Abstract: This paper examines some current issues in Borana, a pastoral society straddling the border between Ethiopia and Kenya. Pastoral societies in the African drylands these days seem to be in a state of perpetual crisis, having been transformed in the course of a few decades from haughty, independent-minded and self-sufficient tribesmen to poverty-stricken famine relief clients living on the ecological as well as political margins of society. The paper will attempt to account for some aspects of this transformation and point to some of the complexities in the situation of pastoralists, as represented by the Borana. Some of the issues raised here are more or less unique to the Borana, while others can be quite easily recognised also in other pastoral societies, in Ethiopia and elsewhere.
Many of these issues are reflected as central concerns in pastoral development policies. Development projects have become an important part of the context within which pastoralists live, for better or for worse. Although few pastoral development projects have achieved what they set out to achieve, they have none the less, often had important consequences for their pastoral `beneficiaries', creating new opportunities or imposing new problems.