ABSTRACT

Africa’s international borders have been sites of inter-ethnic and inter-state relations and media for material and cultural exchange. Drawing on archival materials and interviews, the article illustrates how decades of cross-border insecurity and violence from livestock raiding and tension over pasture and water resources have entrenched a consciousness within a marginalized Turkana community that critiques the role of the modern state as protector and provider. Their views are reinforced by a colonial legacy of marginalization of Turkana based on a hostile geographical environment, a vulnerable pastoral economy, and Turkana’s peripheral location relative to the center of political decision-making – Nairobi. Starved of development and provision of necessities since colonial times, Turkana have appropriated episodic insecurity from cross-border violence to underline the need for government to protect and provide basic infrastructure. In the process, the article reflects on the weaknesses or incapacities of the modern African state to deal with legacies of colonial administrative and development challenges in areas considered peripheral to the mainstream state.

摘要

非洲的国际边界一直是民族间和国家间关系以及进行物质和文化交流的媒体的场所。文章利用档案材料和访谈内容，说明了数十年来因牲畜袭击以及牧场和水资源紧张造成的跨境不安全和暴力如何在边缘化的图尔卡纳（Turkana）社区中树立了一种意识，这种意识形态批判了现代国家作为保护者和提供者的作用。由于敌对的地理环境，脆弱的牧区经济以及图尔卡纳相对于政治决策中心的外围位置-内罗毕，图尔卡纳被边缘化的殖民遗产使他们的观点得到了加强。自殖民时代以来就缺乏发展和提供必需品，图尔卡纳州从跨境暴力中缓解了突发事件的不安全感，突显了政府保护和提供基本基础设施的必要性。在此过程中，该文章反映了现代非洲国家在应对被视为主流国家外围地区的殖民地行政和发展挑战遗产方面的弱点或无能。