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Whittaker, HA

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

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Hannah Alice Whittaker

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Dorothy L. Hodgson: Being Maasai, Becoming Indigenous: Postcolonial Politics in a Neoliberal World. xix, 288 pp. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011. £16.99. ISBN 978 0 253 22305 0.

Brunel University Research Archive

DOROTHY L. HODGSON:Being Maasai, Becoming Indigenous: Postcolonial Politics in aNeoliberal World.xix, 288 pp. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011. £16.99. ISBN978 0 253 22305 0.doi:10.1017/S0041977X12000481Dorothy Hodgson’s latest book, Being Maasai, Becoming Indigenous, draws onover two decades of experience working and researching among the Maasai ofTanzania, to explore the rise and fall of their involvement with the international indi-genous rights movement. Hodgson documents how the Maasai “became indigen-ous”, a concept more commonly associated with “original inhabitants” or “firstpeoples” in the Americas and Australia, as a politically viable strategy to restatelong-standing grievances against the Tanzanian state in a language that was interna-tionally recognized.In two respects this latest work expands on themes that Hodgson first explored inher debut book, Once Intrepid Warriors: Gender, Ethnicity and the Cultural Politicsof Maasai Development (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001). First,Hodgson continues to challenge the stereotype of the Maasai as the last vestige ofa vanishing “traditional” Africa, culturally conservative and unwilling to change.In Once Intrepid Warriors this was achieved by showing how Maasai ethnic identitywas influenced and changed by Western development, which was enacted by thecolonial and post-colonial state, over the course of the twentieth century. Thistheme is further developed in Being Maasai, Becoming Indigenous, where the dyna-mism of Maasai identity is shown through the ways in which Maasai constantlydebate and reformulate what it means to be not only Maasai, but pastoralist, citizenand subject at the local, national and global level.Second, Hodgson continues to emphasize the importance of the state in the livesof Tanzanian Maasai, through the connections between development and the exer-cise of state power. The 2001 work focused on the colonial and post-colonial statethrough to the mid-1990s; this current work brings us up to date. We are given aglimpse into the prospects and limits of transnational advocacy in an age of econ-omic liberalization and democratization, but are reminded that the nation-state con-tinues to shape “political possibilities and positionings in transnational activism”(pp. 214–5). This is an important and significant part of Hodgson’s work. Ratherthan accept a rhetoric that presupposes the demise of the nation-state in a globalizedage (Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization,Minneapolis, 1996), she demonstrates the continuing relevance of the state throughthe changing terms of Maasai political debate. The Maasai “became indigenous”,attracting international support and finance for their cause, but failed to win nationalrecognition. As Hodgson concedes, the absence of a contemporary colonial popu-lation, alongside long histories of conquest, assimilation, migration and movementin Africa, makes the criteria for claiming indigeneity politically problematic (p. 3).The Maasai claim to “indigenous rights” was then replaced with the desire to“secure pastoralist livelihoods”, earning them a more productive, though still chal-lenged, relationship with the state (p. 215). In light of these two common themes, itis somewhat surprising that there is not a stronger focus in this current work on gen-der, which pervades all of Hodgson’s previous works (Once Intrepid Warriors; TheChurch of Women: Gendered Encounters between Maasai and Missionaries,Bloomington, 2005).R E V I E W S 435The book is divided into chapters that move spatially through Maasai advocacyover the last two decades. We start at the macro level, tracing the interaction betweenAfrican groups, not just the Maasai, but also other pastoralist and hunter-gatherercommunities from all over the continent, with the international indigenous rightsmovement, and their campaign for recognition as indigenous peoples at theUnited Nations (UN). In chapter 2 the focus narrows slightly, moving to considertwo case studies of Maasai NGOs, comparing their strategies and agendas for advo-cacy in relation to their participation in the indigenous rights movement. Throughoutthe chapter there is a clear tension between the usefulness of “becoming indigenous”for securing outside funding from international donors, and its limits withinTanzania, where state hostility to indigenous rights prevented meaningful engage-ment between the government and Maasai activism. The Maasai come fully intofocus in chapter 3, where there is an interesting discussion of the politics of rep-resentation between and among Maasai NGOs. This chapter clearly benefits fromHodgson’s interdisciplinary approach, where she combines historical and anthropo-logical perspectives to produce an ethnography of Maasai political organizations,processes and movements. We see how the NGO sector is beset by issues ofclass, generation and gender, and how externally created developmental concepts,such as indigenous rights, interact with, and sometimes challenge existing ideasof community and development. In chapter 4 the stark reality of the failure of theMaasai claim to indigeneity is revealed, and we are shown how Maasai activistsreframed the terms of their struggle in a language more acceptable to theTanzanian government, scoring limited concessions from it.In the final chapter, the focus of the work narrows even further, and brings indi-vidual Maasai men, women and children into the picture. Rather than NGOs andMaasai activists, we meet the people in whose name the claim to indigeneity wasmade, and Hodgson attempts to sum up the effects of twenty years of Maasai acti-vism on the lives of everyday Maasai. While the discussion is interesting as aninsight into the perception of NGOs amongst ordinary Maasai, it is also the mostrevealing of the possibilities and limits of transnational advocacy. While the infor-mants of her work display an ambivalent attitude towards NGOs and the work theyhave done, it is clear that they have helped some Maasai diversify, secure andimprove their livelihoods in some small ways (pp. 182–209). However, it is alsoclear that Maasai advocacy has failed to challenge the structural inequalities thatthey face within the Tanzanian state (pp. 179–80). Overall this serves as an impor-tant reminder of the ongoing struggle for political representation and recognition ofrights and resources faced by marginalized pastoralist communities throughoutAfrica.Hannah Alice Whittaker436 R E V I E W S

Book review: Dorothy L Hodgson: Being Maasai, becoming indigenous: Postcolonial politics in a neoliberal world

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Book review: Dorothy L Hodgson: Being Maasai, becoming indigenous: Postcolonial politics in a neoliberal world

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