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| Title: | Trading camel milk: coping with survival in a Somali pastoral context |
| Author: | Talle, Aud |
| Book title: | Security in African drylands: research, development and policy |
| Year: | 1992 |
| Pages: | 139-157 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Somalia |
| Subjects: | pastoralists trade milk camels |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses the notion of security in the context of Somali camel pastoralism and the trading of camel milk. The author contends that Somali pastoralists do not strive to achieve security per se. The marketing of camel milk, which undoubtedly is a means of obtaining cash and thus increasing economic stability, is not primarily conceived of in terms of security strategies by the group of people referred to in this paper. The economic enterprise of milk trading is as much a part of their identity and a way of guaranteeing their existence as nomadic pastoralists. The people in question are the Caafi, a lineage branch of the Gaal Jecel clan of the Hawiye clan family. They live in communities beginning immediately west of the outskirts of Belet Weyne town in central Somalia. The bulk of the data on which the study is based were collected in one community, Baarmadheere, during two short field periods in 1987 and 1989. The families in Baarmadheere base their economy on the rearing of camels, goats and sheep. An examination of Caafi household organization and division of labour indicates that it is the women who are usually in charge of the trade in camel milk and its organization, even though looking after the camels is a male responsibility. Attention is also paid to camel milk as a foodstuff (taste, keeping qualities). Bibliogr., notes. |