Kuchis (from the Persian word Persian: کوچ koch meaning "migration"), are Afghan Pashtun nomads, primarily from the Ghilzai, Kakar, Lodi, Ahmadzai as well as some Durrani tribes, but occasionally there may also be some Baloch people among them that live a nomadic life travelling between pastoral lands in Afghanistan and in Pakistan.[1] In the local native Pashto language the term is Kochian.
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There are seven million Kuchis in Afghanistan, with at least 60% remaining fully nomadic, and over 100,000 have been displaced due to natural disasters such as flood and drought in the past few years.[1]
"The nomads and semi-nomads, generally called Kuchi in Afghanistan, mostly keep sheep and goats. The produce of the animals (meat, dairy products, hair and wool) is exchanged or sold in order to purchase grain, vegetables, fruit and other products of settled life. In this way an extensive network of exchange has developed along the main routes annually followed by the nomads. The merchant Powindah (Ghilji) [or Ghilzai] Pashtuns used to move annually from the Afghanistan mountains to the valley of the Indus in Pakistan. These long-distance migrations were stopped in the early 1960s when the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan were closed, but many Kuchis are still allowed to cross as border officials recognize the Kuchi migrations which occur seasonally and allow them to pass even in times of political turmoil. In recent decades, migrations inside Afghanistan continue, although trucks are now often being used to transport livestock and family from one place to another."[2]
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Kuchis historically abstained from politics, because they are nomadic, but under Afghanistan's constitution, they were given ten seats in parliament.[3] Provisions are written into the Afghanistan Constitution (Article 14) aimed at improving the welfare of Kuchis, including provisions for housing, representation, and education.[4] According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, before the 30 years of war, Kuchis owned 30 per cent of the country's goats and sheep and most of the camels for years, and they were largely responsible for the supply of slaughter animals, wool, ghee and quroot to the national economy.[5]
Kuchis were also favored by the Kings of Afghanistan, themselves of Pashtun origin, since the late 1880s. They were awarded "firman," or royal proclamations, granting them use of summer pastures all over Afghanistan in a long-lasting Pashtunization campaign.[6][7][8] During the Taliban era, Kuchis were a main factor and supporter of the Taliban and their leader Mohammed Omar[9] As a result, the northern ethnic groups (Hazara, Tajiks, Uzbeks and Turkmens) have a long-standing distrust of the Kuchi. This political dispute has been deepened over the decades of Kuchi transhumance, whereby some Kuchis became absentee landlords in their summer areas in the north through customary seizure procedures to attach debtors' land. However, the Kuchis themselves see the northern minority groups as a non-Afghan race, and claims the Kochis were natives of northern Afghan region, and that during many years of invasion such as Genghis Khan and Timur, they escaped south.
The Kuchis have been identified by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan as one of the largest vulnerable populations in the country. As Afghanistan's population grows, competing claims over summer pastures, both for rainfed cultivation and for grazing of the settled communities' livestock, have created conflict over land across central and northern Afghanistan. Paying head-count fees for each animal crossing someone else's property is exacting a harsh economic toll on the Kuchi way of life, one that is already having to contend with recurrent droughts that are now occurring with increasing frequency.[10][11]