Afghan Nomads (Kuchis)

Tribes people - Kuchi in Persian means "those who move" - migrated across parts of Afghanistan semi-annually with their caravans of goat, sheep, donkeys and camels. In the eyes of the West, Kuchis are famous as silver and lapis lazuli bejeweled and brightly robed carefree nomads.

Kuchis live in a delicate symbiotic relationship with peasants and environment. Traditionally, they lived by selling young animals, dairy products, wool, sheepskins, meat, or bartering those goods, for wheat grain, vegetables, fruits, and other foodstuffs. Nomads contribute importantly to the national economy in terms of meat, skins and wool. The nomads provided villagers with tea, sugar, matches, kerosene, guns, etc. as well as being moneylenders to village farmers. Being able to move from pasture to pasture, nomads escape the limits on size of local herds which villagers are subject to. The Afghan nomads are important for the maintenance of the marginal hilly grasslands.

Kuchis are Pashtuns from southwestern and eastern Afghanistan. In 1892, King Abdul Rahman granted Pashtun Kuchis grazing rights in the Hazarajat and also moved Kuchis and peasants into northern areas populated by Tajiks and Uzbeks, a move which resulted in continued ethnic strain.

The Kuchi's lifestyle has been eroded both by long-term changes associated with "modernization" and by devastating short-term events [like the droughts of 1971/2 and 1998/2002, and the wars of the 80s, 90s and today]. Their population was estimated at 2 - 2.5 million in the 60s, 70s and early 80s, but has shrunk to 1.3 - 1.5 million today according to a recent study by the UN's World Food Program. Roads, drought, landmines, Russian bombing, U.S. cluster bombs, and war-related impoverishment have all played a role in this halving of the Kuchi population.