ABSTRACT
The Berti of Northern Darfur Province live in a zone of low and erratic rainfall. The survival of the Berti in their older northern territories presents a paradox. They inhabit an environment which discourages cultivation and sedentary life, yet they are cultivators at heart and their culture displays an overwhelming agricultural ethos. This chapter examines how a balance is struck between cultivation and stock-breeding in the life-cycles of Berti households, and the crucial role of livestock-grain exchanges in periods of severe drought, such as in the 1980s. The overall viability of Berti economy rests on the successful combination of cultivation and pastoralism and on the integration of subsistence activities with production for the market. The fact that many Berti achieve a prosperous existence through concentration on animal husbandry as the main element of their economy might suggest that in reality the relative significance of pastoralism and agriculture is a direct reversal of the significance ascribed to them in Berti ideology.
