ENVIRONMENT, DEVELOPMENT, CRISIS, AND CRUSADE - UKAMBANI, KENYA, 1890-1990

For over a century Ukambani, the home of the Akamba people, has been t he object of intense scrutiny and repeated interventions by internatio nal and national ''experts.'' Outsider narratives have portrayed the r egion as a crucible for a series of crises, including human and livest ock epidemics, ''overgrazing,'' soil erosion, low productivity, underd evelopment, fuelwood shortage, biodiversity loss, and threatened wildl ife. Akamba farmers and herders recount a very different story in whic h land alienation, land hunger, and limits on mobility of people and t heir herds have restructured the ecological and spatial order of their homeland, to the benefit of some and the detriment of many. The histo ry of crisis construction and resolution by outsiders, juxtaposed with the diverse experience of people within the region suggests that simp le solutions to single problems may actually create new crisis, in Uka mbani and elsewhere.