Nilo-Ethiopian Studies vol. 24 (2019)

 

TORU SAGAWA

• Waiting on a Friend: Hospitality and Gifts to the “Enemy” in the Daasanach

The Gift by Marcel Mauss showed that gift giving has multiple factors that seem to contradict each other. Freedom and obligation are constantly described as being two sides of the same coin in the book. This study focuses on the ambiguity and polysemy of hospitality and gifts that Mauss suggested. The Daasanach, who live in the border area of Ethiopia and Kenya, fight with their neighboring groups. Nevertheless, many Daasanach have friends who belong to these groups. When a violent conflict ends, members of the two groups voluntarily visit each other’s lands, interact peacefully, and form friendships. The friendships among them are neither formed as a result of acts of social obligation nor are relationships formed as a means for an individual to seek one’s own profit. They are relationships that are formed when two parties with different daily lives happen to encounter one another, with one party providing hospitality and/or gifts to another who cannot do anything but “wait.” In this paper, I will analyze the emerging process of friendship and emphasize the coincidental aspect of hospitality and gift giving.

Keywords: The Gift (by Marcel Mauss), reciprocity, inter-ethnic relation, pastoralist, East Africa

 

NOBUHIRO SHIMIZU , EPHREM TELELE , ALULA TESFAY and RIICHI MIYAKE

• Fundamentals of Hïdmo in Ïnderta: A Traditional House Type in Tigray Region, Ethiopia

Hïdmo, a traditional house type seen in Tigray Region, Ethiopia, and the adjacent area of the Eritrean highlands, mainly consists of masonry walls, wooden ceilings, and a soil roof. This paper specifically focuses on the hïdmo found in the former Ïnderta province, Southeastern Zone of the present Tigray Region. The objective of this paper is to clarify the typical parcel layout, spatial components of typical hïdmo house and building elements of hïdmo house, based on the basic knowledge of the local building materials. On that basis, the hierarchy of the traditional house is discussed. Making glossary of each building and space in the parcel, each space in the hïdmo house, and each building element of the hïdmo house is helpful to understand the themes clearly.

Hïdmo applies to the main house built in the parcel, and is where the vast majority of daily indoor activities are carried out. The central space with entrance door of the house is named mïdri-bét. In addition, a two-storied part for cereal storage and housing small domestic animals, and one-storied part for sleeping and storing equipment are often attached. The indoor environment of the hïdmo house is stabilized because of the thick walls, ceiling and roof, and the limited number of openings.

Stones and woods are the principal building materials of hïdmo. While stone materials that are easy to deal with could be collected from the neighborhood or nearby, wooden materials were scarce in Ïnderta province. Therefore, the use of more wooden materials contributed to increasing the prestige of the house.

Keywords: Traditional house, Building material, Masonry, Hi:dmo, Tigray, Ethiopia

 

YOSHIKO TONEGAWA

• Policy and Practice of “lnclusive Education” in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: An Analysis from the Perspectives of Teachers and Parents of Children with Disabilities

 

Especially since the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), agreed to internationally in 2015, have comprised inclusive education, many developing countries formed inclusive education policies. Ethiopia started implementing inclusive education relatively earlier than other developing countries and formed the “Special Needs Education Program Strategy” in 2006, revised in 2012 as the “Special Needs/Inclusive Education Strategy.” In order to practice inclusive education, stakeholders in education need to understand its philosophy (Lipsky & Gartner 1999). Therefore, this study aims to examine the current state of inclusive education in Ethiopia from the perspectives of parents/guardians of children with disabilities and teachers of inclusive classes at primary schools. This research is based on case study methods and explored three public primary schools in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. The main data collection methods of this study were semi-structured interviews and classroom observations. This study revealed that teachers and parents/guardians of children with disabilities have contradicting views on inclusive education for children with disabilities. Although teachers and parents understand the advantages of inclusive education, they perceive that learning in regular school is not necessarily the best path for children with disabilities. This study also underlines that children with disabilities do not often have a choice in terms of school selection of either regular school or special school under the one-track policy in Addis Ababa.

Keywords: inclusive education, children with disabilities, teachers’ perceptions, parents of children with disabilities, Addis Ababa

 

SHIZUKA ASADA

• The Influence of Food Traditions and Cooking Methods on Energy Transition: High Demand for Charcoal in Kampala, Uganda

This study aims to investigate the influence of food culture on the choice of cooking fuel by verifying the locality of food and cooking methods using a case study from Kampala, Uganda. It has been suggested in previous studies that when socio-economic status improves, households generally upgrade their cooking fuel, shifting from woodfuel to LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) or electricity. Although Uganda’s economy has grown for decades, charcoal has been the main cooking fuel in 80% of the households in Kampala. The food culture and cooking habits in Central Uganda are unique. Bananas have high cultural value in the area as staple food and are consumed in large quantities. Observations of the cooking process show that bananas are often steamed for 2-4 hours over a very low heat, which cannot be achieved using advanced fuels such as LPG. Even in high-income households, charcoal is still the main source of fuel despite advanced alternatives being available and affordable. Therefore, residents of Kampala positively choose charcoal over other sources of fuel for reasons inherent to local cooking traditions. Not only socio-economic status but also local food traditions also have an important impact on the choice of cooking fuel.

