The Innocent Developer: Ethics and Ox-Cultivation

Abstract

In this article the author presents a case-study where ox-cultivation is introduced by development workers to the Toposa, a pastoral people in the Southern Sudan. Ox-cultivation could possibly be a useful technology since it may contribute to a higher level of food production in an area which experiences famine regularly. Ox-cultivation was at first positively accepted by the elders, the traditional authority in the society. When, however, the development workers wanted to introduce it to women, the same authority reacted negatively. In this situation the development workers faced an ethical dilemma: should they follow their own values and beliefs based on a universal type of ethics, and go ahead training the women; or should they follow the opinion of the elders based on local ethical standards, and leave the idea all together? They chose to do the former. In this situation, a most relevant question to ask is: in case of failure, for instance that the whole pattern of adaptation becomes more vulnerable, what is the responsibility of development experts?

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