Initial impressions: Unveiling the myths - Methodological Reflections

2.3 Methodological Reflections

2.3.1.2 Initial impressions: Unveiling the myths

Irrespective of the setting, the purpose of social research is generally to enable the researcher see beyond the ordinary in order to arrive at a new understanding of social life (Strauss and Corbin, 1998: 8). However, it is often the case that scientific analyses begin with a certain preliminary observation, experience and conceptualisation. In this section, the main objective is not only to discuss some of the myths and stereotypes that I was confronted with but perhaps more importantly, to discuss methods through which myths could be unveiled. The first challenge was to see whether common stereotypes corresponded with the actual daily practices. In addition, I had to overcome my own personal biases as a member of one of the ethnic groups being studied.

My perspective of the Maasai had been shaped by a number of factors. I grew up about 30 kilometres away from the Ukambani-Maasailand border (Nairobi-Mombasa railway line) but it was not until 1980, at the age of 13, that I saw a „Maasai‟ for the first time. I had been sent by my mother to buy kerosene at the Shell service station in Kiboko, which lies along Mombasa Road. It was at this time that I saw Maasai men and women rooming around the market centre. Their shuka (loin-cloth) dressing style and physical appearance (e.g. their pierced earlobes), gaps in the lower teeth, clean shaven women, men holding clubs and with swords hanging from the abdomen and relatively taller made them stand out among the more dominant Kamba population. My childhood friend, then 15, and who had been to Kiboko before (his father was a barber there), asked me whether I had seen “the Maasai” before.

When I told him that I had not, I recall him telling me they are “very bad people” and that

“they kill the Kamba”. I had heard about fierceness of the Maasai before but we disagreed on their might because my grandfather used to narrate to us how the Maasai used to lose interethnic battles whenever they took on the Kamba. We decided to consult his father, who, to my disappointment, confirmed what his son (my friend) had said. Having migrated from Kilungu where contact with the Maasai has been historically more intense than where my parents had migrated from, my friend‟s father told me that he had not expected me to have a correct impression on the issue. In the latter part of 1999 and much of 2000, some 20 years later, I was to realise that Kamba opinions about the Maasai are just as diverse, contradictory

and uncoordinated. Interviewing an old Kamba man (Kyuli) in May 2000, he told me that he could not “recall” an incident where the Maasai defeated the Kamba in battle. I raised the story that I had been given in 1980. His response was that “as small boys, it would have been boring to tell you that the Maasai are weak (laughs), I think he (my friend‟s father) wanted you to admire them and also keep off, not to go near them”. Strauss and Corbin argue that early concepts often provide a departure point from which to begin data collection but warn that once data collection begins, initial conceptions should be gradually discarded as this could hinder discovery (1998: 205).

Of all the strategies that were adopted to assemble reliable data (e.g. participant observation, relating what was said and actual action and using different sources of data) time was the most significant factor. In a number of occasions, and owing to my prolonged stay in the field, respondents would retract some things they had told me earlier either after having a better understanding of my research activities or after realising that spending more time in the area had yielded information that had „falsified‟ what they had said. Regarding an incident where the Maasai were involved in an armed conflict with the Kamba at the Simba trading centre in February 1999, the chairman of the centre had given me an account that conflicted with what I gathered from other sources. Meeting me two months after our first interview, he asked me to see him later “for some clarifications”. When I met him, he said: “Young man, do you know there are things we tell passers-by, we are on the main road, people keep on asking questions, you cannot tell them everything...I did not know that you were going to be around that long”

(Makonyi, 21/06/2000). This partly touches on one of the basic things in ethnographic research, namely that actors may not share with outside investigators what they share among themselves (Charmaz and Mitchell, 2001: 163).

