The decline of Lahawin pastoralism: Kassala Province, eastern Sudan
The decline of Lahawin pastoralism: Kassala Province, eastern Sudan
The prospects for pastoralism in Sudan are bleak
This article investigates the encroachment on pastoralist grazing land in Sudan (as a result of the mechanised farming in the Sudan). The article finds that:
- the Lahawin pastoralists have been forcibly resettled in areas where the resources for subsistence agriculture does not exist
- the Lahawin voice considerable insecurities
- pastoralists have been obliged to become impoverished rural wage-labourers
- drought has led ex-pastoralists to give up home of buidling up new herds
- althought certain Lahawin pastoralists appear superficially to be rich, the long term viability of pastoralism is very questionable
- pastoralism may take the route of increasing monetisation
- the extension of mechanised rainfed farming is not inexorable
- the prospects for pastoralism are bleak