Herding is the most physical practice of the Maasai’s mobile identity. It is as much a cultural expression of mobility as it is a survival and livelihood strategy. Most of life is spent outside the home and, as discussed in the previous chapter, only wealthy families will make basic investments in shelter; even if most bomas are not transient elements, but are instead permanent residences, they are constructed based on
customary techniques using cow dung, mud and sticks.35 Herding is a mental exercise as much as it is a physical one. For instance, in Zen Buddhism, (ox)-herding is
recognized as a spiritual act of meditation and discipline.36 Maasai believe that cattle were given to them by Engai and that cattle have divine elements; therefore, herding has, aside from an economic reasoning, a spiritual and disciplined nature. Although challenged by the conservation doctrine that Maasai land use constitutes
‘overgrazing’, My Maasai research participants strongly believe that herding respects nature’s bylaws. Robin Reid (2012), a rangeland ecologist, supports this view in her in-depth report on how the engineering of protected areas, such as the NCA, have failed by excluding the original engineers of these areas (pastoralists) from designing their own conservation schemes. Her work emphasizes how pastoralism is not just
34 Tsing’s (2012) essay, however, in which she interweaves the history of mankind with the life of
fungi, is an eloquent answer to the call by Kirksey and Helmreich (2010).
35 See Loserian’s mothers’ hut versus the large chicken house described in the last paragraphs of
Chapter 2.
compatible with wildlife, but also how pastoralists have co-created ecologies together with wildlife, and how pastoralism and biodiversity go hand-in-hand.
Pastoral land use still takes up some 25% of the world’s land mass (Blench, 2001), yet a certain area of land is only utilised for a limited time, allowing for other modes of production or other forms of life or wildlife activity to take place when herds are elsewhere. Herding allows for overlapping geographies as it does not require territorial exclusivity. However, herding practices are today strongly influenced by political constraints. Mobile people are a lot harder to track, to ‘herd’ and to control than people who are bound to cities or Ujamaa villages. On this note, Foucault (1978) writes that one cannot govern over a territory, state or political structure; one can only govern over people. The Tanzanian state, and before it the colonial powers, have, as discussed in the introduction, sought to immobilize mobile people through various methods of the deprivation of land rights and the damaging of their reputations by representing their physical mobility as representative of a ‘backward’ outlook on life and herding as an outdated way of securing livelihood.
Ngorongoro presents an exceptional variety of flora and fauna, from dense highland forests to arid drylands, short grass savannahs, bushlands, steeply ascending mountains, craters, ravines and alkaline lakes. The topography can alter dramatically, even over a walking distance of just a few minutes. Herders need a vast knowledge of the landscape to make adequate herding decisions. In Chapter 3, the use of pleasure walks as a way to gain this knowledge was explored, a process that blurs leisure and work through consuming the landscape whilst on foot. Herding is the strongest
manifestation of the Maasai’s desire to be mobile. The deep and instinctive knowledge of land and territory, taught from a very young age, combined with the human
component of herding as a technology, is the foundation for its holistic implementation.
If herding is defined and understood as the technology of mobile animal husbandry (Moran, 2006), does understanding the herder, as Dyson-Hudson (1972) urges, then become easier? Herding is the coordination of a set of techniques aimed at bringing animals together in a group, of looking after and of controlling livestock such as cattle, goats, sheep or reindeer. The technology of herding is an inherently mobile act. Herding is aided by an expanding number of technologies, aimed at coordinating, simplifying, diversifying and increasing the economic productivity of the activity. In Maasailand, the technologies that permeate herding include the age-set system, the homestead as a mooring, the herder, the mobile phone and M-pesa. While herding has become infused with newer technologies, such as the mobile phone and M-pesa, it also borrows from a history of technologies (the age set system and the mooring) and the user (the herder).
Herding is a body of knowledge, a technology derived from sets of practices that are both time-tested and innovative. Its two main resources are manual labour and land. What is necessary for successful herding is, thus, the human component, the ability to exercise control over the animal and the ability to read nature and
communicate with livestock. As such, herding may be the most integral technology in Maasai society: the skills, the time, the monetary investments and strategic decisions in defending or expanding territory all revolve around ensuring the herds’ welfare . The age-set system is integral to how herding is organised, as described in the introduction, children tend to small livestock and even cattle, whilst warriors are in charge of daily herding practices. Elders take on managerial decisions and women tend to young or sick livestock. As this chapter shows, the age-set system is one out of
many elements supplemented by outsourced herding, veterinarians and increased fragmentation of herds (splitting herds up into different areas to reduce risk in terms of disease or drought).
