A “hardening of lines”: landscape, religion and identity in northern Kenya

Abstract

The paper examines the ways in which identities and identity politics between ethnic groups are linked to the way landscapes are constructed and experienced in northern Kenya. Using the cases of the Boran and the Gabra, the paper demonstrates that indigenous religious beliefs, practices and institutions have been central to the construction and experience of landscape and to the development of certain forms of identities and inter-ethnic relations. It explores the way in which, despite profound transformations brought by conversion to Islam and Christianity, the role of religion in structuring relations to landscape and identity remains. The paper draws on the theoretical approaches of Massey and Ingold which implicate social engagements with space in the construction of subjectivities and relations to others. It explores the extent to which Massey's idea of “open” and “closed” spatial systems can be applied usefully to the African context, and help to extend understandings of the development of peaceful or conflict-ridden inter-group relations. Through investigating the connections between religion, identity, landscape and space, the paper seeks to provide explanations for the growing salience of identity politics and inter-ethnic violence in northern Kenya.

Keywords:

• religion
• identity
• landscape
• space
• conflict
• Kenya

Notes

1. Obama, Dreams from My Father, xi.

2. Massey, For Space.

3. Ingold, Lines, 3.

4. For example, Spear and Waller, Being Maasai; Spear, “Neo-traditionalism”; Turton, “War and Ethnicity”; Iliffe, Modern History of Tanganyika; Sobania, “Pastoralist Migration and Colonial Policy.”

5. Spear, “Neo-traditionalism,” 10.

6. Berman, “Ethnicity, Patronage and the African State.”

7. Massey, For Space, ch. 2.

8. Massey, For Space, ch. 4.

9. Massey, For Space, ch. 4, 29–30 and 69, following Fabian, Time and the Other.

10. Massey, For Space, ch. 2.

11. Massey, For Space, 55.

12. Ingold, Lines.

13. Ingold, Lines. ch. 3.

14. Ingold, Lines. ch. 3.

15. Massey, For Space, 51.

16. Massey, For Space, 51.

17. This research was funded by the ESRC/AHRC's Religion and Society Programme and was carried out in collaboration with John Mack, Hassan Arero, Justin Willis, Purity Kiura and Fugich Wako. The author thanks the research collaborators, two anonymous reviewers, Günther Schlee and Doreen Massey for comments on the research ideas and this paper.

18. Fratkin and Roth, As Pastoralists Settle, 30.

19. Sobania, “Pastoralist Migration and Colonial Policy.”

20. Schlee, “Gada Systems.”

21. Schlee, “Gada Systems.”

22. Schlee, “Gada Systems.”

23. Schlee, “Gada Systems.”

24. Schlee, Identities on the Move; Wood, “The Similarities of Difference”; Gufu Oba, “Shifting Identities along Resource Borders.” Schlee makes the argument that the Gabra were formerly part of a Proto-Rendille-Somali complex and spoke a Somali dialect. They adopted the Boran language only after the Boran expansion in the sixteenth century. This argument has received fairly widespread support (see Schlee, “Ethnopolitics and Gabra Origins”).

25. Boran elders, group discussion, Marsabit Mountain, 2007.

26. These figures are derived from Mwangi, “Kenya: Conflict in the ‘Badlands’.” In many ways the Turbi massacre can be seen as an anomalous incident, but it was also one event in a longer series of violent clashes between Boran and Gabra in which people have been killed on both sides.

27. Schlee, “Ritual Topography and Ecological Use”; Wood, “Roads to Nowhere”; Ingold, Perception of the Environment.

28. Ingold, Lines.

29. Boran and Gabra rangelands are far from an open access regime. Rights to water may be given by holding legitimate claims to be the descendants of the people who are considered to have originally dug a certain well; rights to pasture are also managed by specific office holders. See Watson, “Examining the Potential of Indigenous Institutions,” for more information on Boran indigenous institutions for natural resource management.

30. Schlee, “Ritual Topography and Ecological Use,” 116.

31. Schoffeleers, Guardians of the Land; Watson, Living Terraces in Ethiopia.

32. In practice the ritual is not carried out every seven years. It may be delayed for various reasons, but the year in which the ritual is carried out must be after a multiple of seven years since the last.

