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Kenya's hunter-gatherers Another
African land-grab
April 4 , 2002
MAU FOREST
From The Economist print edition
In Kenya, it is politically correct
to burn forests and evict indigenous people
ON A high slope above the Great
Rift Valley, Kiprono Sigilai, a hunter-gatherer, sniffs the breeze,
smells smoke and deduces that an election is coming. His
woodsman's skills do not deceive him. Every time a poll is near,
members of President Daniel arap Moi's group, the Kalenjin, are
allowed to grab chunks of forest inhabited by Mr Sigilai's tribe,
the Ogiek. This ensures that the Kalenjin fervently support Mr
Moi, but the forest suffers. The newcomers fell trees, burn bushes
and graze cattle on what is left.
The Mau forest, where the Ogiek
live, was protected by court orders, but that was a frail defence
against the government. With a vote due this year, Mr Moi's party,
the Kenya African National Union, is unpopular and broke. So it
has decided to clear 68,000 hectares (167,000 acres) of woodland,
mainly in the Mau forest. Most of the 20,000 Ogiek have already
lost their livelihood to loggers. Now they face eviction to make
way for ?politically-correct people?, as Kenyans call the Kalenjin.
This is not only bad for the Ogiek;
it is bad for Kenya, too. The country is mostly arid or semi-arid,
and depends for water on a few wooded catchment areas. The forests
regulate the water cycle: they soak up rain during the wet season
and then gradually release it. The Mau forest supplies two-fifths
of the country with water. Its destruction is already causing
problems. Of the six big rivers flowing into the Rift Valley, five
have become seasonal in recent years and one has almost dried up.
The country is slowly recovering from a three-year drought, which
has left 2.5m people dependent on food aid. This is hardly the
time to lay waste more woodland.
The Ogiek have subsisted peacefully
for centuries, hunting tree hyrax (tasty small furry mammals,
improbably related to elephants) and harvesting honey. But there
are now fewer than 500 old-fashioned Ogiek. The environment
ministry is supposed to guard their forest home, but periodically
sends in thugs to flatten their huts, making way for loggers. One
of the last traditional Ogiek, Topiko Minjil, shows off some of
his people's dying skills. He kills an antelope with an arrow. He
races up a tree trunk and descends with a sopping honeycomb. And
he plucks green medicinal shoots from the ground. "This is
for gonorrhoea," he says, holding a specimen up to the
dappled light. "That's another thing the Kalenjin brought
us."
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