As I conducted fieldwork, I would form certain initial impressions which changed as more insights emerged. I must admit that when I began fieldwork in Maasailand, homesteads looked rather similar, people appeared more or less dressed the same way and it was difficult to tell who enjoyed what status, wielded what power, could influence what or could be a potential informant. From what started as a fairly „homogenous‟ group, I was to find out that the Maasai were not only such a socially differentiated group but even antagonistic. Whatever was to emerge as „differences‟ therefore between the „Kamba‟ and the „Maasai‟ had to be treated with lots of caution as the lines of distinction got thinner as overlaps emerged. There were many things that I surmised to hold only to be confronted with other dimensions in the course of the study. I was, for instance, told repeatedly that the Kamba and the Maasai are

“enemies” although day-to-day activities appeared rather harmonious and reciprocal. Asking a

Kamba what he had to say about the Maasai, he quipped: “You know the Kamba and the Maasai are enemies”. As a follow up, I asked him, “could you please tell me why they are enemies”? He said: “You are Kamba, if you do not know, how am I supposed to know”. Apart from equating group membership to shared knowledge, his reluctance to clarify revealed not only the fluidity of such claims but also how actors can mislead investigators. Asking the same question to different actors led to a more integrative position. It also helped talking to

„outsiders‟ who had stayed in these areas for considerable time to take me through what they had to go through themselves.

I had to devise ways of establishing how differences as well as notions of commonality were constructed and made sense of. What did the Kamba mean, for example, when they said that they were more “modernised” than their counterparts, the Maasai. I found it misleading, to assume that the Kamba „traditional‟ systems had been broken down. This had to be seen in relative terms. In fact, Ndolo (1989) had shown that the Kamba „lagged behind‟ other groups like the Kikuyu and the Luhya in the adoption of western education and Christianity.

Compared to the Maasai however, they were „better off‟. Maasai culture has had stronger elements of persistence and resilience; less watered down compared to the Kamba.

I had to reckon with the fact that Maasai „traditional‟ appearances were often deceptive. Their traditional dress could deceive a newcomer to make the assumption that such dressing styles represented illiterate and „rural-based‟ populations. An American researcher I met in Kajiado noted that making “negative” comments about the Maasai in English assuming that no one around him would comprehend what he said had landed him into “trouble.” Incidentally, this applied for the Maasai „elite‟ too. I had to get accustomed to the fact that the lean, tall youth in full traditional regalia including a club and a sword and with dusty legs, could be a university student on holiday or somebody who has never been to school. The Kamba used to claim that these similarities in dress and appearance had led to loss of cattle as raiders would be hardly distinguishable from the rest when paraded by police for identification. But even in “uniform”, there were some outstanding distinctions. The „educated‟ ones tended to ignore some pieces of attire, associated rather closely, were more inquisitive and spent most of their time in the market centres. More details on physical appearances are provided in chapter three.

2.3.1.3 Situating the study: Description of the site

Let me start by presenting the wider context within which this study was conducted. The study was carried out at a time when Kenya was in a deep economic crisis following the suspension of World Bank and IMF financial support and a declining tourism sector that had

not recovered after the ethnic clashes of 1997 that took place in and around the historical town of Mombasa. Suspension of aid was based on accusations of bad governance, poor human rights record, a bloated civil service, corruption and failure of the government to move fast enough in the privatisation of loss making state corporations (parastatals). The structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) prescribed by the World Bank over the years had seen drastic reductions in the financing of education and health services.³⁸ The cost-sharing policy introduced in government health facilities and in schools had led to reduced access to health care (with many resorting to herbal medicine) and falling school attendance respectively.³⁹ An education officer⁴⁰ in Kajiado district noted that rising costs in education had worked against government efforts to encourage the Maasai to send their children to school. He noted that the number of Maasai girls dropping out of school and married off had increased, while fathers

“conveniently” claimed that they could not afford to keep them in school. Local administrators also said that “petty crimes” (e.g. theft of cattle, sheep and goats) had increased along the Makueni-Kajiado boundary. This was particularly attributed to “idle young men”

(some school drop outs) who could not find other means of generating income. Although these thefts were not only interethnic but also intra, they were mainly portrayed as

“intertribal”. In general, the worsening economic situation in Kenya was compounded by the re-ethnicisation of the political sphere as leaders mobilised their ethnic groups in preparation for the “Moi succession”.⁴¹ The instrumentalisation of ethnicity had taken root in the early 1990‟s during the debates that led to the re-introduction of a multiparty system of government.

