‘It’s our land and it belongs to us’ – Africans fight for land seized during colonial era
21/08/2007 | africa
Deborah Gabriel
We Africans, we are the ones with the right to claim for the land…it is our land and it belongs to us. The seizure of prime land in Kenya by white settlers taken during the colonial era and the land grabbing which occurred post independence by powerful black elites are responsible for abject poverty among indigenous and nomadic communities in Kenya today.
The story of the poverty caused by land dispossession, abuse of local workers by ranch owners, harassment, intimidation and other human rights violations are told in a new documentary called Stolen Heritage: Land, Poverty and the Legacy of British Colonial Rule in Kenya, released by human rights organization Imani Development Ltd.
Millions of acres of prime land was seized in Kenya during the colonial era and sold to white settlers for next to nothing. Most of the land in the Lakipia District, an area of about 2.5 million acres once belonged to the Maasai. The name Lakipia is in fact the name of a Maasai clan.
During the colonial war in the 1950s when many black Africans resisted colonial oppression, aside from the well-publicised Mau Mau resistance, the Maasai also fought vigorously to preserve their way of life and when other ethnic groups were recruited to fight on the side of the British, many of them found themselves fighting against powerful Maasai warriors.
Many Maasai also fled to southern parts of Kenya to avoid British aggression and to avoid paying taxes that the British colonial administration imposed to fund the expansion of the white colonies. Today, of the 1 million Maasai that used to occupy the Lakipia Plateau, around 30,000 remain in the region. However, 65 per cent of the land that once belonged to the Maasai is today still occupied by whites, 44 years after independence.
Confined to small arid areas, the Maasai have insufficient land for grazing and are deprived of their pastoralist way of life. They are forced to work for very low wages – in some instances less than 50 pence per day, doing menial labour on ranches, some of which run wildlife safaris, flower farms and so-called ‘conservation’ units. Conditions inside the ranches are extremely poor with mainly men confined to small living spaces with no toilet facilities and separated from their families who are not allowed inside the ranches which are bordered by electric fences.
Mali Ntanare Ole Kaunga, Director of IMPACT, an African trust featured in the documentary and joint partner in its production said: “The poverty experienced by nomadic communities in Kenya, particularly the Maasai, is a direct result of the colonial legacy.”
The issue of human rights and the plight of indigenous communities in Kenya was documented in a detailed report in December 2006 by the United Nations Special Rapporteur. However, the Kenyan government refuses even to acknowledge the status of many ethnic groups as being indigenous peoples.
Fatuma, Ibrahim Ali, Vice Chair of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said that the Kenyan government had failed to address the issue of land dispossession. The organization produced a publication last December called: Unjust Enrichment: The Making of Land Grabbing Millionaires and is keen to see reparations instituted, but said that the Kenyan government is avoiding the issue.
One of the communities featured in the documentary are the Lekiji community, a mixed community of around 600 Maasai, Kikuyu, Samburu, Rendille, Turkanas and Somalis, who but for the threats and harassment they are receiving from owners of the nearby ranch, would be a peaceful community.
“The owners of the ranch are trying to chase us away…they are using money to harass us,” said Francis Asike, community spokesperson. The Lekiji community are seeking international support to help pay legal costs as they have in their possession a document proving that the land was given to them by a previous owner of the Segera ranch.
“We Africans, we are the ones with the right to claim for the land…it is our land and it belongs to us,” he said.
To watch a three and a half minute trailer of the documentary please use the link below. Imani Development Ltd is a non-profit organization dedicated to human rights advocacy and community empowerment. For further information use the link below.
Labels: BLACK BRITAIN, KENYA, LAND REFORM
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Do Pan African leaders view Africa with western eyes?
AU Chair President John Kuffor of Ghana
Their summit is predicated on a mis-comprehended and misrepresented idea of democracy...
Almost all participants of the 2007 Pan-African Summit on Political Determination will see Africa with western eyes; the unavoidable legacy of their apparent western education…writes Tony Ryan from Australia. Their summit is predicated on a mis-comprehended and misrepresented idea of democracy; one bequeathed to them by globalist powers who have no intention of promoting self-determination at all; but merely the bankers' bloc colonialism, administered through puppet governments and NGOs.
One of the few true definitions of democracy is contained in The Green Book, which originally came from Africa. However, as the author is an Arab, the book is not even read by the organisers of this summit, nor apparently, by it's "leaders"; or it has been read, and because it presents the original ancient non-hierarchical form of power to the people and does away with rulers, it is deliberately kept away from those good people who may attend such summits
Next time, they won't need to attend a summit talk-shop but will instead attend working People's Congresses that follow with real action. The appropriateness of these comments and the attached letter is also based upon popular misrepresentation of so-called Western culture, language and history; a destructive 'misrepresentation' upon which we can validly present a critique. The letter follows:
Dear Summit Participants,
Whilst it is not fashionable to not dismiss out of hand any contribution by a white person, especially one from a nation so popularly regarded as racist as Australia, eventually people of integrity will realise that colour of skin is irrelevant and that the true determinants are culture, politico-economic motivation and integrity which matches their own. In my case, the determining axioms are unequivocally democracy, equal rights and equal opportunity for every man, woman and child. Yet none of these principles are manifestly recognised anywhere in the world today. There are no democracies and criticism of western democracies is invalid. Being aware of this reality is important whilst the words democracy, freedom and unity are being bandied about by people who have no idea what they really entail. Speeches by Bush, Blair, Howard and Olmert come to mind.
