Changing Identifications and Alliances in North-east Africa

Günther Schlee is currently the director of the Department of Integration and Conflict at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. His publications include Identities on the Move: Clanship and Pastoralism in Northern Kenya (International African Institute, 1989), How Enemies are Made (Berghahn, 2008), Rendille Proverbs in their Social and Legal Context (with Karaba Sahado) and Boran Proverbs in their Cultural Context (with Abdullahi Shongolo) (both Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe).

“With contributions by many of the leading scholars of the region, these volumes convey both the distinctiveness of these diverse communities and their mutual relationships and reciprocal influences, thus providing an analytical handbook to this important region.”  ·  African Studies Review“…both theoretically and ethnographically, these volumes present a major contribution to contemporary anthropology, as well as social sciences in general.”  ·  Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology“… an excellent introduction to the region and its interconnected peoples, as well as a useful guide to ethnographical approaches applied by international scholarship. ... It brings sharp insights into the pragmatism of ‘traditional identities’ as small-scale societies cope - mostly remarkably successfully - with historical values, the vicissitudes of daily life, and the deep but varying impact of modern states that claim them as ‘subject-citizens.’ ... This is a really worthwhile volume with much to offer at first reading, and as a future reference source of ethnographic description of great historical value.”  ·  Cedric Barnes, SOAS/Africa Research Group, Foreign and Commonwealth Office

• List of IllustrationsList of Maps, Figures and TablesList of AbbreviationsIntroductionGünther SchleeSpace and Time: Introduction to the Geography and Political HistoryGünther Schlee and Elizabeth E. WatsonPart I. Identification and Insecurity in the Lower Omo Valley1. The Fate of the Suri: Conflict and Group Tension on the South-West Ethiopian FrontierJon Abbink2. Resistance and Bravery: On Social Meanings of Guns in South-West EthiopiaKen Masuda3. Modernization in the Lower Omo Valley and Adjacent Marches of Eastern Equatoria, Sudan: 1991–2000Serge TornayPart II. Institutions of Identification and Networks of Alliance among Rift Valley Agriculturalists4. Burji: Versatile by TraditionHermann Amborn5. The Significance of the Oral Traditions of the Burji for Perceiving and Shaping their Inter-ethnic RelationsAlexander Kellner6. Mobility, Knowledge and Power: Craftsmen in the BorderlandHermann AmbornPart III. Land, Identification and the State in Ethiopia7. ‘We Have Been Sold’: Competing with the State and Dealing with OthersTadesse Wolde Gossa8. Identity, Encroachment and Ethnic Relations: the Gumuz and their Neighbours in North-Western EthiopiaWolde-Selassie Abbute9. Debates over Culture in Konso since Decentralization (1991)Elizabeth E. Watson10. Changing Alliances of Guji-Oromo and their Neighbours: State Policies and Local FactorsTaddesse BerissoPart IV. Pastoralists in the Kenya-Ethiopia Borderlands11. Changing Alliances among the Boran, Garre and Gabra in Northern Kenya and Southern EthiopiaGünther Schlee12. Roads to Nowhere: Nomadic Understandings of Space and EthnicityJohn C. WoodBibliographyNotes on ContributorsIndex