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Participatory 3DM Mukogodo
Forest
Dec. 2007
“The Mukogodo participatory 3D Mapping process is perhaps the most
moving mapping exercise I’ve been involved in” Julius Muchemi from
ERMIS Africa.
Julius continues by explaining some details of the process. “The
legend has 2 languages (Maasai and Yiaku), for one clan –Losos,
there was a hill (Ol-donyo Losos) that acted like the heart
pumping life to their entire territory –perhaps that why it had
several icon caves and a sacred site at the top for sacrificing to
the Yiaku gods of the rains–and other legendary mythical beliefs
and cultural practices – it was pity that the size of the model
did not accommodate the inclusion of the
entire hill - and the clan on realizing the omission of some of
its parts on the blank model - lamented and took the facilitators
to task and would even want us to swear that it was not a plot to
dispossess them off their heritage.
“We are very concerned to the omission of portions of our sacred
hill in this map and keen on whether this may be used by the
government to disposes our land. Promise us that the map will be
expanded to include this portion”.
We went as far as making an oath to the elders that we would look
for ways of expanding the model - so as to appease the elders
concerns. This thrilled them to populating the model and
discussing the elements and history of their territory in terms of
culture and natural resources….
“Similar to the Ogiek and Sengwer indigenous people: parts of the
Yiaku Territorial land was dispossessed by their neighbouring
communities …the Maasai and Meru and European White Settlers.
The entire mapping process was ceremonially crowned with dancing
just like among that done by Sengwer but for Yiakku it was only
the women who were dancing-the women said that men would only
dance around some traditional beer - this could have been a joke
or perhaps it was true. Well, among the Ogiek, there was no
dancing apart from school children who were signing Christian
songs after the women declined to dance their traditional songs
which they claimed had been overtaken by time - perhaps and
indicator of intrusion by modernity.
Difficult though was the aspect of traditional boundaries which
had to be omitted - there was a close monitoring by the
neighbouring community-the maasai - to know the intent of the
mapping exercise by such an indigenous minority group - this was
because land occupied by Maasai belonged to the Yaiku Indigenous
community - and mapping was thought
that it would evoke unknown territorial dynamics that might affect
relationships between the two communities. Important to know is
the fact that there is close intermarriages between the two
communities (Yiakku and Maasai) due the Clan of Orodi that was the
first to marry off their daughter to the maasai thus paving way
for their intrusion into the Yiaku community. (some Yiaku Elders
lamented that it was like the entire community was married by the
maasai and thus difficult to disentangle themselves from them).
Due to the dynamics and close monitoring by the maasai –it was
decided that the traditional boundaries should not be mapped.
Even when it came to the internal clan boundaries –the fact that
the entire territory of Losos clan was not mapped made them feel
that the omission of portion of their territory would indicate
that they had a small land than the other –it was requested the
inter-clan boundaries be done later after the extension of the
model.
On a different note, the Ogiek representatives felt that the Yiaku
and Sengwer Landscape and choice of colours made the model look
more beautiful than theirs. They advised that the use of pins
should be reduced and more of colours and other local objects be
used to reduce too much cosmetics on the model - maybe this is
true… All in all the presence of Ogiek
community representative made a whole difference as they stirred
up the participation of the Yiakku community.
The presence of government officials (Provincial Forest Officer,
NEMA, District Office - Meru, District Commissioner and District
Police Officer - OCPD and Soil and Water conservation
Officer was an indication of a new dimension of interest in
ec0-governance?
The interest by Ms Kenya to use the model towards conflict
management is an early indicator of the potential use of PGIS for
inter-community peace building. Their request for further
deliberations on the potential for the model is currently the
subject of PPGIS Dgroup …lets derive more from this network to
meaningfully enrich the Yiaku/MS-kenya initiative.
Last, to the community the step-by-step process is important to
arrive at a true representation of their heritage - time was not
the issue - learning and restoration of territory, culture and
natural resources was central. This was unlike the external
trainees who felt the process was lengthy especially the
construction of the bank model which
had been planned to just take 2 days - attempt to condense the
days was practically impossible and the model had to take 10 solid
days which had been advised initially by the P3DM facilitators and
advisors. Remember the PGIS ethics proposed at the “International
Conference on Mapping for Change’ 2005 held in Nairobi, Kenya
http://www.iapad.org/pgis2005/pla.htm
The construction of ecological zones was almost a frustration as
the terrain was different from Ogiek and Senwer territories. But -
after the break-though the model was a classic one in terms of
physical geography.
2 Responses to “Participatory 3DM Mukogodo Forest”
Udongo Says: December 13th, 2007 at 12:36 am
The potential uses of the model by the Yiakku and Mukogodo
community far superseded what was initially thought possible. The
different stakeholders and administrators who participated in the
exercise all had different views on its application- from the
development of forest management plans, EIAs, conflict management,
tourism planning to a consolidated platform for dialogue building.
It was the first time that the community felt they had in their
control a tool for planning that moved away from abstract and
theory to practice.
In terms of excavation of landscape knowledge, the elders proved
to be an encyclopedia of living knowledge and expanded on the body
of growing knowledge that “communities have been adapting to
changes in climate over millenia”.. The impacts of climate change
are not new to the communities and there is enough knowledge on
the “adaptability” strategies. However, due to the changing
landuse practices, and cultural lifestyles, some of those
strategies are becoming obsolete.
It was interesting to note that one of the biggest impacts from
food aid has been the disruption of some of the coping strategies
from the communities. In the case of extremes people no longer
look at their environment to boost their resilience but at the
skies waiting for food drops!
In Mukogodo, it is was also interesting to note that within the
last five years, there has been a new river formed (yet to be
named). The river has allowed the development of some new
micro-environment that teeming with new life as colonization takes
root.
Climate change models show that East Africa is bound to become
wetter as other parts of Africa become dry (new scientist). Lately,
the Mukogodo area has been receiving a fair share of rain, I am
not suggesting anything- but climate change might be just what the
people of MK need!
Udongo Says: December 15th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
The process in itself is intense and demanding. The background
work on making sure the base of the model is ready- basically the
contours in laborious and gladly was done by ermis
http://www.ermisafrica.org
Ours was the easy bit of seating around the table and listening to
elders tell their landscape and culture stories!
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