{"id":60604,"date":"2022-10-07T08:01:04","date_gmt":"2022-10-07T08:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africannewspaper.net\/2022\/10\/07\/review-last-days-in-naked-valley-by-edward-demarco-african-business\/"},"modified":"2022-10-07T08:02:28","modified_gmt":"2022-10-07T08:02:28","slug":"review-last-days-in-naked-valley-by-edward-demarco-african-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africannewspaper.net\/2022\/10\/07\/review-last-days-in-naked-valley-by-edward-demarco-african-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Last Days in Naked Valley by Edward DeMarco – African Business"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Sites in East Africa were home to the oldest known skeletal remains anatomically modern humans. Omo, Ethiopia was the first site to discover human remains dating back almost 200,000 years.<\/p>\n

The unique lives of people that today live in the Lower Omo Valley, mankind\u2019s cradle, are the focus of Last Days in Naked Valley: The Struggle for Humanity\u2019s Homeland<\/a><\/em>, which draws on the author\u2019s account of his time there as a senior advisor for democracy and governance with the United States Agency for International Development.<\/p>\n

However, you would be wrong to expect a dry, academic ethnographic study. Edward DeMarco, an ex-ethnographer, is the one to be grateful for. Washington Post<\/em>Journalist, creates a lively narrative that illustrates many of the current development issues that confront the indigenous peoples in this region of south Ethiopia. These issues also include vital questions about national sovereignty and environment protection.<\/p>\n

Traditional houses in Ethiopia\u2019s Omo Valley. (Photo: Angel\/Adobe Stock)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pastoralist lifestyle<\/h2>\n

The Lower Omo Valley people are different from the highlander Ethiopians, who have possessed economic and political power in modern Ethiopia. A pastoralist lifestyle is at the heart of their culture, which some government officials see as a barrier for large-scale, modern food production methods. This includes the development a huge sugar industry. This has led to a programme of \u201cvillagisation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThe various tribes of South Omo have distinct and ancient cultures, usually based on an agro-pastoralist and mobile lifestyle. The Government of Ethiopia\u2019s development plans for the region are based upon sedentarised and irrigated agriculture which it believes will greatly alleviate recurrent food security problems; a new departure for cultures whose livelihoods have remained unchanged for centuries,\u201d writes DeMarco.<\/p>\n

It is a dilemma familiar across Africa \u2013 how to ensure that development can take place in areas with unique, centuries old-traditions.<\/p>\n

De Marco worked with a team under the auspices of the multi-government Development Assistance Group, an influential forum for all of Ethiopia\u2019s international funders, including the US.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThe task set for us: size up how well the villagisation push was going and look for signs of hostile intent \u2013 or outright hostilities \u2013 from the federal democratic republic\u2026 together we would venture through the Omo Kuraz plantation in the far west to see whether sugarcane and villagisation really were taking hold\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the international activists claimed, were the pastoralists truly being rounded up, or worse, and forced off their ancient grazing lands? What pressure were they subject to from the sugar juggernaut, and what kind of pressure did they feel? Could the Indigenous peoples somehow adapt and hang on, clinging to their body art, bracelets, and bare skin?\u201d<\/p>\n