Schlagwort-Archiv: Vortrag 25

Khat bundles

The Politics of Perishability: Khat, Speed, and State Formation in Somalia

Jethro Norman

11 December 2025,18:00 CET (registration see below)

This presentation draws on multi-sited fieldwork conducted in northern Somalia in 2025 to examine how time-sensitive trade generates political authority in contexts of state fragility and conflict. I develop the concept of ‚perishable sovereignty‘ to describe how khat’s extreme temporality; its 12-72 hour viability window, its predictable, daily rhythms spanning three countries, forces coordination between traders, transporters, clan networks, and emergent state institutions. This synchronisation produces governance effects that precede and exceed formal political structures. The 2023 Las Anod conflict and subsequent formation of Northeastern State of Somalia provides a useful case. When war came, commercial infrastructure rapidly converted into military capacity; when peace followed, the nascent state encountered economic actors whose logistical power it could not yet match. What does it mean if soveriegnty is constituted temporally before it is constituted territorially, through the management of speed-dependent flows rather than comprehensive spatial control? The presentation offers preliminary findings and invites discussion on how commodity temporalities shape political order.

Jethro Norman is a Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) in Copenhagen. He specializes in anthropological, fieldwork-driven research on conflict, humanitarian action, security, and the political economy of aid in the Somali regions and the broader Horn of Africa.

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Me’en and Mun at War (1970s, 2000s and 2020s): Individual Accountability, Collective Punishment, and the Securitization of Development in Ethiopia’s Southern Lowlands

Lucie Buffavand

20 November 2025,18:00 CET (registration see below)

The “local turn” in peacebuilding practice and research rests on the premise that locally owned peace is more sustainable than peace imposed by external actors. In this spirit, literature on pastoralist conflicts in Eastern Africa has often approved states’ endorsement of customary law over the past few decades as a successful means of maintaining peace. In the lowlands of Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia, pastoralist representatives have adopted a number of Declarations or Resolutions which, among other things, stipulate a system of compensation in livestock in cases of inter-group homicide. Yet a crucial point in these Declarations remains rarely questioned – and even though authors often note that the largely shared practice of “covering the killer” impedes peace processes: the identification of the killer to the authorities, and thus the individualization of responsibility in inter-group homicides, often runs counter to customary law.
In this presentation, I examine the individualization of accountability in wars between Me’en and Mun (also known as Bodi and Mursi) from a historical perspective. The Me’en and Mun are neighbouring agro-pastoralist groups of the Lower Omo Valley, numbering about 15,000 people each, who have been at war about every 25 years over the last hundred years. During peaceful periods, inter-group killings are settled through the payment of compensation to the victim’s family; wars are ended by means of a peace-making ceremony, without compensation. Since the 1970s, the Ethiopian state has gradually interfered in these processes. When war between the Me’en and Mun broke out in 2023, a series of state- or NGO-sponsored peace meetings revealed that much has changed in how the state governs this periphery since the last Me’en-Mun conflict of 1997-2000. The state now brands the warriors as criminals, when Me’en and Mun think of themselves as fighting a war of self-defense. The development of a sugar-cane plantation along the Omo River since 2011 has placed security high on the local government’s agenda. Whereas previous administrations favored the settlement of peace without arrests, the current one insists on the arrest of all killers. Meanwhile, failure to reveal the killers’ identity is met with threats of collective punishment – threats that have been carried out in the recent past. I explore these seemingly contradictory, but in this case inseparable processes – the individualization of accountability for homicide and the collectivization of punishment – as a specific mode of governance.

Lucie Buffavand (PhD) is a social anthropologist, currently affiliated with the Institut des Mondes Africains. She has conducted most of her field research among the Mela (Me’en), an agro-pastoral people of the Lower Omo Valley (Ethiopia). She has focused on identity formation, place-making practices, villagization, state-building, religious representations and material culture. She now investigates ethno-nationalist movements in Ethiopia’s former South Omo zone. Her latest publications include: “Road to Violence: Land Alienation, Road Deaths and State Making in the Lower Omo Valley, Ethiopia”, Nomadic Peoples, 2025, vol. 29, p. 256–277.

