La résilience des Turkana

Abstract

This article focuses on the adaptive strategies of Turkana pastoralists in Isiolo District (Kenya), coping with political and climate shocks. This analysis involves a historical detour, Turkana society having long been organized around its ability to deal with such risks. It also leads to the concept of resilience, either in its collective dimension or at the level of pastoralist families themselves. It finally brings out the limits of those strategies, leading to the regression of pastoralism as a livelihood (decapitalization) and as a lifestyle (dilution of social ties), and to the non sustainability of alternative activities, such as charcoal burning and market gardening.

Keywords

• vulnerability
• resilience
• pastoralism
• Kenya