ABSTRACT
The Ariaal of Kenya represent a possibility for African societies, the possibility that a pastoralist people living in the dry margins of the Sahara can feed themselves and maintain their socio-cultural system, even in the face of ecologic, economic, and political dislocations. Livestock pastoralism is a food production system in which a human community relies on domestic livestock—cattle, camels, goats, sheep—for basic subsistence in the form of milk, meat, blood, and the market sale of stock to purchase other foods, particularly grains. Drought and famine are new to neither Ariaal nor other African pastoralists in the arid regions around the Sahara Desert, Drought is caused by the periodic absence of rainfall, and is a chronic feature of Africa's arid regions. Drought is a climatic problem, the prolonged absence of rains, and is a recurring feature of Africa's climate. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
