Abstract
The colonial experiences of pastoralist women have been largely ignored in the literature on Africa. The paper focuses on pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods to locate the impact of colonization on pastoral women’s roles and social status using the example of Borana women of northern Kenya. In this study, it is demonstrated that while the pre-colonial women of the Borana did not enjoy full position of status relative to men, colonialism reinforced the differences between the roles of men and women, contributing further to the waning of Borana women’s pre-colonial roles and status. The paper explores the process by which Borana society was brought into contact with the colonial economy and commercialization of their pastoralist activities. It sheds light on the impact of this integration on women’s roles. The paper concludes with areas for further research on Borana women’s roles in the post-colonial era.
Highlights
Though the discourse of inequalities and marginalization of pastoralists is well-documented in literature on pastoral societies, case studies of pastoral women's experiences with colonization have received little attention
This study explores the role of pre-capitalist Borana women and how these roles changed with colonization, among other factors
Creation of male native authority, commercialization and commodification of livestock, and the implementation of post-World War II social reforms blurs the social status women enjoyed before while enhancing male economic and political authority relative to that of women. These processes shifted the female domestic and male public spheres as previously understood. This contributed to marginalization of Borana women because of their social position as pastoralists, colonized subjects, and females as was the case with other pastoral women
Summary
Though the discourse of inequalities and marginalization of pastoralists is well-documented in literature on pastoral societies, case studies of pastoral women's experiences with colonization have received little attention. Case studies regarding how women experienced changes did not - with exceptions -For example, Hilarie Kelly 1992, Gudrun Dahl 1987, Aud Talle 1987, and Jean Ensminger 1991 explore how roles, rights and gender relations have changed over time within pastoral production Even so these studies have examined the status and roles of women as if they are a recent phenomenon when such roles have been part of a long tradition. Women played roles ranging from herding small stock to economic roles of processing the primary products of milk, meat and skins and exercised considerable power and influence over the distribution and exchange of these products (Kipuri and Ridgewell 2008).1 This changed during the 1890s colonization of Africa. For pastoral societies in northern Kenya, British authorities challenged the legitimacy of pastoral institutions through state-imposed policies of compulsory destocking, grazing controls and restriction of movements This process gradually led to the integration of pastoralists into the colonial economy. Borana women’s lost status deteriorated during the 1890s colonization as was true
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