Biosocial Consequences of Life on the Run: A Case Study from Turkana District, Kenya, The

Human Organization, Summer 2004 by Pike, I L

Throughout East Africa, pastoralist populations live in harsh physical environments coupled with constant threats of livestock raiding and generally widespread insecurity. In this uncertain backdrop, pastoralist families must search for safe and secure forage and water for their herds. The Turkana of Kenya, a good example of a pastoralist group facing such threats, dodge insecurity by constant movement into unfriendly and unknown territory. In addition, Turkana herd owners move in very large herding groups with armed guards. As data from a 1998 field season suggest, such strategies have important consequences. These consequences are both social and biological and include modifications in social organization, diet, and the avoidance of health centers. The psychosocial consequences also are notable. As disruptive as the worst drought, insecurity has the potential to threaten not only the social well-being of pastoral ists but also their health and survival.

Key words: psychosocial stress, armed conflict, coping strategies, Turkana, Kenya

The hunger really gets to me. When the children are hungry and you are hungry it is bad Then sometimes I think of our friends who died in the raids at Kaniko and I feel badly for the loss.

Palech, a 32-year-old Turkana woman

Research on pastoral populations over the past decade has catalogued many case studies examining the ecological adaptability of pastoralism and development responses to pastoralism (Fratkin 1997). Given the marginal environments in which pastoral populations typically reside, drought is viewed as an important determinant of food insecurity (Campbell 1999), economic differentiation (Fratkin and Roth 1990), and overall vulnerability (Fratkin 1991; 1992; Fratkin and Roth 1990). Clearly, any discussion of subsistence pastoralism must include circumstances of the physical environment. Models of causality, however, have rarely factored in the role of violent armed conflict despite its well-documented presence in pastoral communities (Gray 2000; Gray et al. n.d.; Hendrickson, Armon, and Meams 1998). Understanding the responses to civil insecurity and the resulting consequences and breakdowns in social relations becomes equally important (Oliver-Smith 1996, 2002). Moreover, anthropologists typically do not turn their gaze to the assessment of the psychosocial and biological consequences of responses to armed conflict. Thus, this paper seeks to answer the following question: Do coping responses to severe drought and armed conflict result in increased psychosocial and health stress? The Turkana provide an important case study for examining the individual costs of social strategies. As Pelech's words suggest, dramatic responses to extreme conditions have important psychosocial and nutritional consequences.

Background

The Ngisonyoka Turkana, a subsection of the Turkana ethnic group, are nomadic herders who reside in the southern portion of Turkana district in northwest Kenya. Limited rainfall, high ambient temperatures, and a highly variable physical environment characterize Turkana district. Annual rainfall averages 100-600 millimeters per year across the ecozone gradients of Turkana district (Coughenour, Coppock, and Ellis 1990). While rainfall is highly variable, it is generally distributed across two rainy seasons, with the short rains occurring in October-November and the long rains peaking in April. Multiyear droughts occur commonly in this area, averaging once per decade over the past 100 years (Ellis and Galvin 1994). Turkana herders must subsist in an environment constrained by water and resource availability.

The Turkana utilize multiple strategies for contending with environmental uncertainty. One strategy involves herding multiple species. Herd composition includes zebu cattle, dromedary camels, donkeys, goats, and fat-tailed sheep. Each species has different forage and water requirements and corresponding variation in resilience during extremes in environmental conditions. The multiple species herd allows Turkana herders to capture more resources for conversion to human dietary needs (Calvin 1985). Mobility is another fundamental herding strategy the Ngisonyoka rely upon. Nomadic movements are highly variable by year and among individual herd owners (McCabe 1994). Flexibility in social organization provides an additional coping strategy. The production unit, the awi, typically includes the herd owner, his wife or cowives, their children, and other dependent members of his family (e.g., mother, younger brothers). During periods of adequate pasture, Turkana herders reside in a neighborhood, known as an adakar, comprised of multiple production units of kin and friends. As pasture disappears, neighborhoods break up, and each awi will separate into satellite camps to meet the different needs of the herds (Dyson-Hudson and Dyson-Hudson 1999). Thus, Ngisonyoka households are relatively fluid, and herd owners employ a continuum of emigration from the pastoral system that varies according to changes in environmental circumstances and herd size.