Tropic of Chaos_ Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence - Christian Parenti [124]
7 On the population and geography of this culture, see Elliot Fratkin, “East African Pastoralism in Transition: Maasai, Boran, and Rendille Cases,” African Studies Review 44, no. 3 (December 2001): 1–25. Fratkin writes, “Pastoralists occupy 70 percent of the total land of Kenya, 50 percent of Tanzania, and 40 percent of Uganda. But their populations are numerically small (fewer than 1.5 million of Kenya’s 30 million, Tanzania’s 35 million, and Uganda’s 23 million people), and they find themselves politically disempowered and economically marginalized in national polities that are dominated by people from agricultural communities. Pastoralist groups of East Africa include cattle-keeping Maasai (300,000 in southern Kenya and 150,000 in northern Tanzania), Samburu (75,000), Turkana (200,000), Boran and Orma (75,000), and Karimojong, Dodoth, Teso, and Jie peoples in Uganda (total about 200,000). Camel-keeping pastoralists occupy the drier regions of northeastern Kenya, southern Ethiopia, and Somalia and include Afro-Asiatic-speaking Gabra (25,000), Rendille (25,000), and pastoral Somali (about 1 million of Somalia’s 6.5 million people). In addition, many agricultural groups in East Africa raise large herds of cattle, including Kalenjin speakers (Nandi, Kipsigi, Pokot) in western Kenya and Bantu-speaking Ba Ankole in western Uganda and Tutsi in Rwanda and Burundi” (3–4).
8 Fratkin, “East African Pastoralism,” 8.
9 Eleanor J. Burke, Simon J. Brown, and Nikolaos Christidis, “Modeling the Recent Evolution of Global Drought and Projections for the Twenty-First Century with the Hadley Centre Climate Model,” Journal of Hydrometeorology 7, no. 5 (October 2006): 1113–1125.
10 Dr. David Kimenye, “Life on the Edge of Climate Change: The Plight of the Pastoralists in Northern Kenya,” Christian Aid, November 13, 2006, p. 2.
11 Mwaniki Wahome, “For Agriculture, Larger Budget Allocation Vital,” The Nation , June 12, 2008; see also the introduction of Victor A. Orindi, Anthony Nyong, and Mario Herrero, “Pastoral Livelihood Adaptation to Drought and Institutional Interventions in Kenya,” in Fighting Climate Change: Human Solidarity in a Divided World (occasional paper, Human Development Report Office, United Nations Development Program, 2007/2008).
12 USAID FEWS NET, Weather Hazards Impacts Assessment for Africa, December 13–20, 2007.
13 Jeffrey Gettleman, “Ripples of Dispute Surround Tiny Island in East Africa,” New York Times, August 17, 2009.
14 Barnabas Bii and Kennedy Masibo, “Banditry Death Toll Rises Now to 74,” The Nation (Kenya), August 5, 2008; “Kenya to Forcefully Disarm Pastoralists in Rift Valley,” World News Connection, August 3, 2008; Lucas Ng’asike, “Raiders Shoot Dead 30 Herders,” The Nation (Kenya), August 12, 2008; “11 Killed As They Pursue Raiders,” The Nation (Kenya), August 20, 2008; Peter Ng’etich, “Ten Herders Die in Bomb Raid,” The Nation (Kenya), August 22, 2008; “‘Sudanese Raiders’ Kill Eight in Northwestern Kenya” (text of report by Kenyan privately owned TV station KTN on 30 August), BBC International Reports, Monitoring Service, August 30, 2008; Peter Ng’etich and Oliver Mathenge, “Two Reservists Killed in Raid,” The Nation (Kenya), September 2, 2008; Peter Ng’etich, “Two Killed As Raiders Steal Cattle,” The Nation (Kenya), September 4, 2008.
15 Claire McEvoy and Ryan Murray, “Gauging Fear and Insecurity: Perspectives on Armed Violence in Eastern Equatoria and Turkana North,” Sudan Issue Briefs 14 (July 2008): 10: 14.
Chapter 5
1 J. K. Muhindi et al., Rainfall Atlas for Kenya (Nairobi: Drought Monitoring Center, 2001), 5.
2 Where the trade winds collide and the air rises, we find an area of strange calm, known to sailors as the doldrums.
3 Muhindi et al., Rainfall Atlas for Kenya, 7. John E. Oliver, Encyclopedia of World Climatology (New York: Springer), p. 430.
4 Recall the basics: as the Earth, tipped on its axis, revolves around the sun during the course of a year, the sun focuses more forcefully on one, then the other, hemisphere. In the process, it slowly transits north and