Informations et ressources scientifiques
sur le développement des zones arides et semi-arides

Titre : Savanna town : rural ties and urban opportunities in northern Kenya

Auteur : Hjort, Anders

Université de soutenance : Stockholm University

Grade : Doctoral thesis 1979

Résumé
This study deals with a small multi-ethnic town in northern Kenya which has emerged during colonial times as a trade and administrative centre. Access to various subsistence opportunities in town is restricted and related to contacts with surrounding rural areas, the "home areas" of the migrants. These areas are inhabited by pastoralists to the north and farmers to the south. The study departs from the historical development of the town, the fundamental economic processes that maintain its existence and the settlement pattern and structure of opportunities within town. The interconnections between town and countryside are outlined in the second part. This shows how both are integrated in the lives of many townsmen and immigrants. Rural households may send members to town more or less temporarily in order to maintain viability. Others are pushed out of a rural economy. The effect of the various settlement strategies is an economic and social integration of town and a whole region through contacts which often contain elements of inequa lity. Ethnic ascription is of importance for most newcomers to town as a means to get in touch with those people within the own ethnic group who are obliged to give help according to established solidarity principles

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