Venue: London

Date: 25-29 October 2021

This talk critically explores transformations in the human-donkey relationship in contemporary Pakistan, and examines how the use of the donkey skin for preparing a traditional Chinese medicine provide us with an alternate avenue to analytically reflect the sustainability approach of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Recent scholarly studies supporting the sustainable approach of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) argue that China’s mega-money project spanning across more than 100 countries promises to bring sustainability through rapid completion of infrastructural projects. This talk instead focuses on the human-donkey relationship and, through a careful exploration of the lifeworlds of poor donkey keepers in Pakistan, argues that sustainability should be measured by determining the wellbeing of both humans and more-than-humans, and by preserving their knotted relationship that serves these communities. By critically analyzing the donkey trade and slaughter for developing a traditional Chinese medicine, ejioa, this talk examines the disappearance of donkeys from the local ecology, the animal’s shifting role from a valuable working partner for poor families to an exploitable commodity in a globalized world, and long term social, economic, and environmental impacts associated with a decline in the donkey population in Pakistan. By reflecting on the intertwined relationship between donkeys and their keepers, this talk provides an analytical reflection of the BRI and its sustainability.