Nilo-Ethiopian Studies No.19 (2014)

KAORI MIYACHI

• Cultural Transformation: Sociocultural Aspects of Female Circumcision among the Gusii People in Kenya

Although several aspects of female circumcision (FC), a well-known type of female genital surgery, have been discussed by scholars in various fields of study, several anthropologists have argued that FC has not been sufficienty examined (Shell-Duncan & Hernlund 2000). FC, which carries different labels in different contexts, including female genital mutilation (FGM), female genital cutting (FGC), and FC, became an international concern in the early 1920s and 1930s, when Western campaigns against this practice focused on infibulations and its consequences for childbirth. By the 1970s, emphasis had shifted to clitoridectomy and its consequences for sexual fulfilment (Hernlund & Shell-Duncan 2007). Since the 1970s, international organizations, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), have condemned FGM/FGC/FC because it violates human (children’s) rights and negatively affects women’s reproductive health/rights. Despite these international movements and changes in associated rituals and procedures, this practice remains culturally significant in certain areas, including the Sudan, according to Boddy (2007) and other researchers. This paper does not aim to contribute to these types of discussions about FGMIFGCIFC; instead, as Shell-Duncan suggested (2000), it examines a specific case. Specifically, I describe the case of the Gusii people living in the western part of Kenya, the area with the highest prevalence of FC in this country.

Keywords: Female circumcision (FC), Gusii, rite of passage, seclusion, life stage, medicalization

MAMO HEBO & MASAYOSHI SHIGETA

• Continuity and Change in the Rights of Arsii Oromo Women to Property in West Arsii, Ethiopia

Arsii Oromo men in Ethiopia traditionally dominate decision-making regarding major resources such as land and livestock, whereas the role of women has been limited primarily to domestic affairs. However, women have begun to challenge this custom-based dominance of men. Women now openly speak of this power imbalance and of their desire for it to change. Indeed, such change is emerging in the context of newly evolving laws and policies at national, regional, and local levels. Drawing primarily on the results of diachronic qualitative studies in the Kokossa and Kofale Districts of the Arsii Oromo highlands, this article examines areas of continuity and change in women’s rights to property and in local discourse on the power relations between the genders in the context oflegal and institutional pluralism. The results suggest relative improvement in women’s rights in general and in their right to participate in decisions regarding land and livestock transfer in particular. We also found that men and women were generally very aware of the laws and policies regarding gender equality, which serve as the context in which these changes are evolving. Yet, the extent of the improvement in women’s rights did not seem to match the degree to which participants were aware of gender equality. At the local level, traditional norms, values, and elements of the social structure appear to have constrained the application of laws and state administrative provisions designed to promote gender equality.

Keywords: Change and Continuity, Gender relations, Land and livestock, Legal pluralism, Ethiopia

MOTOMICHI WAKASA

• A Sketch Grammar of Wolaytta

Wolaytta is an Omotic language of the Mroasiatic family (or phylum) spoken in southwestern Ethiopia. The aim of this paper was to create a grammatical sketch of the language. After offering basic background information on Wolaytta, I report that the language has 29 consonant phonemes and 5 vowel phonemes, the latter of which can be combined to form a long vowel or diphthong. I also briefly describe the notation employed by natives and an accentual system of Wolaytta. Most words in Wolaytta consist of a lexical stem and a grammatical ending. This paper lists the endings of each word class and mentions their uses. Suffixes that are used in word formation are also discussed. As for syntax, Wolaytta is a typical OV language, although its appositive construction may obscure the fact that modifiers precede their modified heads. The agreement between the subject and the predicate verb is generally determined by the form, not by the meaning, although there are some exceptions. Wolaytta prefers quotations in which direct and indirect speech is mixed. A nominalizer can be the head of a relative clause in which the substituted noun occurs. Finally, this paper touches on honorifics, rhymes, and oral literature in Wolaytta.

Keywords: Wolaytta language, phonology, morphology, syntax, rhyme

• Book Reviews

Reviewer, Nobuko Nishizaki
Ethnoecology of the Coffee Forest: Human- Nature Relationships in the Montane Forest of Southwestern Ethiopia (Kohi no Mori no Minzokushi: Ethiopia Nanseibu Kochi Sinriniki ni okeru Hito to Shizen no Kankei). Yoshimasa Ito, Kyoto: The Center for African Area Studies, Kyoto University, 2012, pp. 129 (in Japanese).

Reviewer, Naoaki Izumi
Nomads of Siberia and Africa: Livelihoods with Domestic Animals in the Arctic and Desert (Shiheria trJ Afurilul no Yubokumin: Kjokuhoku trJ Sabaku de Kachiku trJ Tomoni Kurasu). Hiroki Takakura and Toru Soga, Sendai: Tohoku University Press, 2011, pp. 205+xv (in Japanese).

