Farming and famine : landscape vulnerability in northeast Ethiopia, 1889-1991 /
Donald E, Crummey ; edited by James C. McCann.
- Madison, Wisconsin : The University of Wisconsin Press, (c)2018.
- 1 online resource (xiv, 295 pages).
- Africa and the diaspora : history, politics, culture .
Includes bibliographies and index.
Intro; Contents; List of Illustrations; Editor's Preface; Note on Transliteration; Introduction, by James C. McCann; 1. Famine in Ethiopia: The Great Famine of 1888-1892 Revisited; 2. Famine in Ethiopia, 1973-1974 and 1984-1985; 3. Environment and Famine: Explanations and Interventions; 4. Farmers Cope; 5. Parameters of Landscape Change in Wallo; 6. Farmers and Landscape Change in Wallo; Appendix: Life Histories; Notes; Bibliography; Index
Historians and scholars of Ethiopia have long struggled to understand the "Ethiopian Paradox": that is, how could Africa's most productive food production system, which sustained an extraordinary imperial culture over two millennia, also be home to periodic, gut-wrenching famine and rural poverty? Ethiopia in the late twentieth century has surpassed earlier icons of famine: China, India, Armenia, and Biafra. And yet, ironically, Ethiopia's highland culture also generated, and eventually exported, the iconic cuisine served in Ethiopian restaurants throughout the developed world, and in large cities in Africa itself. Donald Crummey argues that in the face of increasing environmental stress, Ethiopian farmers have innovated and adapted. In the process they have developed effective strategies for managing their environment--strategies too often ignored by conservation projects.