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Ogiek
to host cultural festival
by
Rights Features Service
(December
4, 2000) The embattled Ogiek indigenous community of Kenya has
organized a major cultural fete to inform the world of their culture
and their determination to retain it.
The fete
will be held on December 9 and 10 to coincide with International
Human Rights Day.
Organized
by the Ogiek Welfare Council, a community-based lobbying group
that campaigns for the rights of the Ogiek, the fete will serve
as an eyeopener to the Ogiek culture.
"We want
the world community to know that the Ogiek have a distinct culture
and to bring into focus the continued marginalization of the community,"
says Ogiek spokesman Joseph Towett.
The Ogiek
have for years been fighting for the recognition of themselves
as an indigenous group and have taken the Kenya government of
President Daniel arap Moi to court to stop the continued allocation
of their forest land to other communities.
They fear
that the continued annexation of their land would lead to social
and political domination and would have no say over their land.
"The Ogiek
have for years been regarded as squatters in their land," says
Towett in an interview with the Nairobi-based Rights Features
Service (RFS).
The festival
will involve the slaughter of a bull and serving of Ogiek traditional
foods. This is the first time the Ogiek have organized such a
cultural show and it comes at a time when their struggle is gaining
international support.
On December
6, one of the Ogiek leaders, J. K. Sang, will present a paper
in a conference in the Philippines. In the paper made available
to RFS, Sang will urge the international community "to pressurize"
the Kenya government to adhere to the international conventions
on indigenous communities.
The paper
further demands that the Kenya government should "clearly identify
the land in Mau escarpment as belonging to the Ogiek" and to "establish
legal systems which will enable the Ogiek to manage the land in
ways which will benefit the individual without hurting the community."
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