Wrote up the notes about Amtallaqa already presented in the entry from February 2001, 19. Dereje wants to collect more materials about "Fellata" in Gambella, which we can then pool with my Sudanese data to make a joint paper about these migrations and how they came to an end (see Dereje and Schlee 2001).
Factors leading to this result seem to include:
- The 1997 invasion of Sudanese opposition forces in the Kurmuk area and the declining security situation of Mbororo migrants at the hands of the SPLA allies (SPLA = Southern People’s Liberation Army) of those northern opposition forces;
- Fears of Islamism in Addis Ababa; Islamism was (wrongly) attributed to the Mbororo;
- The coveting of pastures and other resources (market outlets?) by local (agro-) pastoralists.
In the meantime Dereje has collected genealogical and census materials in a Nuer neighbourhood of Gambella town. He has come across surprising facts (as one always does when collecting data systematically, rather than following one’s inclinations). Sons in some cases were said to belong to different clans than their fathers. This led to lengthy explanations about the history of segments and relationships of equivalence between them.