Traditional management of drought and famine in Kenya

Abstract

There is general unanimity that drought and famine are recurring events in Sub-Saharan Africa. People’s patterns of thinking, feeling and potential behavior are influenced by their environment. Hence recurring events are institutionalized and become an important aspect of culture (Hofstede, 1991). Fleuret noted: “history tells us that drought and consequent food shortage are regularly recurring events which have stimulated adaptive responses. Further, these responses do not remain static and unchanged, but affect and are affected by other events and changes occurring in society” (Fleuret, 1986:224; Akong’a, 1988).