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Book chapter | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Images & interventions: the problems of pastoralist development |
Author: | Hodgson, Dorothy L. |
Book title: | The poor are not us: poverty & pastoralism in Eastern Africa |
Year: | 1999 |
Pages: | 221-239 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Kenya Tanzania |
Subjects: | images Maasai pastoralists agricultural projects |
Abstract: | Part of the 'problem' in pastoralist development is the formulation of the 'problem' itself. This is rooted in the continued widespread acceptance of old stereotypes of pastoralists as culturally conservative. Using the Maasai in Kenya and Tanzania as an example of the dilemma of many pastoralist groups throughout East Africa, the author argues that it is not the Maasai (and other pastoralists) who have persevered unchanged by history, but the cultural images which shape how State administrators, NGOs, and other development agents perceive pastoralists, particularly the Maasai. She analyses two interrelated aspects of the image which has defined how Maasai have been perceived for decades: first, that real Maasai are pastoralists and only pastoralists; and second, that these real Maasai pastoralists are male. To substantiate her argument about the influence of these paradigms in shaping development interventions, she examines briefly the USAID Masai Livestock and Range Management Project of 1969-1979. In contrast to numerous evaluations of the project which detail its failure to meet most of its objectives, the author argues that the objectives themselves were misguided from the beginning, shaped by a narrow, ahistorical, gendered image of pastoralists. The project not only failed to meet its objectives, but also contributed to the intensification of the economic insecurity of Maasai households and the increased disenfranchisement of Maasai women from their rights in livestock. Notes, ref. |