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09/22/2004:
"Masai, Whites and Wildlife: No Peaceable Kingdom"
by Marc LaceyLAIKIPIA, Kenya - The view from above explains why this rugged area of Kenya has a problem on its hands.
As far as the eye can see there is wilderness: trees and scrub and, roaming between thickets, elephants, antelope and giraffes, not to speak of endangered species like the black rhino. But then, interrupting the National Geographic vistas, one spots a fence, a long straight one that goes on for miles and miles.
On the other side of the fence, the landscape changes abruptly. Much of the vegetation is gone. Wild animals are nowhere to be found, although one can spot herds of cows, goats and sheep roaming about. Their heads point constantly to the dry earth, as they scrounge for nourishment.
The herds belong to Masai tribesmen, and they are far too large for the land available. One result is a barren landscape, overgrazed and unhealthy, and certainly no place of refuge for Africa's endangered species. Recently, though, herders have begun cutting the fences that crisscross central Kenya's Laikipia district and marching their livestock onto the private land inside.
On the other side of those fences is another form of endangered species, the white settler. One settler is Kuki Gallman, an Italian by birth who moved to Kenya 30 years ago with her husband and later became a Kenyan citizen. She has chronicled her life in a series of books, including "I Dreamed of Africa,'' which became a movie featuring Kim Basinger as Ms. Gallman.
Ms. Gallman is one of several dozen white ranchers in Laikipia with combined holdings that stretch far and wide. Her ranch, Ol Ari Nyiro, sprawls over 100,000 acres just north of the equator, and boasts the largest population of black rhinos outside a national park.
Conservationists at Ms. Gallman's ranch and at others across Laikipia are hard at work trying to preserve the rhino and the other animal rarities of the area, like the Grevy's zebra and the reticulated giraffe. But the Masai are intent on moving them to a different habitat, which could threaten the animals' survival.
The Masai say Laikipia was stolen from their ancestors a century ago in a colonial-era treaty between a Masai leader and the British that transferred the land from the Masai to the whites. They say that the document is now out of date and that the vast ranches of Laikipia owned by whites are now officially a part of Masailand.
Inside the ranch houses there is anger at the destruction of the private lands and fear that the conflict could sharpen. But there is also some sympathy for the plight of the Masai and a bit of resignation that this wonderful way of life might not last as long as their leases, some of which extend in excess of 900 years.
"I'm sympathetic to them,'' said Laria Grant, 32, whose father bought a 14,000-acre cattle ranch known as El Karama around the time of independence in 1963. "I know how it would feel if I were them, even 100 years later. To me, it's not the exact details of the lease that's the issue. It's about land and their feelings toward it. They're poor and can see our huge acreage of beautiful grass across the fence. But we feel as strongly about this land as they do.''
The Masai refer to the settlers as "mzungus,'' the Swahili term for white people or foreigners. But most of the white landholders are Kenyan citizens, albeit not with ties to the country that stretch back as long as those of the Masai.
"I'm as much a Kenyan as they are,'' said Martin Evans, a white rancher who has cattle, sheep, goats and camels on his 30,000 acres. "My dad was born here and I was born here and my sons were born here, too. I'm as Kenyan as anyone else.''
...Ms. Gallman and other landholders say they contribute much to Kenya as well as to the local population. There are the salaries they pay their staff, which in Ms. Gallman's case numbers about 200. There are the community outreach programs they have begun, like the scholarship program set up by a rancher, Michael Dyer, for Masai youth and the Masai-run tourist lodge. And there is the conservation they engage in, the landholders say, by fencing their property or just by keeping it pristine.
"I'm a curator of a living museum,'' said Ms. Gallman, who brings schoolchildren from around the world to her property. "Nature here is so majestic. The world will need places like this more and more in the future. They are impossible to reconstruct once they're gone. My dream for the future is just that this place will remain whole.''
Full Article: New York Times
How hideous. "A living museum"?? What are the Masai, a picturesque backdrop? And who are these white settlers but the children and grandchildren of invaders? By ignoring history, it is possible for a white then to say "I'm as Kenyan as anyone else," and "we feel as strongly about this land as they do." I doubt that very much. And the reporter presents a situation which he feels to be morally complex, what with the wildlife and the toursists and all, while it is actually very simple: whites stole the land from the Masai, and the Masai are claiming it back.
