Donald Crummey – författare

In modern times, Ethiopia has suffered three grievous famines, two of which—in 1973–74 and in 1984–85—caught the world's attention. It is often assumed that population increase drove Ethiopia's farmers to overexploit their environment and thus undermine the future of their own livelihoods, part of a larger global process of deforestation. In Farming and Famine, Donald E. Crummey explores and refutes these claims based on his research in Wallo province, an epicenter of both famines.Crummey draws on photographs comparing identical landscapes in 1937 and 1997 as well as interviews with local farmers, among other sources. He reveals that forestation actually increased due to farmers' tree-planting initiatives. More broadly, he shows that, in the face of growing environmental stress, Ethiopian farmers have innovated and adapted. Yet the threat of famine remains because of constricted access to resources and erratic rainfall. To avoid future famines, Crummey suggests, Ethiopia's farmers must transform agricultural productivity, but they cannot achieve that on their own.

Marks a new stage in African resistance studies.Previous work has tended to place the subject of resistance studies exclusively within an anticolonial context. This collection broadens the concept to include crime and violence.

This work outlines the importance of local knowledge for understanding environmental change.African farmers and herders modify landscapes in far more subtle and unexpected ways than commonly depicted in environment and development debates. This interdisciplinary collection uses collaborative research from the major savanna regions which stretch across Africa to make its case, and covers topics such as land users and landscapes, pastoral ecologies and policy, producers and resources. Environmental thinking about Africa is dominated by narratives of degradation and chaos. The contributors demonstrate that the empirical foundations of such long-held views are shaky at best.

A study of gult from the 13th century to 1910 revealing much about the history of highland Christian Ethiopia.Gult, a system of land tenure encompassing both taxation and tribute, is unique to highland Ethiopia. It was through this that Ethiopian states and their rulers affected the lives of ordinary people.US, Canada & rest of world (exc. UK, Commonwealth & Europe) : University of Illinois PressEthiopia: Addis Ababa University Press