AfricaBib 
bibliographic database
| Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | The Samburu Livestock Market in Northcentral Kenya |
| Author: | Konaka, Shinya |
| Year: | 1997 |
| Periodical: | African Study Monographs |
| Volume: | 18 |
| Issue: | 3-4 |
| Pages: | 137-155 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Kenya |
| Subjects: | Samburu marketplaces cattle Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
| External link: | https://jambo.africa.kyoto-u.ac.jp/kiroku/asm_normal/abstracts/pdf/18-3&4/18-3&4%20137-155.pdf |
| Abstract: | The Samburu (self-professed Iloikop) pastoralists occupy the Samburu District in northcentral Kenya and are typically part of the 'cattle complex'. The first periodic livestock market in the district was established in Suguta Marmar town in 1991. Based on fieldwork in 1996, the author studies the ways in which the local pastoralists reacted to the emergence of the livestock market and the constant opportunity for trade it provided. Of the 362 examples of trade he collected, there were 275 sales of livestock, 81 purchases, and 6 barters. In most cases the major reason for selling livestock was to buy other livestock. Other reasons were to buy food and veterinary medicine. Thus while the Samburu take advantage of the livestock market, their aim is not maximization of cash, but maximization of livestock. The Samburu themselves see livestock as cash metaphorically. Their original barter exchange system serves as a model for the present livestock market and they see no difference between them. In this way the Samburu are constructing a new pastoral system compatible with the market economy while at the same time maintaining their own culture. Bibliogr., sum. |