Reviewer, Itsuhiro Hazama
Anus of Feces: Social Change and Illness among the Turkana in Kenya (Kusokomon: Kenia Turukana no Syakaihendo to Byoki). Shinsuke Sakumichi, Tokyo: Kouseisha-kouseikaku, 2012, pp. 230+x (in Japanese).

Reviewer, Hiroaki Ishikawa
The Fascist War: Italian Invasion to Ethiopia in the Context ofWorld Politics (Fashisuto no Sensa: Sekaishiteki Bunmyaku de Yomu Echiopia Sensa). Ken Ishida, Tokyo: Chikura Shobo, 2011, pp. 270 (in Japanese).

Nilo-Ethiopian Studies No.18 (2013)

SAYURI YOSHIDA

• The Struggle against Social Discrimination: Petitions by the Manjo in the Kafa and Sheka Zones of Southwest Ethiopia

The drastic changes in Ethiopia during the twentieth century have altered the ways in which minority groups, including hunters and craft workers, earn their livelihood. Although the gap between the standards of living of minorities and majority groups has narrowed, minorities are still excluded from the mainstream of social life and are discriminated against by majority groups. Some minority groups have attempted to oppose this discrimination. Although the Constitution grants rights to ethnic groups, these minorities have not been regarded as ethnic groups and have become even more marginalized and deprived of access to economic and political resources. This article discusses the petitions sponsored by the Manjo in the Kafa and Sheka zones of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People’s Regional State of Ethiopia. The
Manjo are former hunters who suffer discrimination at the hands of the Kafa. The petitions requested improvement in the social status of the Manjo in the form of official recognition as an ethnic group and an end to the discrimination perpetrated by the Kafa. This article examines how the Manjo developed these petitions, claiming a distinct ethnic identity, by describing the social and historical background of the Manjo.

Keywords: Kafa, Manjo, minority, social discrimination, petition

TAKESHI FUJIMOTO

• From Festive to Exchange Labor: Changing Cooperative Labor among the Malo, Southwestern Ethiopia

Cooperative labor is a common institutional practice found in agricultural societies around the world. This study focuses on cooperative labor among the Malo in southwestern Ethiopia, exploring its types and roles and discussing changes. The Malo are mountain farmers with a population of approximately 40,000-50,000. While they grow diverse crops in small home gardens using household labor, they cultivate cereals and pulses in large outlying fields often utilizing cooperative labor. Many agricultural tasks such as field preparation and weeding are performed during the rainy season from June to September and farmers have to cope with temporary labor scarcity during this time by holding cooperative labor parties. Three types of cooperative labor are known: dabo, kete, and zaje. Dabo is a type of festive labor in which prestigious host farmers would summon over 30 workers for help and reward them with lavish food and drinks. Prior to the Ethiopian revolution of 197 4-75, it played a major role in the redistribution of host farmers’ wealth as well as the enhancement of their prestige, but it has already disappeared. Kete is an intermediate type between festive labor and exchange labor. It flourished after the revolution but soon declined by the mid-1980s. Zaft is a type of exchange labor organized by a small number {less than 10} of neighboring farmers. A household opens a work party that rotates from household to household. Each household receives labor from other households and provides a modest lunch, after which the same amount of labor is later reciprocated. Although it was long unpopular due to it being the least enjoyable, this exchange labor has become dominant since around the mid-1980s. Thus, cooperative labor among the Malo has significantly changed from festive labor to exchange labor. Recently, however, even exchange labor is on the decline in the highlands where the population is becoming denser. In the neoliberal trend of economic differentiation since the 1990s, increasingly distressed farmers have asked newly wealthy farmers to employ them as wage laborers for farming. This type of wage labor, called abaale, is rapidly increasing and more or less eroding cooperative labor in the highlands. This gradual but fundamental change from cooperative to wage labor may be considered a sign of economic development. However, cooperative labor has various roles, such as fostering a sense of companionship and solidarity and the transmission of agricultural knowledge and skills from experienced farmers to young farmers by working together. Wage labor does not seem to take over these social roles, because it is only an economic contract. Although cooperative labor has been examined from economic viewpoints, it needs to be explored more from social perspectives.

Key words: cooperative labor, exchange labor, festive labor, reciprocity, wage labor

Research Report
ERI HASHIMOTO

• Prophets, Prophecies, and Inter-communal Conflict in Post-independence South Sudan

Keywords: prophet, inter-communal conflict, war experience, South Sudan

Book Reviews

• Book Reviews