Seasonal food shortage among nomadic pastoral Turkana

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Title:	Seasonal food shortage among nomadic pastoral Turkana
Author:	Galvin, K.
Year:	1983
Pages:	14
Language:	English
City of publisher:	Los Angeles, CA
Publisher:	African studies association
Geographic term:	Kenya
Subjects:	Turkana seasonality food
Abstract:	Ngisonyoka Turkana are traditional nomadic pastoralists who inhabit the southern portion of Turkana district, Kenya. Results of a 16-month study of food procurement, diet and nutrition conducted among the Ngisonyoka show that they are true subsistence pastoralists. During 1981-1982 livestock products were the major foods at every season of the year. The Ngisonyoka rely on camels, cattle, sheep, goats and donkeys for their main food items: milk, blood and meat. Nonpastoral foods that contributed to the diet were gathered and hunted wild foods, grains, and tea and sugar. The present paper examines the seasonal contribution of different foods to the diet and seasonal variation in energy content of diets, as well as Turkana tactics of coping with seasonal food shortages.