Das Portal Northeastern

Northeastern Geology and Environmental Sciences

Responsible Man

The book touches upon how the Atmaan Beja have survived over the last hundred years on their scarce resources by using mixed strategies: of herding and cultivation, of moving between urban and rural settings in order to supplement these activities with wage-labouring, and also of involving themselves in commercial enterprises. Such diversifying approaches to subsistence are frequent among pastoralists. It is characteristic of the Beja and other people in the arid regions of Africa that their subsistence requires continuous involvement in several mutually supplementing activities. When they are not able to invest the needed amount of labour, or if the time schedule for the different activities is put out of sequence, the consequences can be devastating. The process whereby "traditional" Atmaan life has become gradually more difficult to live, culminating in the 1984-86 disaster, is linked to changes in their position in relation to the Sudanese economy as a whole, and to Sudan's place in international trade. But it is also kinked to the general desiccation of the African Sahel.

Climatological Data