecological arguments as in discussing pastoral social structures and institutions.

More than just a valuable literature review, however, the treatise also integrates much of the author's own field research in West and North Africa, building on her well-known studies of the Maasai in East Africa. I know of no other anthropologist—or even social scientist—who has conducted in-depth field research on pastoralism from three very different geographic and cultural regions of the continent. Much of these field data either are new and unpublished, or have been freshly analyzed for this book. For example, there are important sections on climate, herd biology, pastoral diets, and pastoralist economic diversification, with implications for understanding how pastoralists respond to new challenges. A separate chapter on pastoralist demography by her colleague Sara Randall is a welcome addition and extends the interdisciplinary character of the volume. Temporally, the book depicts a broad swath of the history of pastoralism, from its origins dating back to about 5000 BCE to current changes in pastoral land tenure and livelihoods. In particular, chapter 2 ("Origins and Spread of African Pastoralism") demonstrates the importance of such long-term multiregional perspectives. Later chapters of the book treat a range of contemporary issues like pastoralists' involvement in labor migration and modern education, and the on-going problems of food insecurity and armed conflict.

In its conceptual breadth, its analytic depth, and its temporal visions, this book communicates some key lessons about the study of African pastoralism. One is that pastoralism is not an arcane livelihood, a cultural anomaly incapable of accommodating modern contingencies in Africa. The analysis shows how pastoralists are adopting new animal husbandry practices, using modern veterinary inputs, and pursuing new livelihood options. In this sense mobile pastoralism can be seen as modern, and the author shows that despite recent changes and new opportunities, herders are not abandoning livestock-based livelihoods in vast numbers. Instead, these new pursuits can be seen as supplementing, and in some cases strengthening, pastoral livelihoods. Finally, the author does not minimize the serious political, economic, and social challenges that African pastoralists confront today—and will continue to confront in the future. The book's concluding chapter makes this particularly clear. For the author one of the most troubling of these threats is the assault on pastoral lands and their widespread conversion to nonpastoral uses, such as irrigated and rain-fed farming and national parks. Here Homewood is ambivalent about what the future holds for pastoral systems, since the loss of pastoral lands continues unabated. My sense—and...