ESHA's Kenya Experience: Reflections on Cultural Survival

Half of our time in Kenya, more or less, we spent tucked into the Samburu village of Ngurunit. While visiting schools and lending our efforts to two service projects, we enjoyed getting some sense of the rhythm of daily life in this pastoralist community. Highlights included the singing well, an impromptu market of local crafts, and a performance of traditional dance by the moran – the young men who are warriors from the time of circumcision in puberty until they reach the age of “young elders.” Perhaps most edifying, however, was the opportunity to simply be present and observant. We offer a few photos here, many taken by our guide in the village, Josephat Lemalio (whose delight in the digital camera could be counted as another highlight). Nigel Pavitt has written a wonderful book, Samburu, full of photos of the people and descriptions of their traditions and beliefs (1991, London: Kyle Cathie Limited).

In making the journey from Ngurunit to Maasai Mara toward the end of our trip, we stopped at a local Samburu place of lodging modeled after the safari camps of the game parks. This one differs, our host Steven explained, in that it was established by a local Samburu, Diipa Lenanyangara, who developed it with local materials and labor. As we asked him about his efforts, with Steven translating, Diipa left us for a moment and returned with the spring 2010 issue of Cultural Survival Quarterly -- a magazine published by a non-profit organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts! The cover article, “Samburu Under Attack," features Diipa Lenanyangara and addresses the recent conflict between the Samburus and the Kenyan government regarding cattle ownership.

Throughout our visit and afterward, I found myself wrestling with how to reconcile my desire to respond to a request from this community for help and partnership and my concerns about whether Western points of view and involvement will mean the inevitable end to the distinctions of indigenous cultures. This led me to return to the work and words of Wade Davis, an ESHA conference keynoter in 2009. In Light at the Edge of the World: A Journey through the Realm of Vanishing Cultures (2002, Washington, DC: National Geographic), he points to "the desert peoples of Kenya -- Turkana and Boran, Rendille, Samburu, Ariaal, and Gabra" -- as examples of endangered cultures. Wade Davis quotes anthropologist Daniel Maybury-Lewis in saying, “Too often we meddle with lives we barely understand.” (p. 122)

Nigel Pavitt urges financial and material support for the culture’s physical survival, emphasizing the Samburus’ need for help in creating infrastructure for basic needs such as water supply while respecting the culture’s integrity. Help in the area of education seems a more complex matter. Pavitt states his belief that the moran will become a thing of the past as more boys attend school. And, yet, are all children entitled to an education? If so, how do American educators offer a hand with full respect for the culture?