KENYA
Bribery, corruption and state politics have contributed significantly to the Maasai becoming a landless tribe, further marginalised in their own territory.“ The government is making the Maasai victims of their own land by trying to redistribute the land that divides Maasai tribe sections,” says Vera Sterges, volunteer at Kenya’ s Tenwek hospital.
As the government demarcates the tribe, Maasai are being physically blockaded from the land by fences.“ This makes grazing their herds extremely difficult, and they’ re often blocked at the edges of the Mara so the land can be excluded for the preserve,” says Sterges.“ Lands with plentiful water and grasslands are given to rich politicians instead of the Maasai who actually rely on natural resourses for sustenance.”
With this land crisis, the country is losing a part of its national history and culture.“ The people who want to keep our heritage alive are us. The Maasai want to preserve this culture. For years and years, we have shared our lands with the wildlife- before corrupt politics started making money out of us,” says T. Johnson, a member of the Maasai tribe.
Indeed, the tribes have been here since the 15th century after migrating to the Nairobi highland to live in harmony with nature.“ Our tribes have culture and heritage roots in this land. We do not mind sharing. We can share the country with others and let people come to see it. But our lands are being taken from us. This is not the right thing,” says Johnson.
effects of tourism
“ We share everything with the animals. We live as one.”
For Maasai warrior Noah, globalisation and tourism have become his livelihood. Now known for being an adventurous safari driver on the Maasai Mara, Noah never dreamed he would spend his days working in tourism. When his 95-year-old father died leaving him to care for ten younger siblings and his 45-year-old mother, Noah became head of the household. The Nyakuna family was living well until their land was repossessed through government force. Mere months later, safari camps opened for business.
Since the start of Africa’ s colonisation, Maasai tribes have been increasingly dispossessed of their stunning plains and grasslands mainly for the purposes of commercialism. As a result, much of the Mara has been turned into a tourist attraction where Westerners come to roam the land in safari trucks, tour Maasai villages and experience‘ authentic Africa’. As commercialism drives up land values, Maasai are becoming increasingly priced out and rendered landless. Professor Walter Goldschmidt from the University of California says,“ If these land divisions continue to be successful, it will pauperise nine of 10 Maasai.” Indeed, over 80 percent now already live far below national poverty levels.
Not only are Maasai becoming increasingly impoverished, they are being forced to modernise. After his tribe’ s land was seized, Noah needed employment quickly. Lacking an education beyond basic primary schooling, he knew this would be a difficult task. Noah had one major asset however, one the Mara resorts desperately sought. Having lived on the reserve his entire life, Noah knew how to navigate the land. When offered a position of safari game driver, he took the job.
This repression of the pastoral African tribal community’ s way of life is not the Kenyan administration’ s goal. Quite the opposite, the government seeks to market the iconic image of a Maasai warrior, tall and thin with a shaved head, wearing a red sarong and thick layers of hand-beaded jewellery.
To most Westerners, the word Maasai evokes this notion of tribal warriors herding cattle and carrying homemade weapons.“ The Maasai are a cultural attraction. They’ re used in many images for advertising Kenya, the resources of the country and tourism. Maasai are one of the few African tribes still living how they used to, so they are marketed,” says Sterges. Preserving this cultural integrity is becoming difficult, as their ability to roam the land and live among the animals is increasingly restricted.
Also under threat are Kenya’ s stunning landscapes and bountiful natural resources, which are undoubtedly suffering from Maasai land dispossession. The Environmental Action Committee website warns“ Parks are threatened by inadequate protection, monitoring and tourism. The Maasai are protectors of the land, and they’ re losing more and more of it, so the parks are in grave danger.”
Regaining ownership of the Mara plains is essential for the Maasai’ s survival as a community. Internal displacement within the country is eradicating an entire tribe of people who were once free to wander. But for now, Noah will be living under the pressures of forced commercialism, unintentionally distorting Kenya’ s living history, the Maasai warrior.
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