Qu’elle était verte ma vallée

• Main Author: Hervé Nicolle
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Université de Provence 2013-06-01
• Series: Revue des Mondes Musulmans et de la Méditerranée
• Subjects: Afghanistan; nomadic people; Kuchi; settlement; urban development; minorities
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/remmm/8118

This paper presents the key findings of a study conducted in the Deh Sabz district in 2011. As an ambitious urban development programme has started being implemented in Deh Sabz (“green valley” in Dari), the way of life of nomadic people transiting through the district has been significantly impacted. The drastic political changes over the past forty years, predatory attitudes of local leaders, recurrent natural disasters, or the inexorable of reduction of pasture land, have further accelerated a phenomenon of voluntary or forced settlement – along with an increased socio-economic marginalisation. Such a progressive loss of identity of nomadic Kuchi raises an important political question at a time when Afghanistan has to deal with both the uncertainty of the on going political “transition” and a worsening security context.