SUMMARY
The Dassanetch (also called Merille) is an ethnic group, numbering around 50 000 individuals. They live in the Lower Omo Valley, which is located on the margins of Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan, with the bulk of the group inhabiting the Dassanetch woreda (district) in the SNNP (Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples) region in south-western Ethiopia. More specifically, the group resides along the Omo River and on the northern tip of Lake Turkana, into which the river flows. Lake Turkana has steadily shrunk over the past 40 years – as a result of increased evaporation due to higher temperatures and a decline in the flow of the river – and has been replaced by a growing delta on Ethiopian territory. As the Dassanetch have followed the water, a relatively large number of them have crossed over into Kenyan territory. The area is a dry, semi-desert where there is serious competition for access to scarce water and grazing resources. The Dassanetch have adapted to this environment by relying mainly on pastoralism, but combine this with flood-plain cultivation and fishing.
The group is not strictly defined by ethnicity, but is open to outsiders wanting to join as long as they agree to be circumcised. Thus, over time, a range of different peoples have been absorbed into the Dassanetch tribe. The group is divided into eight sections, which to some extent reflect the different origins of its members. These sections - Inkabelo, Inkoria, Nyaaritch, Elelle, Orru, Rielle, Randal, Kuoru and Nyaaritch – are more or less closely linked to a specific territory and have certain responsibilities to the rest of the group. Social positions and leadership is organized according to generation sets, with power and honor increasing with age. Among the elders, specific power is vested in small group that is elected by the senior generation set. These cliques are tied to the different sections, and there is no overarching leader of the whole Dassanetch people.
The Dassanetch have six neighbouring groups; Arbore, Kara, Gabra, Hamar, Nyangatom and Turkana. Relations with the first two have traditionally been amicable, and the Dassanetch refer to them as “gaal kunno”, or “our people”. Violence between the Dassanetch and them is taboo, and subsequently avoided. However, when it comes to the latter four, relations are hostile, wherefore they are referred to as “kiz” or “enemies”. The Dasanetch have fought these groups intermittently over the past fifty years, with the violence mainly being characterized by reciprocal raiding. However, relations are fluid and difficult to pin down and there are also examples of short-lived alliances of convenience with kiz groups.
The Dassanetch ethnic group has been involved in the non-state category of UCDP organized violence.
