Abstract

Forms of group identity play a prominent role in everyday lives and politics in northeast Africa. Case studies from Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Kenya illustrate the way that identities are formed and change over time, and how local, national, and international politics are interwoven. Specific attention is paid to the impact of modern weaponry, new technologies, religious conversion, food and land shortages, international borders, civil war, and displacement on group identities. Drawing on the expertise of anthropologists, historians and geographers, these volumes provide a significant account of a society profoundly shaped by identity politics and contribute to a better understanding of the nature of conflict and war, and forms of alliance and peacemaking, thus providing a comprehensive portrait of this troubled region.

Günther Schlee is currently the director of the Department of Integration and Conflict at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. His publications include Identities on the Move: Clanship and Pastoralism in Northern Kenya (International African Institute, 1989), How Enemies are Made (Berghahn, 2008), Rendille Proverbs in their Social and Legal Context (with Karaba Sahado) and Boran Proverbs in their Cultural Context (with Abdullahi Shongolo) (both Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe).

“With contributions by many of the leading scholars of the region, these volumes convey both the distinctiveness of these diverse communities and their mutual relationships and reciprocal influences, thus providing an analytical handbook to this important region.”  ·  African Studies Review

“…both theoretically and ethnographically, these volumes present a major contribution to contemporary anthropology, as well as social sciences in general.”  ·  Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology

“… an excellent introduction to the region and its interconnected peoples, as well as a useful guide to ethnographical approaches applied by international scholarship. ... It brings sharp insights into the pragmatism of ‘traditional identities’ as small-scale societies cope - mostly remarkably successfully - with historical values, the vicissitudes of daily life, and the deep but varying impact of modern states that claim them as ‘subject-citizens.’ ... This is a really worthwhile volume with much to offer at first reading, and as a future reference source of ethnographic description of great historical value.”  ·  Cedric Barnes, SOAS/Africa Research Group, Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Elizabeth E. Watson is a Lecturer in the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge. Recent publications include: 'Local Community, Legitimacy, and Cultural Authenticity in Postconflict Natural Resource Management: Ethiopia and Mozambique’ in Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 2006 (with R. Black), and 'Making a Living in the Post-Socialist Periphery: Konso, Ethiopia' in Africa, 2006.