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ABSTRACT
Oral evidence from pastoral Pokot on vegetation changes in the rangelands of northern Baringo District points to major changes in structure and biodiversity composition over the past century. A landscape of perennial grasses has turned into an Acacia-dominated bush-land. Pelil (Acacia nubica), talamogh (Acacia mellifera), or anyua (Acacia reficiens), which characterise the pastoral landscape today, have increased rapidly since the 1950s. This article compares perceptions of current changes in grass compositions with former accounts, highlighting local assessments of declining high-quality grasses such as abrute (Brachiaria deflexa, Setaria homonyma) or puyun (Eragrostis cilianensis). The changes described are linked to a number of causal factors (high grazing pressure, restriction of pastoral mobility, increasing population numbers), allowing us to historicise the profound change in landscape vegetation. The costs and benefits of bush encroachment are also examined. The tremendous increase in goat numbers, and the sizeable growth of camel herds, is closely connected to the increased availability of fodder plants for browsers. The article concludes by contrasting the views expressed on landscape by Pokot elders with scientific accounts of environmental change.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Galaty, “Land Grabbing.”
2 Roques, O'Connor, and Watkinson, “Dynamics of Shrub Encroachment.”
3 Fratkin and Roth, As Pastoralists Settle; Greiner, Alvarez, and Becker, “From Cattle to Corn”; McCabe, Leslie, and DeLuca, “Adopting Cultivation.”
4 Galvin, “Transitions.”
5 Catley and Aklilu, “Moving Up or Moving Out?”
6 Bollig and Oesterle, “Changing Communal Land Tenure.”
7 Fratkin, “Seeking Alternative Livelihoods.”
8 Little, “Reflections on the Future of Pastoralism,” 244.
9 Leslie and McCabe, “Response Diversity,” 114.
10 Bollig and Schulte, “Environmental Change.”
11 Republic of Kenya, Kenya Population Census 1979, 98.
12 Republic of Kenya, 2009 Kenya Population and Housing Census.
13 These councils have effectively managed the highland pastures in the past, and still try to do so. But the power of decision-making is eroding in an environment that cannot provide sufficient forage for cattle.
14 Bollig, Die Krieger der gelben Gewehre, 44.
15 Greiner, Alvarez, and Becker, “From Cattle to Corn,” 1480.
16 Oesterle, “From Cattle to Goats,” 83.
17 Republic of Kenya, Annual Report 2011: East Pokot.
18 Oesterle, “From Cattle to Goats,” 83.
19 Republic of Kenya, Census Vol II Q11: Livestock Population 2009.
20 Oesterle, “From Cattle to Goats,” 84.
21 Ibid., 84.
22 Ibid.
23 Ibid., 83.
24 Schneider, “Pakot Resistance to Change,” 149.
25 Oesterle, “From Cattle to Goats,” 81.
26 Bollig and Oesterle, “Changing Communal Land Tenure,” 318–19.
27 Greiner, Alvarez, and Becker, “From Cattle to Corn,” 1484.
28 Russell Bernard, Research Methods in Anthropology, 346.
29 Ingold, Perception of the Environment, 189.
30 Little et al., “Environmental Variations,” 316–17.
31 Bollig and Schulte, “Environmental Change,” 500–2.
32 Bollig, “East Pokot Camel Husbandry,” 36.
33 Timberlake, “Ethnobotany,” 12.
34 Bollig and Schulte, “Environmental Change,” 502.
35 Ibid., 498.
36 Timberlake, “Ethnobotany,” 5–6; Bollig and Schulte, “Environmental Change,” 502–4.
37 Warren, “Land Degradation Is Contextual,” 457.
38 Roba and Oba, “Efficacy of Intregrating Herder Knowledge,” 591.
39 Bollig, “Paka Besteigung,” 3.
40 Reckers, Potential of Nginyang, 14.
41 Bollig, Die Krieger der gelben Gewehre, 44–6, with reference to Reckers, Land Potential in Nginyang.
42 Timberlake, “Ethnobotany,” 5.
43 Ibid., 6.
44 Reckers, Nomadische Viehhalter, 50–2.
45 Bollig, “Ethnic Conflicts,” 73 ff.
46 Bollig, “Krieger und Waffenschieber,” 148.
47 Conant, “Thorns Paired,” 117.
48 Ibid., 119.
49 Bollig and Schulte, “Environmental Change,” 503.
50 Bollig and Oesterle, “Changing Communal Land Tenure,” 311.
51 Ibid., 312.
52 Mwangi and Swallow, “Prosopis Juliflora Invasion,” 130 ff.; Becker et al., “Land Use Changes.”
53 Amos, interviewed on 14 September 14 2014. Diminishing grass cover around Churo is one reason for leaving the highland pastures, among others. Often, the emergence of lopus (East Coast Fever) in the highlands is also mentioned to explain the abandonment of these places.
54 The interviewee used both terms anyua and arekayan. The former is the Pokot name, the latter the Turkana name for A. reficiens.
55 Amos, interviewed on 14 September 2014.
56 ‘Sita’ means ‘six’ in Kiswahili, and ‘sitasita’ refers to a recent punishment of giving six cows and six goats in adultery cases.
57 Sapana is the most important rites de passage in Pokot pastoral communities for young men.
58 Typhoid and brucellosis were named with their English terms.
59 Yomöt is a disease that has not occurred before, and has taken many lives in the middle of the twentieth century. It is called Yomöt (Pokot: “air”), because it spreads through the contact with infected people. Bianco, “Songs of Mobility,” 29, describes it as a disease which paralyses the legs, and could be caused by witchcraft, after elders are abused.
60 Unidentified disease.
61 Bollig, Die Krieger der gelben Gewehre, 85, gives a detailed account for the sequence of generation sets in Pokot. The Nyungi generation set was circumcised around 1865, Maina around 1890, and Chumwö from 1916 to 1920.
62 The reference to ‘after Merkutwo’, refers to the generation set which is going to be circumcised after Merkutwo, probably in 30–40 years from now (i.e. 2045–2055).
63 Interview with Riteluk, 4 September 2014.
64 Homewood and Rodgers, “Pastoralism,” 111.
65 Marchant and Lane, “Past Perspectives for the Future,” 14–18.
66 Roques, O'Connor, and Watkinson, “Dynamics of Shrub Encroachment,” 268.
67 Republic of Kenya, “Declaration,” 90.
68 Reckers, Land Potential Nginyang, 8.
69 Bollig and Oesterle, “Political Ecology,” 301.
70 Boonman, East Africa's Grasses and Fodders, 54.
71 Midgely and Bond, “Demography of African Acacias,” 871.
72 Boonman, East Africa's Grasses and Fodders, 56.
73 Little, “Reflections on the Future of Pastoralism,” 248.
74 Bollig and Schulte, “Environmental Change,” 503.
75 Mwaka, “Bee-keeping and Honey Production.”
76 Galvin, “Responses of Pastoralists,” 370.
77 Geothermal Development Company, “GDC Plans to Irrigate.”
78 Bollig and Oesterle, “Political Ecology,” 309.
79 Timberlake, “Ethnobotany”; Reckers, Potential of Nginyang; UNESCO, Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage.