Reviving Yaaku: Identity and Indigeneity in Northern Kenya

Abstract

The Mukogodo of Kenya were once hunter-gatherers speaking a Cushitic language. Over the last century, they were absorbed more and more into the orbit of Maa-speaking pastoralists, adopting pastoralism, as well as Maasai culture and language. In the process, use of their former language declined considerably, and today there are only a few surviving elders who have even a limited grasp of it. Also, Maasai cultural dominance has marginalised the old ways of the Mukogodo, still looked down upon by many Maasai and Samburu as il-torrobo, a contemptuous term for hunter-gatherers. However, influenced by global discourses on indigenous rights, conservation and the worth of preserving endangered languages, there is a movement amongst the Mukogodo to revive their language, reconstruct an ethnic identity as ‘Yaaku’, and demand greater rights to the Mukogodo Forest; this movement has recently culminated in the construction of a museum where it is hoped future generations will learn at least something of the old language and way of life. This article traces the fluctuations of Mukogodo language and culture over the last century, especially focusing on this recent revivalist movement and the people, and local, national and international politics, behind it. It shows how the marginality of the Mukogodo and their old ways and language can be turned to advantage, as being Yaaku and speaking the Yaaku language become major resources in a poverty-stricken region.

Keywords:

• Kenya
• Mukogodo
• Yaaku
• identity
• indigeneity
• ethnicity
• language
• cultural rights

Notes

According to Cronk (personal communication), the language is more properly called Sieku. Regarding spelling, Yaaku, Yiaaku and Yiaku are all currently used.

Both terms have been around for some time, so ‘Yaaku’ is not simply a recent invention (Cronk 2004). However, it is more suggestive of a distinct identity than ‘Mukogodo’, which has become associated with the term ‘Mukogodo-Maasai’, and hence is more appealing to those wishing to separate themselves from the Maasai.

As well as a survey of the literature on the Mukogodo, this article derives from interviews and ethnographic observation conducted at Kuri Kuri group ranch for the AHRC-funded project, ‘Managing Heritage, Building Peace: museums, memorialisation and the uses of memory in Kenya’. I visited Kuri Kuri on three occasions in 2009/10, with my visits kindly facilitated by Manasseh ole Matunge and his family. I am most grateful for their hospitality, and that of the elders who kindly gave up their time to talk with me. Thanks also to Phillipa Bengough of Laikipia Wildlife Forum (LWF), to my colleagues Lotte Hughes, Annie Coombes and Karega-Munene, and to the two anonymous reviewers.

See http://www.laikipiatourism.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=52&Itemid=56 (accessed 11 October 2010).

See, for example, Muthee Thuku (2005). Thuku is a member of Porini Association, a Kenyan non-governmental organisation (NGO) with a focus on environmental conservation that has worked in the area.

Cronk (2004:63ff) relates how the British notion of dorobo victimhood owed much to the establishment of the ‘White Highlands’ and attempts to portray the Kikuyu, from whom land was alienated, as invaders who had dispossessed the original dorobo inhabitants. However, this colonial concern for the original inhabitants of a territory bears some resemblance to the modern concern for ‘indigenous rights’, as does the tendency to essentialise ethnicity prevalent both amongst the colonialists and the present day indigenous rights movement.

I was told by Mukogodo that Maasai men still like to marry Mukogodo women, though the explanation given was physical: Mukogodo women tend to have long hair unlike Maasai women, and Maasai men find this attractive.

See also Brenzinger 1992 for an account of the demise of the Yaaku language as well as that of the Elmolo.

Brenzinger speaks of the use of Yaaku in songs performed by elders in the late 1980s (1992:227): ‘Even the hunting songs and the songs on beekeeping, one central to the Yaaku culture, were performed in Mukogodo-Maasai. When their attention was drawn to the use of their old language, they merely strewed isolated Yaaku terms related to beekeeping and hunting throughout the songs, sometimes even using Samburu terms by mistake’.

Such lodges cater for wealthy tourists. A night at Tassia Lodge currently costs US$400.

Stephen Leriman Leitiko, interviewed at Dol Dol, 12 October 2009.

See http://www.leighday.co.uk/news/news-archive/masai-bomb-victims (accessed 24 February 2011).

‘Millionaires in the wild’, J. Ombuor Daily Nation (Weekend Supplement) 24 January 2003.

For an example of Koinante's efforts, see http://www.ipacc.org.za/eng/news_details.asp?NID=179 (accessed 11 October 2010).

Manasseh ole Matunge, interviewed at Dol Dol, 12 October 2009.

See Republic of Kenya The Proposed Constitution of Kenya, Government Printer (2010).

Ibid chapter 5, article 63.

Maasai activists were quick to express their hopes for the constitution after it was passed. See for example, ‘Indigenous presence in new Kenya constitution’ Mary Simat, http://www.ipacc.org.za/eng/news_details.asp?NID=261 (accessed 10 October 2010). Regarding Maasai attempts to promote indigenous intellectual property rights, see WIPO (2007).

Manasseh ole Matunge, interviewed at Dol Dol, 10 January 2010.

On the ‘politics of recognition’ in Africa and the issue of competing group rights, see Englund and Nyamnjoh 2004.

Stephen Leriman Leitiko, interviewed at Dol Dol, 12 October 2009.

Regarding sheng, see Githiora 2002, and Iraki 2010.

The momentum behind community peace museums in Kenya owes much to Dr Sultan Somjee, who led the Community Peace Museums Programme in the 1990s and early 2000s. The Abasuba Museum was established in 2000, see its website http://www.abasuba.museum (accessed 10 October 2010), while another important example, the Lari Memorial Peace Museum, was established in 2001; see paper by Stanford Chege http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/ferguson-centre/memorialisation/nairobi07/workshop-july07-stanford-chege.htm (accessed 10 October 2010).

Phillipa Bengough, interviewed at Nanyuki airfield, 11 October 2009 and 11 January 2010.

‘Yaaku Cultural Museum’, David Masere, CLO Eastern Unit LWF Newsletter June 2009:6. NMK has asked to keep some of the objects, as it has no collection of Yaaku material. This is not surprising, given that the community is not recognised as a separate ethnic group in Kenya.

I attended a Borana naming ceremony recently in the very different locale of Marsabit, northern Kenya. Few tourists ever reach Marsabit, and far fewer would ever witness such a ceremony. The local councillor told me how he hoped to promote Borana culture and attract tourists, ‘just like the Maasai’.

Concern over the collection of ethnic data was covered by a number of media reports, including http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11143914 (accessed 14 March 2011).