THEMES IN THIS
TESTIMONY
Agriculture
Communications
Development
Economics
Education
Environment
Family Life
Food Security
Gender
Health
Land
Livestock
Population
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Sex
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male
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Age
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45
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Occupation
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farmer
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Location
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Denkena,Wodih Mado Mar Feriche (highlands)
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Date
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October 1998
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summary
The narrator is married with six children. He discusses the causes of impoverishment in the community, including population growth, continuous cultivation (instead of leaving some land fallow) and irregular rainfall. He recounts that after being resettled from his village to a place where he had sufficient land he was driven away as he was not local to that area. He returned to his own village, was given an infertile piece of land and now supplements his income by working at the SOS Sahel nursery station. He is grateful for a number of successful development initiatives in the area, including a scheme providing clean drinking water, and advocates greater use of birth control to solve the problems of overpopulation. The interview ends with the narrator saying: “I like this interview because it has enabled me to speak out what was in my mind.”
detailed breakdown
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| Section 1 |
Population growth and over-cultivation leading to poverty and migration. Lack of trees – planting of eucalyptus (SOS Sahel programme) to meet fuel needs. Selling livestock.
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| Section 2-3 |
Methods of treating livestock diseases. Land redistribution under the Derg Narrator moved away from village and then returned to it - and hardship. Rising cost of living.
Development activities – school, flour mill, granary, nursery growing grass for animal fodder, clean water.
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| Section 3 |
Senbetie (community association responsible for preparing church feasts) – joined because of pressure from priests but it depletes grain savings; no other social institution.
Changes in marriage and divorce: “Marriage is not bringing comfort to anybody nowadays.” One cause of quarrels – shortage of food for children.
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| Section 4 |
Women’s work burden reduced because of local flourmill; status also changed: “They can attend meetings and participate equally with the head of the household.”
Comparisons between fertility of Bale (lowland) and living in Meket (highland) “in abject poverty”. Cultural practices disappearing because of poverty.
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| Section 5 |
Skills and education – proud of becoming literate; sends son, but not daughter, to school: “There is nothing more useful than education, for the current problems cannot be solved without it.”
Impact of the road. Access to health care.
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| Section 6-7 |
Health: AIDS – no occurrence locally. Population growth and the need for birth control: “The men should urge their women to use injections or birth control pills.”
Drought and dependency since the 1984/85 famine. Changes in food consumption patterns: “We have also begun feeding on wild berries, cactus fruit and other fruit…though we are not used to them.”
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detailed
breakdown