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Cattle grazing on the slopes of Mt Marsabit 2010

Grazing Control, Pastoralists and Government ‘showdown’ on Marsabit Mountain in the late colonial era

Hassan Kochore

05 June 2025,18:00 CET (registration see below)

Marsabit Mountain, located in the eponymous county in northern Kenya, offers a key dry season grazing fallback for pastoralists inhabiting the surrounding lowlands as well as for groups from Southern Ethiopia, especially during periods of protracted droughts. In the 1950s, due to increasing numbers of cattle on the mountain, the British colonial administration introduced what it termed, ‘Marsabit Mountain Grazing Control Rules’ (MMGCR). According to the MMGCR, the cattle allowed to graze on the mountain would be branded. This added a new page to the already existing catalogue of rules (such Game and forest rules and so on) targeted  at managing the human population and livestock numbers on the Mountain, and in the township area. The MMGCR particularly targeted cattle numbers, especially those moving between Marsabit and Southern Ethiopia. This led to a protracted struggle between the government officials and the community members over the implementation of the grazing rules. Eventually, a ‘showdown’ with the community that the officials had anticipated materialised. One of the results was that, by official estimations, ’at least half’ of the Boran (one of the agro-pastoralist groups on the mountain) permanently left Marsabit for Southern Ethiopia. Subsequently, the remaining population had to contend with tighter regulations that saw unprecedented levels of contact between the community and the state. Based on Kenya National Archives sources and life history interviews, this presentation (part of a paper in preparation) discusses this critical event. It seeks to make two significant contributions. First, it highlights the specific role of chiefs in the implementation of the MMGCR. Chiefs became important points of contact between the community and the government, managing the demands of the people as well as enforcing government regulations. By critically interrogating this interaction, this paper demonstrates that the nature of the state authority changed significantly. This is down to the fact that chiefs who had previously been, during most of the colonial period, noted to ‘do little good’ to support the administration, became indispensable local level bureaucrats. Secondly, the MMGCR is generally missing from the historiography of the region, eclipsed by the more spectacular decade of secessionist politics and the armed insurgency (The so-called Shifta War) that followed it. This presentation places the MMGCR in the immediate and wider historical context contributing to a closer understanding of colonial environmental ‘conservation’ and the processes of  state (un) making in late colonial northern Kenya and elsewhere in the Horn.

Hassan H. Kochore, earned his PhD from the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology and Martin-Luther-University, Halle-Wittenberg . He has has published on the Politics of Decentralisation, Centre-Periphery Relations and Ethnographies of Large-Scale Infrastructures with a regional focus on Kenya and southern Ethiopia. He recently led a Rift Valley Institute project that focused on Decentralisation, Trade and Conflict Dynamics on Kenya’s Borders with Ethiopia and Somalia.

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Photo of the site called Meqem-bara (those who taught goodness), the site of the first parliament of caxalmaacis in the 13th century.

Online Presentation: The Madqa (mad‘a) project in Djibouti – recognition for Afar traditional law as intangible heritage

Saleh Mohamed Hassan, CERD/ ILD 

24 April 2025,18:00 CET (registration see below)

The Madqà, the customary law of the Afar people, is a traditional legal system practiced in Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. It plays a crucial role in conflict resolution, social cohesion, and the preservation of Afar cultural values. However, modernization and socio-political changes threaten its continuity.

To safeguard and promote this living heritage, Djibouti initiated the official registration process on February 21, 2025, by listing the Madqà in the national inventory at the Ministry of Culture. On March 31, 2025, the official request for inclusion on UNESCO’s Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage was submitted.

This project aims to document, preserve, and transmit the Madqà to future generations by integrating it into governance strategies, organizing educational programs, and creating audiovisual archives. The application meets UNESCO’s criteria by demonstrating the Madqà’s living nature, its role in social peace, and the active participation of Afar communities in its safeguarding. Recognizing the Madqà as intangible heritage would enhance the visibility of African customary justice systems and strengthen their contribution to peacebuilding. The success of this initiative relies on the commitment of Afar communities, governments, and international cultural institutions, ensuring that this ancestral tradition continues to benefit future generations.

