Development and Human (In)Dignity: The Impact of Gibe III, Sugar Industrialization and Sedenterization on Minority Agro- Pastoral Groups in South Omo

Abstract

Based on extensive field research in South Omo Zone since 2011, this
article argues that the human dignity of agro-pastoralist groups was
sacrificed to promote developmentalism. This zone is home to sixteen
minority groups, thirteen being agro-pastoralists. Deployment of
developmental state policy in the 2010s, namely sugar industrialization,
made a structural break to the state experiences of most agro-pastoral
groups, especially to the Bodi and Mursi in Salamago Woreda. The sugar
industrialization efforts were enabled by the regulation of the Omo
River’s flow with the construction of the Gibe III hydro-electric dam
to the north. Moreover, the government planned to sedenterize and
modernize the agro-pastoral communities, and thereby deliver social
services to them. However, these developmental state projects were
implemented by going against human security, human development
and human rights of the agro-pastoral groups residing in the area. First,
the Bodi were not consulted about the projects, but were ‘convinced’,
by a combination of coercion and persuasion. Second, the project was
preceded by and conjoined with security campaigns, which led to,
among others, the imprisonment of many men from Bodi in Jinka,
the Zonal capital. Third, the combination of environmental impacts
of the developmental projects and the increasing insecurity seriously
impacted food security and led to collective impoverishment of the
Bodi. The combination of these three major impacts led to deterioration
of the dignity of the Bodi, contrary to what development ideally is
about