| dc.description.abstract | In Africa generally and Uganda in particular, pastoralism is one of the oldest economic activities, a source of livelihood, and a specialized occupation for a sizable population. Focusing on nomadism, this study examined the drivers of pastoral mobility in pastoralist communities in western Uganda.
Commonly referred to as Balaalo, the study analysed why and how pastoralists were forced to adapt to changes in their habitat and pressures of land in western Uganda since 1950. The traditionally known cattle herders: Bahima, Basongora, Batutsi and Batuku, who seasonally moved with their livestock even beyond western Uganda in search for water and pastures, were the major communities studied. Other data and information were obtained from a wide range of documents.
The key findings of the study were that seasonal movements culminated into land conflicts among pastoralists and farmers (crop producers); further on land, that the land conflicts were exacerbated by intensity of population in the cattle corridor. More on the findings, to alleviate the land conflicts, the government intervened with the promotion of modern livestock practices through state and private ranches under the Ranching Scheme of 1960. However, the study found out that despite these interventions, traditional nomadic pastoralism still persisted, and instead spilled over to other parts of Uganda beyond the historical cattle corridor.
This socio-economic occurrence has resulted into government interventions aimed at not only alleviating the land conflicts between the pastoralists and crop producers, but also centered on addressing their immediate needs to ensure supply of the needed crop and animal products, as mainly foodstuffs. More important as a finding, these government economic interventions to transform the livestock sector rendered many pastoralists landless. Moreover, the pastoralists’ landlessness had been exacerbated by the creation of game reserves and national parks in western Uganda, following the 1952 National Parks Ordinance. These dynamics, both internal within the studied communities and state interventions through policy, social change was a major outcome. The resultant social change has been complex as a number of pastoralists adopted sedentary livestock husbandry practices, while others continued moving with their animals in different parts of western Uganda and beyond, including cross-border mobility through to Tanzania and Democratic Republic of Congo. Within this change-continuity continuum, the study also established that increase in population and continued pressure on land resource, resulted into serious clashes among communities such as the Buliisa Balaalo against Bagungu one in 2007. All this notwithstanding, pastoralism remains one of the sectors that significantly contribute to Uganda’s Gross Domestic Product, hence deserving resource investments to improve the livelihoods of herders so to harness Uganda’s livestock potential for socio-economic transformation. | en_US |
