PhD thesis Title Page Final _Richard Juma - Victoria University ...

occupation of the poor (Robinson 1980). During the famine of the 1890s,
the famished Gabbra were forced to stoop to both hunting and trading.
They hunted elephants for ivory which they then sold to the Somali
traders, and from this trade in ivory, they accumulated large herds (see
Figure 2 for where the Gabbra and the Somali pastoralists inhabit). It is
said that the trade was lucrative for one good pair of tusks fetched 30 head
of cattle from the Somalis (Robinson 1980)
Figure 2: Geographical distribution of the pastoralist groups and their
neighbours in Northern Kenya.
Source: (Morgan 1973: 216).
The lasting economic effect of the eco-stress in the Gabbra pastoral
economy was the shift from a predominantly cattle-based economy to a
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