33. See Schlee, “Ritual Topography and Ecological Use,” for a description of one such event.

34. For a summary see Bassi, “Power's Ambiguity.”

35. Asmarom Legesse, Oromo Democracy.

36. Group discussion with Boran elders, Marsabit, 2007.

37. Boran elder, Bodessa, Marsabit, 2007.

38. Baxter, “Boran Generation-sets.”

39. Watson, “Examining the Potential of Indigenous Institutions.”

40. Ingold, Lines.

41. Robinson, “Gabbran Nomadic Pastoralism.”

42. Schlee, “Gada systems.”

43. Group discussion with Boran elders, Marsabit, 2007.

44. Qallu for Galbo Yaa, 2007.

45. Fratkin and Roth, As Pastoralists Settle.

46. Bubisa, 1987. The simile was striking to me as it seemed to capture much of the ethos of the pastoral life, and the fundamental difficulties caused by no longer having animals on which their mobile life depended.

47. Bubisa, 2007. Fratkin and Roth, As Pastoralists Settle, discuss some of the health implications of sedentarisation, including the loss of milk in children's diets.

48. These estimates were given by a Bubisa resident who had been involved in food aid distributions.

49. Miraa (qat or khat in Ethiopia, Somalia and Yemen) is a plant that is chewed as a mild stimulant.

50. Boran elder, Bodessa, 2007.

51. Fratkin and Roth, As Pastoralists Settle, 45.

52. Land may not be titled but it is individually held and can be bought and sold, if informally.

53. Sobania, “Pastoralist Migration and Colonial Policy.” Galaty, “Time, Terror and Pastoral Inertia.”

54. Galaty, “Time, Terror and Pastoral Inertia.”

55. Tablino, Christianity among the Nomads, Vol. I.

56. The Catholics have also had close relations with the Rendille. They have also helped Boran, although the Boran had closer relations with the more poorly resourced Anglicans, and with Islam.

57. Fratkin and Roth, As Pastoralists Settle, 43, write: “The Catholic Church, made up largely of expatriate clergy from Italy and India, encouraged the creation of permanent sedentary communities at Korr, Kargi, Laisamis, North Horr, and Loyangalani to facilitate famine relief, education, and medical care, as well as religious conversion.”

58. Catholic Priest, Marsabit, 2007.

59. There are Catholic Boran and Muslim Gabra, but the main pattern of conversion is Catholic Gabra and Muslim Boran. The pattern has emerged from the history of exposure to different religious ideas and institutions.

60. In recent years, with support from the Kuwaiti African Muslim Agency, the Muslim community have built a primary school with boarding facilities, a madrassa and a health centre in Marsabit town. In 2008, the Muslim Primary school gained the best results in the district.

61. Gabra elder in resettlement scheme, Marsabit, December 2007.

62. Tablino, The Gabra; Tablino, Christianity among the Nomads, Vols I and II.

63. Leus, Borana Dictionary. Leus was based in Dadim, Ethiopia, with the Holy Ghost Fathers. His dictionary work builds on earlier studies carried out by Consolata Fathers.

64. NGO worker, Marsabit Mountain, 2007.

65. Boran elder, Bodessa, 2007.

66. M.B., 2007.

67. Group discussion, Boran elders, Marsabit, 2007.

68. Group discussion, Boran elders, Marsabit, 2007.

69. Group discussion, Boran elders, Marsabit, 2007. This comment highlights the role of elites in promoting inter-ethnic conflict. Fieldwork suggested that such a role of elites is significant, but a more detailed discussion is beyond the scope of this paper.

70. Ingold, Lines.

71. Ingold, Lines, 3.

72. The politics of nationality (as Kenyan, Somali or Ethiopian) are also present here, but a discussion of their influence is beyond the scope of this paper. The same can be said of the politics of inter-clan identities.

73. The Catholic Church in the region is, at present, exploring ways of developing provision of education to pastoralists on the move, which might help here.

74. Schlee, “Brothers of the Boran.”