The study was also carried out through a period of drastic climatic and seasonal change;

starting with harvests and abundant pastures to a time of drought and famine. The infamous El Nino heavy rains of 1997/98 that swept through much of East Africa were double edged, destroying many infrastructural establishments but resulting in bumper harvests. The 1999 period therefore was a time of plenty, farmers had food stocks while cattle keepers had pastures and water. As we moved to 2000, rains failed and the fortunes were gradually overturned, there was rampant food and water shortages, decimated pastures and enormous livestock losses. Nevertheless, the people in the study areas are no strangers to these shifts but each time they occur, strategies of survival are realigned, modes of exchange between the

38 With few exceptions, this has been the same story in many African countries. In Zambia for instance, in view of the deteriorating living conditions under SAPs, the people renamed the acronym “Strangling African People”, accusing the Bretton Woods institutions of marginalising African countries and trapping them in a cycle of dependency and underdevelopment.

39 The new coalition government, which took over from Moi after the 2002 elections, re-introduced free primary school education.

40 A Kenya Union of Teachers (KNUT) official.

41 President Moi, who ruled Kenya for 24 years, stepped down in 2002.

groups are altered and intensified and there are more incidences of ethnic conflict as groups compete for scarce resources. There was movement of Maasai cattle into Ukambani and other parts of Maasailand while both groups relied more and more on the market for the provision of foodstuffs. But in all this misery, there were inherent signs of resilience. It was also a time when the Maasai not only in Kenya but also in the neighbouring Tanzania continued to press for ancestral land rights in the wake of diminishing grazing areas.

The study was conducted in Makueni and Kajiado districts of Kenya (see map below). The Kamba and the Maasai live in different districts but it is mainly along the shared border where, like all interface analyses, the examination of interethnic interaction is particularly intense, dynamic and unpredictable. Apart from droughts that threaten the Maasai economic base through livestock losses, they are also confronted by a serious health crisis.

By going through the records and his own experience, the clinical officer at the Simba Health Centre did associate certain infections to lifestyles, housing, cultural practices etc. He identified common infections like Brucellosis, which he associated with inadequately cooked meat or organs like kidneys and liver that are also eaten raw. He attributed Tuberculosis to the limited ventilation in Maasai huts, which eases transmission. Tuberculosis has also been identified as one of the commonest opportunistic diseases among patients with the AIDS virus (HIV). The clinical officer also identified sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) which he attributed to “promiscuity”, a common stereotype of the Maasai. There is also typhoid which was attributed to contaminated water sources, while eye infections were associated with cross-infections through flies. But, as a prophylactic against diseases, the drinking of milk however helps to keep illnesses at bay. International NGOs particularly AMREF and bilateral organisations like the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) have been active in improving the health related problems in Kajiado through safer water supply, primary health care campaigns and setting up of health facilities as well as support for the existing ones. A Maasai pastoralist told me: “There are things which we are also reviewing ourselves like dirisa ⁴²(windows) and sleeping with women. To say the truth, sex is not a problem to a grown up Maasai man!...now we hear of this disease (AIDS) and we are concerned…they say some of the people who are dying now die because of it and it is true... people are dying at a faster rate these days” (Nkari, 18/05/2000). The challenge has been to transmit AIDS messages in such a way that campaigners are not seen as necessarily condemning Maasai sexual practices but rather sharing information on the deadly virus. Another issue has been to

42 Corrupted Swahili word dirisha. The Kamba call a window ndilisya, also a loan word from the Swahili language.

create awareness in an environment where AIDS has become just one among many other life-threatening conditions.

Below are two maps showing the location of Kajiado and Makueni districts and the specific area of study respectively.

Map 1. The administrative and „ethnic‟ districts of Kenya

Source: Republic of Kenya, 1997. Kajiado district is shaded, and adjacent to it is Makueni district. The Maasai inhabit Kajiado, Narok and Trans Mara districts while the Kamba native districts are Makueni, Machakos, Kitui and Mwingi.

Map 2. The area of study

This map was sketched by a „local‟ cartographer. Note the railway line that marks the political border between Maasailand and Ukambani and the trading centres along the line, particularly Sultan Hamud, Emali, Simba, Kiboko and Makindu which feature prominently in the study. Note also other places like Chyulu, Oloitokitok (Loitokitok) and Mashuru.

