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Risky Trade, Resilient Traders: Trust and Livestock Marketing in Northern Kenya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2011

Hussein Abdullahi Mahmoud
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Abstract

This article examines innovations in livestock marketing that livestock traders in northern Kenya use to overcome a host of trading obstacles. Livestock trading in northern Kenya is one of the toughest and most risk-prone jobs in the region, yet livestock traders have been able not only to transform the ways in which trading is conducted through ‘home-made’ innovations, but also to mitigate trading risks. The article demonstrates how livestock traders have become resilient to risks and have been able to succeed in a trade that in the past many have had to abandon. Trust embedded in social networks and relations reinforces the adoption of risk-minimizing strategies. The article focuses on the broad field of pastoral risk management to illustrate how an innovative risk management strategy can be used to create a successful business entrepreneurship in a risk-prone environment. I draw on fieldwork conducted during 2001–2 among cattle traders in Moyale District of northern Kenya and Nairobi, and on recent work among Somali livestock traders-cum-ranchers in Garissa District of North Eastern and Coast provinces.

Cet article examine les innovations en matière de commercialisation du bétail que les négociants en bétail du Nord du Kenya utilisent pour surmonter une multitude d'obstacles aux échanges. Bien que le commerce du bétail dans le Nord du Kenya soit l'une des activités les plus dures et les plus risquées de la région, les négociants en bétail ont réussi à non seulement transformer les modes d'échange par le biais d'innovations « de fabrication maison », mais également à réduire les risques commerciaux. L'article montre comment les négociants en bétail ont développé une résistance aux risques et ont réussi dans un secteur que beaucoup ont dû abandonner par le passé. La confiance qui fait partie intégrante des réseaux sociaux et des relations renforce l'adoption de stratégies de minimisation des risques. L'article examine le domaine assez large de la gestion du risque pastoral pour illustrer l'utilisation d'une stratégie innovante de gestion du risque pour créer une entreprise commerciale prospère dans un environnement à risque. L'auteur s'appuie sur des travaux de terrain menés en 2001–2002 auprès de négociants en bétail du district de Moyale dans le Nord du Kenya et à Nairobi, et sur des travaux récents menés auprès de négociants-éleveurs somaliens du district de Garissa des provinces côtières et du Nord-Est.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 78 , Issue 4 , November 2008 , pp. 561 - 581
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2008

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