Land access for herding has been largely reduced by the government and disenfranchisements are common on behalf of wildlife conservation efforts or international stakeholders, such as members of the Dubai royal family.37 In effect, a cattle-less class of Maasai is beginning to emerge and the wedge between those who have large herds and those who own smaller herds is increasing. Many cattle-less and poor young Maasai venture into cities or to the coast to work either as askaris (guards) or in tourism. With the emergence of a Maasai elite (elite also to mainstream
Tanzanian society), herding is also becoming a salaried profession in which Maasai opt for careers in cities to maintain their bonds to Maasailand by keeping livestock. The increased Maasai commitment to formal education, combined with government and NGO efforts to support young Maasai through to university, has aided in creating these elites. For my key research participants, the employees of the Pastoralist
Council, education was so important that spotting a child by the roadside at school time would lead to suspending of their activities and a ‘hunt’ for the parents to talk these into sending their children to school.
Interviews with elders like Francis and the retired politician (see 3.3.), show how education is regarded by many as a cultural survival strategy, the educated Maasai no longer shunned Hodgson (1999), interviewed elders in the 1990s, most of which approve ‘the power of the pen’. With the emergence of ‘modern Maasai’ or
37http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-22155538. Dubai-owned OBC controls parts of Loliondo and
seek to incorporate more into their ‘wildlife corridor’, hunting grounds to which the Maasai would have no grazing rights. The company was registered by the U.A.E deputy defense minister, Brigadier Mohamed Abdul Rahim Al Ali. http://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/13/opinion/the-brigadier-sshooting-
ormeek who keep cattle, the opportunity for young impoverished Maasai (and non-
Maasai who are increasingly trusted to herd) to work as professional herders is an increasingly lucrative alternative to venturing East to Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar for tourism, also ensuring that they will not be branded ormeek by other Maasai and may manage to save enough to herd their own livestock. For these young men, as for other many other Maasai, Mobile technologies are integral to the organization of herds during times of political, societal and ecologic transformation, both exogenous and
internal, in Maasailand. In addition, they facilitate or reinforce the system of cattle- lessness by enabling ‘herding-by-phone’ with professional herders who own little or no cattle and herd on behalf of wealthier, often salaried cattle owners. Herd owners need to exercise a great deal of social control and coordination of this labour to ensure that their cattle are well taken care of and are herded well.
Despite government campaigns against pastoralism, herding is so prevalent that the majority of the Tanzanian population relies on pastoralists for milk and meat produce (Kipury, 2005). Studies have shown that nomadic pastoralism is superior to ranching and other exogenous production systems in tropical and semi-arid rangeland management (Homewood, 1999; Galaty et al., 1994). Regardless of these findings, Tanzanian regulations favour sedentary systems. Development organizations have long supported the belief that pastoralism is not compatible with the eco-system and must be replaced by other production modes because it places too much stress on grasslands and encourages human-wildlife conflict. In my fieldwork, I have found that well-funded conservation organizations, often backed by aid agencies such as the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) continue advising the Tanzanian government to diminish nomadic herding opportunities.
I did most of my fieldwork on herding walking with Sululu, a car and truck mechanic who owns a herd of over 100 cattle. My impressions of herding and understanding of the Maasai’s intimate relation to land and cattle formed as I
wandered with Sululu, his family and their livestock. Although a lot of our interaction was characterised by silence, as he is not one to speak much, the wandering conveyed much of the existential experience of herding. Eventually, I was given a calf by Sululu (partly as a joke, partly as a sign of appreciation), she grew into a healthy milk cow.
He looked angry, strong and dangerous. His position in the driver’s seat giving him power over the group. Like a true bully, he’d slow down to pick up hitchhikers only to speed up whenever their faces lit up when they thought they’d gotten lucky. Behind the angry face and the language barrier, a
humanitarian, a devout Catholic, a father and a generous person was hidden. So I was told, and so I would discover in the months that followed.
