The beginning of time? Evidence for catastrophic drought in Baringo in the early nineteenth century

New developments in the collection of palaeo-data over the past two decades have transformed our understanding of climate and environmental history in eastern Africa. This article utilises instrumental and proxy evidence of historical lake-level fluctuations from Baringo and Bogoria, along with other Rift Valley lakes, to document the timing and magnitude of hydroclimate variability at decadal to century time scales since 1750. These data allow us to construct a record of past climate variation not only for the Baringo basin proper, but also across a sizable portion of central and northern Kenya. This record is then set alongside historical evidence, from oral histories gathered amongst the peoples of northern Kenya and the Rift Valley and from contemporary observations recorded by travellers through the region, to offer a reinterpretation of human activity and its relationship to environmental history in the nineteenth century. The results reveal strong evidence of a catastrophic drought in the early nineteenth century, the effects of which radically alters our historical understanding of the character of settlement, mobility and identity within the Baringo–Bogoria basin

1. The Mara Cultural Heritage Digital Library: The Implications of the Digital Return of Oral Tradition

Introduction The ethical issues around repatriation of African artifacts have long been at the center of practice for archeologists and museum specialists who continue to struggle with whether material artifacts should be taken out of their country of origin or not, and in either case how they can be protected and displayed over the long term. They have confronted the issues of where the necessary resources come from for protecting and curating these artifacts in a museum. Considerabl..

Historical memory as a foundation for peace: Network formation and ethnic identity in North Mara, Tanzania

While ethnic identity formulated by historical memory is often understood as the cause of violent conflict in Africa, this qualitative historical study of interethnic relations between Luo and Bantu-speaking communities on the borderlands of Tanzania and western Kenya demonstrates just the opposite. In fact, migration and violent conflicts over land in the late 19th century were the basis for oral traditions that established new microethnic identities. It was only in the colonial era that the modern macroethnicities of Luo and Suba (Bantu), as rigid oppositional identities, began to solidify around land disputes. Historical memory constructs these dynamic microethnic identities around interethnic reciprocal networks that were necessary for gaining security and access to land in the past. During these late 19th-century conflicts, interethnic alliances and marriages were the norm, resulting in many Bantu-speaking communities becoming Luo, to one degree or another. Historical memory, as the central tool for constructing ethnicity, can be used to promote either violence or peace, depending on how it is deployed. In western Kenya, an oppositional Luo identity resulted from the colonial construction of macroethnicity, while in North Mara, Tanzania, a different national narrative has resulted in relative peace. In his collection of oral traditions from North Mara, Zedekia Oloo Siso makes a case for these still salient microethnicities, based on regional networks that cross-cut ethnic boundaries, as the indigenous networks necessary for peace.ethnic identity; historical memory; Luo; oral tradition; social networks; Suba