Over half the world's pastoral population lives in Africa. Even today, over 22 million Africans depend on some form of pastoral activity for their livelihood. They include communities like Bedouins, Berbers, Maasai, Somali, Boran and Turkana. Most of them now live in the semi-arid grasslands or arid-deserts where rainfed agriculture is not possible. They raise cattle, camels, goats, sheep and donkeys. They sell milk, meat, animal skin and wool. Some also earn through trade and transport. Others combine pastoral activity with agriculture to earn more. Still others do a variety of odd jobs so to supplement their poor and uncertain earnings from pastoralism.
The lives of African pastoralists changed a lot over the colonial and post-colonial period. From the late 19th century, the British colonial government in East Africa began to expand land for cultivation. As cultivation expanded, pasturelands were turned into cultivable fields. These brought a number of problems for the pastoralists. Their life became tough.