Keywords: cooking fuel, food culture, woodfuel, banana, Uganda

 

• Book Review

Reviewer, Yumi Yamane

Human-Wildlife Conflict in Kenya: Crop Raiding and People’s Coping Strategies in Mahiga-B Village, Nyeri County. Charles Musyoki, Kyoto: Shokado Shoten, 2018, pp. 239. (in English)

Reviewer, Takeshi Fujimoto

Cultivating with Oxen: Futurability of the Indigenous Ploughing Agriculture in Ethiopia ( Ushi-to-tomoni Tagayasu: Echiopia-ni-okeru Zairaisukinoko-no Miraikanosei). Toshikazu Tanaka, Kyoto: Shokado Shoten, 2018, pp. 154. (in Japanese)

 

AZEB GIRMAI

• (News and Notes) The 20th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies

Nilo-Ethiopian Studies vol. 23 (2018)

YUKIO MIYAWAKI

• Development of Community-Based Organization by Agro-Pastoral Women: A Case in Southwestern Ethiopia

The Arbore Women’s Association is an organization for mutual aid initiated by women of the Hor in southwestern Ethiopia. The organization has developed and continued its activitior 20 years. The Women’s Association brought the members financial profits through retails of commodities and cash crops in local markets. By participating in such activities, members learned how to earn profits in business. Financial profits that they earned themselves and opportunities for learning enabled them to gain self-confidence, and empowered them.
The conditions under which the Women’s Association was organized and continued were as follows: 1) Women felt discontented with their patriarchal tradition, which inhibited them from accessing the wealth brought by the highlanders and the money economy penetrated to the Hor. 2) Slackness of the state rule seems to have induced them to begin a new project. 3) They could combine the two networks, which had different features. The one is a bonding network based on women’s age system, and the other is a bridging network that a male mediator had. 4) Though the aims of the organizers and followers differed, the organizers incorporated the aim of the followers into their frame. Consequently, the Association has been keeping in touch with what the members desired. 5) The Association took a low profile strategy, and did not affiliate with external organizations such as NGOs and the government. Not owing any accountability and responsibility to external organizations, the Association could change its aims, plans and activi¬ties flexibly as the local situations changed.

Keywords: Ethiopia, NGO, Community-Based Organization, Women, Empowerment

MARIKO NOGUCHI

• Social Relationship of the Elderly That Support Their Daily Lives: The Case in Aari, Southwestern Ethiopia

This paper aims to explore the daily lives of the elderly living in the Aari community in south¬ western Ethiopia by describing the social relationships that support their lives. Although the role of the elderly in household livelihood strategies has been mentioned, few studies have focused on their daily lives. The purpose of this study is to examine the daily interactions and mutual relationships between the elderly and other people who live in the same community, with a special focus on the livelihood activities and living arrangements of the elderly. The results reveal that the elders’ living arrangements, such as choices regarding where and with whom to live, are deeply related to social norms. However, there are also cases in which elders lived with or received support from those who were not the expected caretakers. Relationships between persons who required help and respondents were not always fixed in supporting a person’s liveli¬hood activities or daily needs. People helped each other and met their daily needs in consider¬ation of individual circumstances such as physical conditions, existence of relatives, and residence arrangement. The acts of shedin (seeing face to face) contributed greatly to the understanding of each other’s situations, and the elders were able to maintain their livelihood supported by responsive relationships.

Keywords: daily lives of the elderly, social relationships, livelihood, care, rural southwestern Ethiopia

BARBARA INAGAKI

• Women and Agriculture in Northern Mozambique: A Village-Level Analysis

Women play a fundamental role in Mozambique’s agricultural production. Nevertheless, they have rarely been the main focus of study in the research on agricultural production in the coun¬try. This article explores the matter by examining the case of Makua women in a village located in the interior of Nampula Province in northern Mozambique. Through a local-level analysis, this article presents a picture of women’s agricultural work in present-day Mozambique.
Key words: women, agriculture, Makua, Mozambique

• Book Reviews

Reviewer, Ko Motoki
Farmer Research Groups: Institutionalizing Participatory Agricultural Research in Ethiopia. Dawit Alemu, Yoshiaki Nishikawa, Kiyoshi Shiratori and Taku Seo (eds.), UK: Practical Action Publishing Ltd., 2016, pp. 220.
Reviewer, Ken Masuda
Livestock Mobility, Rangeland Use and Sedentarization among the Hamer in Southwest Ethiopia. Samuel Tefera, Kyoto: Shoukadoh Book Sellers, 2017, pp. 99.