Saleh Mohamed Hassan Laqdé is a research fellow at the Language Institute (Institut des langues) within the CERD (centre d’études et de recherches de Djibouti – Djibouti centre for studies and research). He holds a degree in English literature and is specialised in Afar language and literature. Currently a research associate in the IRICA Institut des Recherches Indépendant de la Corne d’Afrique – Independent Research Institute for the Horn of Africa) project on aging in Djibouti. Member of the group of experts of the steering committee of the process of inscription of the Afar madqà (Afar traditional law) on the representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of UNESCO, for which the submitting country is Djibouti. Founding member of the „Afar Speaking Centre“ of International PEN and a known Afar poet.

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Online Vortrag: Zur Intersektion von Fluchtmigration, Gender und Klimakrise am Beispiel Somalia

Samia Aden

31. Januar 2025,18:00 CET (Anmeldung siehe unten)

Die Auswirkungen der globalen Klimakrise rücken Fragen nach Klimagerechtigkeit in den Fokus politisch-aktivistischen Engagements. Die eurozentristischen Diskurse zum Klimawandel und zur Klimaneutralität betonen technische Lösungen und halten an der bisherigen Ausrichtung auf Wirtschaftswachstum fest. So führen Projekte unter dem neuen „grünen“ Deckmantel der erneuerbaren Energien im Globalen Süden zu Rohstoffabbau, Landkonflikten und Menschenrechtsverletzungen. Die Zerstörung von Ökosystemen, die Ausbeutung globaler ökologischer und sozialer Ressourcen sowie damit verbundene globale Ungleichheiten aufgrund geopolitischer Machtverhältnisse werden weitgehend ausgeblendet. Zu beobachten ist das Fortschreiten post- und neokolonialer Abhängigkeiten. Stimmen indigener und rassifizierte Bevölkerungsgruppen im Globalen Süden bleiben in diesen Debatten und den damit verbundenen politischen Entscheidungen weitestgehend marginalisiert. Dabei sind sie es, die bereits heute und in Zukunft von den Auswirkungen des Klimawandels am meisten betroffen sind und auch sein werden. Der Vortrag diskutiert die Notwenigkeit dekolonialer und intersektionaler Perspektiven auf die Klimawandeldebatte und -krise. Hierfür betrachte ich zunächst den Diskurs um Klimawandel und Klimaneutralität als Form epistemischer Gewalt und Ausdruck kolonialer Kontinuität von Repräsentations- und Deutungsmacht. Am Beispiel eines ethnographischen Forschungsprojektes in Somalia werden dann die Perspektiven und Erfahrungen von Dürre betroffenen ehemaligen Nomad:innen in Geflüchtetencamps in Somalia nachgezeichnet. Der Vortrag zeigt, für wen die Klimakrise am folgenreichsten ist und wie Gender, Klimakrise und Fluchtmigration miteinander verschränkt sind. Ich argumentiere, dass die imperialistische Lebensweise des globalen Nordens das koloniale Objekt der „Dritten Welt Frau“ in Form von Binnengeflüchteten im Globalen Süden (re-)produziert.

Samia Aden, MA., Soziale Arbeit, war 2016–2023 wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin an der Universität Kassel im Fachbereich Sozialisation mit dem Schwerpunkt Migration und Interkulturelle Bildung. Sie lehrt u.a. zu den Themen Migrationspädagogik und Soziale Arbeit in der (Flucht-)Migrationsgesellschaft. In ihrem Dissertationsprojekt beschäftigt sie sich mit Jugend und Transnationalität unter den Bedingungen von Flucht und Asyl. Hierfür hat sie sowohl in Somalia als auch in Deutschland ethnographisch geforscht. Weitere Forschungsinteressen sind die Auswirkungen von Migrationsregimen auf transnationale Familienbeziehungen und klimawandelbedingte Fluchtmigrationsbewegungen. Zudem interessiert sie sich für macht- und herrschaftskritische methodologische Reflexionen in der flucht- und migrationsbezogenen Forschung.

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