Since posting about meat production in Ethiopia, especially in Oromia, I’ve been trying to read more about how cattle-based societies deal with modernisation.

Most of the research I’ve found frames the issue almost entirely through economics, disease control, and the need to urbanise. And the cultural aspect is rarely discussed. What does seem obvious is that pastoral communities are adopting hybrid systems because of land loss and income needs. The Maasai are often cited, particularly in Tanzania, where they’re facing dispossession for tourism and, in some cases, foreign-owned private ranches.

A similar dynamic seems to be happening among Borana communities in southern Ethiopia. Grazing land is also being taken, often tied directly to commercialised meat supply chains. The discomfort Borana pastoralists express seems mostly indirect; reluctance to sell ritually significant cattle, resistance to large-scale destocking programs promoted by NGOs, and a general unease with treating cattle as interchangeable commodities.

As I said, I’m not against modernisation, and I don’t expect culture to remain the same forever. But there seems to be an unresolved moral boundary in many East African communities, especially once large abattoirs or export-driven demand become visible in everyday life.

*(I attached a short Oromo video that reflects the cultural and cosmological meaning cattle hold in society. While the details vary across East Africa, the underlying ways cattle are understood often overlap)*