Both districts receive inadequate rainfall and are categorised as semi-arid. Kajiado and Makueni are food-deficit areas, often relying on the state and charitable organisations for the provision of foodstuffs during prolonged droughts. Sharing harsh climatic conditions, infuses a sense of commonality among the Kamba and the Maasai. The Kenya Human Development Report,⁴³ released by the University of Nairobi in May 2002, says that the most vulnerable and poor groups in Kenya are pastoralists (e.g. the Maasai) and peasant agriculturalists (e.g.

the Kamba). The theme of commonality will be discussed in greater detail in chapter four.

Apart from these notions of sameness based on aridity and vulnerability, Maasailand and Ukambani are paradoxically areas with gross disparities. The table below shows the distribution of livestock.

Table 1: Livestock production (1995)

Makueni(Ukambani) Kajiado(Maasailand)

Cattle 258,700 822,401 Sheep 116,900 874,469 Goats 286,000 853,677 Poultry 611,640 398,429

Source: District development plans of Makueni and Kajiado, 1997.⁴⁴

The table shows that Kajiado has an extremely high concentration of cattle, sheep and goats.

Just to know how big this disparity is, one has to bear in mind that Makueni has twice the human population of Kajiado. But on the other hand, Kajiado is almost three times the size of Makueni.⁴⁵ On the other hand, it is rather conspicuous though that when it comes to poultry, Kajiado lags behind. The explanation is that traditionally, the Maasai usually neither keep, eat nor like chicken (elukunku), which they equate to „birds‟(mtunyi). Those who keep poultry in Kajiado therefore are either the „progressive‟ Maasai or migrant populations, particularly the Kamba and the Kikuyu. In Ukambani, it is taken as great honour by visitors if a chicken is slaughtered for them. Chicken is a delicacy reserved for very special occasions like weddings

43 See The Daily Nation, Friday, 3. May 2002.

44 Compared to Kajiado, Makueni figures appear rounded up.

45 Kajiado measures 21,105 square kilometres compared to Makueni‟s 7,440. In terms of cattle population per square kilometre, Kajiado has 39 cattle while Makueni has 34 cattle. In terms of surface area therefore, the disparity is small.

or fund raising ceremonies for the „guests of honour‟. Otherwise, chicken are kept as alternative sources of income sold to meet the daily monetary needs (e.g. to buy sugar, cooking fat or soap). Besides, with limited land acreage in Ukambani, keeping chicken is preferred because they require little space. In addition, unlike cattle, sheep and goats, their prices are more stable and they are easier to feed regardless of the season. What is more, among the Kamba, ownership of chicken is used as a benchmark upon which one could determine how „badly-off‟ a household is. In other words, it is the minimum that a family should own. A „very poor‟ person is often said to be one who “does not even own a chicken”.

Among the Maasai, one is regarded that poor if he does not own any cattle although that is said to have been a long bias expressed by the cattle-owning section of the Maasai, against gatherers or iltorrobo and those who tilled the land, the ilmeek (Spear, 1993: 4). This variation should not be construed to mean that the Maasai had „higher‟ standards in setting the

„poverty line‟. These „limits‟ have to be understood within each group‟s social, cultural and economic milieu. For instance, a Kamba household could „function‟ normally without any cattle. That would be inconceivable among the Maasai. This is not to say that cattle have no significance among the Kamba. In fact, Ndolo shows that even during the colonial period, the semi-pastoral nature of the Kamba economy diversified their income base making them more averse to wage-labour compared to the Kikuyu who occupied more arable land (1989: 117).

Apart from the distribution of livestock, another attribute of distinction is polygyny. This is more common among the Maasai. According to the Kenya Welfare Monitoring Survey III published in May 1996, 8.6% of all married men in Kajiado (Maasailand) were polygynous (had more than one wife) compared to 1.7% in Makueni. As noted earlier, the Kajiado figures

In document In spite of difference : making sense of the coexistence between the Kamba and the Maasai peoples of Kenya (Page 37-46)