As I see it, African unity and democracy have been proselytised by western educated Africans, unaware that the seeds of colonialism and fascism have been sowed deep within their souls. Imperial Britain, and since WWIII, the United States, were not foolish enough to teach rebellion- only puppetry. Nevertheless, I am sure that, were there the opportunity, the majority of current-crop African leaders and activists who might read this, would respond by positioning me on a not necessarily well-honed but certainly vertical assegai; with the words "butt out."
Yet a moment's reflection would remind all Africans that some yet to be identified factor is responsible for a record of appalling failure of Pan-African advancement. More to the point, it is going backwards. Much-condemned western government's neo-colonialism is a problem for sure, but this simply does not stack up as even a major cause, in spite of popular lashing out by the Mugabe's of this world. And in spite of heroic good intentions, neither Mbeki nor Mandela understood people power and democracy, believing the people should follow leaders.
Many anguished Africans have wondered privately if peace and democracy are not endemically alien to the African psyche. I am here to refute this notion as utterly unsupported by evidence, and contra-indicated by the very evident pattern of human evolution; and where it is obviously headed. Personally, I would also regard it as illogical that Africans, the source of the greatest music and dance humanity has created, could conceivably be otherwise irrelevant. Such thoughts are nonsensical. Anyway, more prosaically, other parts of the world have identical problems, including those places exclusively inhabited by whites. No. I can see other infinitely more convincing reasons for a century of African failure.
The World Bank - one of the agents of neo-colonialism
No nation which submits to the will of the World Trade Organisation, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund or the Bank of International Settlements, will ever know prosperity or peace.
But rather than attempt to pre-empt African thought and conclusions, may I simply make some observations which filtered to the surface during forty years of research into ancient democratic cultures, and my own immersion in tribal and other cultures; and decades of active engagement in government, business and politics:
• That in spite of current beliefs, shaped as a result of globalist-manipulated social sciences; the politics of left and right are a product of propaganda; twisting the 1790 origin. In fact, all politics can be reduced to two positions: government by the people and government by representation. Government by the people is government by electoral consensus (ie government of the people, by the people, for the people). In direct contrast, government by representation is any form of government wherein policy is shaped by a leader, or plutocracy, or theocracy, or oligarchy or variant therein. The ultimate outcome will always be the same, regardless of whether we elect our dictatorship or it is imposed on us. By electing someone to do our thinking for us, all we do is delay the inevitable, which is poverty, slavery, oppression, torture, hegemony, war, and ritual or arbitrary execution.
• No democratic culture (flat power, as opposed to the power pyramid) ever practiced any of the above-listed scourges.
• No democracy exists today.
• No nation which submits to the will of the World Trade Organisation, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund or the Bank of International Settlements, will ever know prosperity or peace. For these organisations are the contemporary agents of colonialism (of which, I might add, the Australian people, too, are victims). Do not allow this enemy to divide us and rule.
• The only legitimate function of voting in a genuine democracy is as a measuring device to determine the current extent of emerging consensus. The objective is informed and documented consensus, preferably above 90 per cent and in fact not difficult to achieve.
• The only determining factor in evolution of consensus is relevant information. The more information the community gains access to, the higher the extent of consensus. Conversely, division within a community is invariably caused by absence of relevant information; which is usually represented by imposed decision-making.
• A majority decision of 51 per cent is the antonym of democracy. 51 per cent demonstrates absolute division in the community, not a desirable position at all, and most certainly not one from which action should flow, unless one is deliberately precipitating civil war.
• In structural terms, the opposite of a consensus democracy, is a hierarchical society.
All hierarchies are imposed and no hierarchy is natural to human beings. That is not to say that some individuals do not achieve more than others. Some of us have benefited from more advantageous nurturing environments, which obligate us to contribute more to the community. Others were born with the world against them and so can contribute little. This is not their fault. So it is, that in a peaceful and prosperous society, we march forward shoulder to shoulder; neither leading, nor following.
Finally, may I offer the unsolicited observation that, until Africa replaces European-imposed colonial borders, with tribal/language demarcations (democratically intra-national if necessary), there will never be peace in Africa.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. If this content is unacceptable, please fold it away and read it in another decade. It may make more sense then. That being the case, I probably won't be around, so for elaboration, the first step is the book Delusions of Democracy, ISBN 1-9210-0517-3
Kind wishes for the Summit, and for a prosperous and peaceful Africa. I know it is achievable, just as I know that Africa could become the cradle of democracy for the world of the future.
The article is reprinted with kind permission from the author, Tony Ryan. It was first published on Mathaba.Net on 13/6/07. URL http://mathaba.net/
Labels: BLACK BRITAIN, PANAFRICANISM
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