Nomad's Dialogue: Development Instead of Relief. A Meeting of Herders, Farmers, and Artisans from East and West Africa. Held in Ndutu, Tanzania.

摘要

From time immemorial man has had the need and desire to share and record significant events in his life. The rock paintings, the village griot, the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt, and the six oclock news. All try to capture time -- to draw the audience into an experience. But whether the media selected to communicate the event is simple or high technology, something is lost in the transmission. That something is the actual experience of being there. Nomads Dialogue: Development Instead of Relief, is the African Development Foundations record of a workshop that was charged with enthusiasm, discovery, curiosity, and empathy. When trying to convey the affective elements of an experience, writers realize the limitation of words. What follows are selected excerpts from over 120 hours of audio tapes and the writers comments, observations and summations, a formidable task when drawing from such a rich and diverse reservoir. As in the Workshop design, the substance rests with the herders. It is their story, their experience. The Workshop raises questions which present more challenges to participants and development practitioners. Are the grantees who attended this extraordinary gathering harbingers of emerging development aspirations among herding communities, or anomalies. Are they the role models that will be emulated by those living in their communities and regions. Are their projects stimuli for other herding communities. Will the new ideas they encountered at the Workshop be applied in their communities. Are they the voices that their respective governments, international donors and development practitioners need to hear as projects are planned and financed. Unanswered questions have always been the stimuli for exploration and change. And so it is appropriate that at the conclusion of the Workshop, both participants and development practitioners left with questions and issues to ponder and pursue. This report captures one small and special segment of time that records the Foundations ongoing relationship with its grantees of nomadic origin. We will continue to support their aspirations as they seek to improve their quality of life. We will ponder the questions and issues and explore the possibilities in partnership with them, and the others that will follow.