“Do Our Bodies Know Their Ways?” Villagization, Food Insecurity, and Ill-Being in Ethiopia’s Lower Omo Valley

Stevenson, Edward G.J.; Buffavand, Lucie

Abstract

This article investigates food security and well-being in the context of “development-forced displacement” in Ethiopia. In the lower Omo, a large hydroelectric dam and plantation schemes have forced people to cede communal lands to the state and business speculators, and indigenous communities have been targeted for resettlement in new consolidated villages. The authors carried out a food access survey in new villages and in communities not yet subjected to villagization and complemented this with ethnographic research carried out over a period of four years. The results of the two methodological approaches were inconsistent. The survey data suggest that household food access was poor in both places but better in villagization sites than in the other communities. The ethnographic research, however, suggests that village settlers were unable to feed themselves from the irrigated plots they were allotted and were therefore dependent on food aid. They spoke of indignity, bodily discomfort, and the severance of meaningful social relations. This article discusses the contrast between the information generated by the different research methods and asks how this tension relates to two major narratives about development: development as a process through which the state actualizes a national dream, and development as a process that creates affluence for some by impoverishing others.

Citation

Stevenson, E. G., & Buffavand, L. (2018). “Do Our Bodies Know Their Ways?” Villagization, Food Insecurity, and Ill-Being in Ethiopia’s Lower Omo Valley. African Studies Review, 61(01), 109-133. https://doi.org/10.1017/asr.2017.100

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 21, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Mar 5, 2018
• Publication Date: Apr 30, 2018
• Deposit Date: Nov 8, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 8, 2019
• Journal: African Studies Review
• Print ISSN: 0002-0206
• Electronic ISSN: 1555-2462
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 61
• Issue: 01
• Pages: 109-133
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/asr.2017.100
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1343534
• Related Public URLs: http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1572723/