Fieldnotes, 12 May 2013
My first impression of Sululu, as an angry dangerous person with whom one better not mess, was not shared by the members of the Maasai community. Friends and acquaintances of mine who came to visit did appear to share this view, but to the Maasai of Ngorongoro, Sululu was a very important and integral individual. Sululu’s cattle, Sululu’s boma, Sululu’s church (as he is the chief coordinator of the Catholic Church), Sululu’s Land Cruiser. Sululu had many stories, such as the helicopter crash, to which he was the first respondent, or the nuns in the plane crash, or the drunk babu who was trodden upon by an elephant, or the dead bodies he had to dispose of in the bush.38
38 Traditionally, only the most important community members are buried and most deceased people are
Sululu went to primary school and then trained as mechanic/truck driver. For the first 6 weeks, I encountered Sululu on nearly a daily basis he didn’t speak a word of English; however, he starts speaking when the others are not around. Has many cows, he keeps some cows with his brothers in ‘Sululu village’ but also outside the cultural boma before Oldupai– another near-by resident working at the lodge (Filipo) tells me only the poor Maasai work at the cultural boma, he has his goats at the boma. Lives in Oilorobi. It seems like many keep their livestock scattered all throughout the area. The
reminiscence of nomadism. A half-brother works there, his English is good, the same kind as Joseph, the Americanised accent one can mistake for Nigerian English. Sululu brings his son along and we check on the young cattle, 47 cattle, between 4 and 6 months. Sululu points to 6 speckled cows, of 6 month of age, and tells me that one is ‘Baby Jesska’. Later I fail at milking a goat in the boma, an outpost, with two houses. We drive a few kilometers back towards the crater and stop to walk a ravine and up a hill to his grown up cattle. Mama and Father Jesska are pointed out. Some 200 cattle are herded by a warrior, the Sululu cattle marked with two stripes on their right hips, three smaller ones on their front legs. It feels as though cattle is the most important thing on earth. Later at catholic mass, women wearing their finest jewellery and bright clean shukas singing Maasai versions of Christian songs, some I recognise from the traditional soundtrack playing from the Docomo Mp3 in the land cruiser.
Fieldnotes, 12 May 2013
Sululu is the driver and mechanic of a government-sponsored Maasai organisation. Like many Maasai with a salaried job or a career outside of taking care of
cattleherding, he has a multi-tier herd management technique involving several stakeholders both within and outside of the family. In addition, different areas within the NCA will host cattle at different seasons of the year. Cattle is transferred upwards towards grazing lands near the Crater rim in the dry season and down towards the plains near Oldupai Gorge39 when the wet season sets in. There is also a separation of cattle and smaller livestock into a cattle pen for the youngest cattle who are taken inside at night. Sululu and his three brothers, one of whom is a veterinarian, owns a
39 It is also known as Olduvai Gorge. Pressure from Maasai indigenous rights groups has resulted in
herd of about 200 cattle (Sululu owning around 100 of them). This makes the herd one of the more sizeable ones in the NCA. All of the brothers are elders; this means that none of them participate in herding routines on a daily basis. Their cattle are herded together with those owned by other Maasai, but the cows from Sululu’s family are distinguished through unique brandings; these brandings consist of two stripes burnt into each cow’s hips. He says that he could recognize them from afar without even having to look at the branding. Brandings are useful when disputes over ownership arise that need resolution, for instance when cattle gets taken, rather than for an individual to distinguish his own cattle.
The elders’ role lies in making strategic decisions regarding the herd and these tasks are split into practical management, veterinary services and executive decision- making regarding grazing and transactions. Herding is managed by warrior half- brothers, hired herders and, occasionally, Sululu’s 12-year-old-son or other children in the family. A female cousin manages the small livestock at a boma near Oldupai. Grazing lands near this boma are utilised during the medium and dry seasons. On the weekends, the brothers will supervise the cattle, give injections where necessary or take other decisions regarding sick cattle. An important purpose of the age-set system is to structure and allocate the tasks of herding. Young boys, such as Sululu’s son, sometimes toddlers even, are sent out to watch over sheep and goats. Warriors take on the most enduring tasks of herding, spotting new grazing grounds, moving cattle over vast distances. Elders make strategic decisions and have the final say in managing the herds. Women (they are not formally part of age sets) take care of small livestock, including young cattle. Sululu rarely intervenes physically, leaving most of the actual work to the others. Driving the land cruiser seems to give him more status than the brother who studied veterinary science at university. In dealing with the political
realities and the opportunities arising from participating in the ‘salaried economy’, roles are far more complex and diverse.