Beyond the Ruins of Embobut

Transforming Landscapes and Livelihoods in the Cherangani Hills, Kenya

Authors

  • Sam Lunn-Rockliffe Univerisity of Oxford

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.38591

Keywords:

conservation, Embobut, forests, landscape, multispecies, ruination, transformation

Abstract

The Embobut Forest, western Kenya, can be described as an entanglement of ruins. These ruins are the materialisation of a series of contested ecological debates and political decisions pivoting on the questions of conservation and community rights to land that have resulted in the violent dislocation of local Sengwer and Marakwet communities. In the first instance, this paper aims to contextualise these debates by offering an analytic focus on the process of ruination in order to offer a more nuanced narrative of landscape modification and changing human lives over the past century. Subsequently, I look beyond processes of ruination and towards notions of transformation, in an attempt expound how Embobut has not become a static world of passive ruins but rather is constantly changing as novel forms of dwelling and new ecological relationships continue to unfold in a manner not envisaged by conservation policy.

Author Biography

  • Sam Lunn-Rockliffe, Univerisity of Oxford

    Sam Lunn-Rockliffe is a DPhil student at St Hugh’s College, University of Oxford, based at the School of Archaeology. His research project is titled “Connecting Past and Present: Sengwer Hunter-Gatherers of the Cherangani Hills, Kenya”.

References

Adams, W.M. and D Hulme. 2001. “If community conservation is the answer in Africa, what is the question?” Oryx 35193–200.

Akotsi E., Gachanja M. and JK. Ndirangu. 2006. “Changes in Forest Cover in Kenya’s Five ‘Water Towers’, 2003–2005.” Nairobi Kenya: Kenya Forests Working Group.

Baldyga, T.J., Miller, S.N., Driese, K.L. and C.M. Gichaba. 2008. “Assessing land cover change in Kenya's Mau Forest region using remotely sensed data.” African Journal of Ecology 46, 46–54.

Bille, M., Hastrup, F., and T.F. Soerensen. eds. 2010. “An Anthropology of Absence: Materializations of Transcendence and Loss.” New York: Springer

Brightman, M. and Lewis, J. 2017. “Introduction: The Anthropology of Sustainability: Beyond Development and Progress.” InThe Anthropology of Sustainability: Beyond Development and Progress, edited by M. Brightman and J. Lewis, 1-34. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Buchli, V., Lucas, G. eds. 2001. “Archaeologies of the Contemporary.”Past. London: Routledge.

Buck-Morss S. 2002. “Dreamworld and Catastrophe: The Passing of Mass Utopia in East and West.” Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Chang, M. 2012. “Forest Hydrology (3rd ed.).” Boca Raton: CRC Press.

Davies, M.I.J. 2012. “Some thoughts on a ‘useable’ African archaeology: settlement, population and intensive farming among the Pokot of northwest Kenya.”African Archaeological Review29, 319–353.

Davies, M.I.J. and H.L. Moore. 2016. “Landscape, time and cultural resilience: a brief history of agriculture in Pokot and Marakwet, Kenya.” Journal of Eastern African Studies10, 67–87.

Daily Nation 2013. “How Embobut Evictees Agreed to Leave the Forest.”[online article]. Available at: https://www.nation.co.ke/news/politics/How-Embobut-evictees-agreed-to-leave-the-forest-/1064-2076128-14jeobr/index.html[Date Accessed 27.03.2019].

Derbyshire, S. and L. Lowasa. Forthcoming. “The ruins of Turkana: an archaeology of failed development”. In Forms of Freedom: Legacies of African Modernism, edited by N. Berre, N. Hoyum, P. Geissler and J. Lagae. Bristol: Intellect.

DeSilvey, C., Edensor, T., 2012. “Reckoning with ruins”. Progress in Human Geography37(4), 465-485.

Edensor, T. 2005. “Industrial Ruins: Space, Aesthetics and Materiality.” Oxford: Berg.

Forest Peoples Programme 2013: Urgent appeal against the forced eviction of Sengwer communities in Kenya. [online article] Available at: https://www.forestpeoples.org/en/topics/rights-land-natural-resources/news/2013/12/urgent-appeal-against-forced-eviction-sengwercher[Date Accessed 27.03.2019].

Gonzalez-Ruibal, A. 2008. “Time to destroy: An archaeology of supermodernity.” Current Anthropology49, 247-279.

Hansen, M.C., Potapov, P.V., Moore, R., Hancher, M., Turubanova, S.A.A., Tyukavina, A., Thau, D., Stehman, S.V., Goetz, S.J., Loveland, T.R. and A. Kommareddy. 2013. “High-resolution global maps of 21st-century forest cover change.” Science342, 850–853.

Hulme, D. and M. Murphree. 1999. “Communities, wildlife and the `new conservation' in Africa.” Journal of International Development11, 277–286.

Hutchins, D.E 1907. Report on the Forests of Kenia.London: HMSO

Ingold, T. 2000. “The Perception of the Environment: Essays on Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill.” London: Routledge.

Ingold, T. 2011. “Being alive: Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description.” London: Routledge.

Ingold, T. 2013. “Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture.” London: Routledge.

Lucas, G., 2013. “Ruins.” In The Oxford handbook of the archaeology of the contemporary world, edited by P. Graves-Brown, R. Harrison and A. Piccini, 193 – 203.Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Author. Forthcoming. “Connecting Past and Present: Changing Landscapes in the Embobut Forest, Western Kenya.” Nyame Akuma, 89.

Luukkanen, O. 1996. “Kenya forestry master plan”. In Sustainable Forestry Challenges for Developing Countries, edited by M, Palo. and G. Mery, 359–369. Dordrecht: Springer.

Lynch, G., 2016. “What's in a name? the politics of naming ethnic groups in Kenya's Cherangany Hills.” Journal of Eastern African Studies10, 208–227.

Neumann, R.P. 1998. “Imposing Wilderness: Struggles Over Livelihood and Nature Preservation in Africa.: Berkeley: University of California Press.

Neumann, R.P. 2002. “The postwar conservation boom in British colonial Africa.” Environmental History 7, 22–47.

Ofcansky, T.P. 1984. “Kenya forestry under British colonial administration, 1895–1963.” Journal of Forest History 28, 136–143.

Olsen, B. and Þ Pétursdóttir. 2014. “Ruin Memories: Materialities, Aesthetics and the Archaeology of the Recent Past.” London: Routledge.

Sakals, M.E., Innes, J.L., Wilford, D.J., Sidle, R.C. and G.E. Grant. 2006. The Role of Forests in Reducing Hydrogeomorphic Hazards. Forest Snow Landscape Research. 80, 11–22.

Tsing, A.L. 2014. “Blasted landscapes (and the gentle arts of mushroom picking).” In The Multispecies Salon,edited by E. Kirksey. 87–109 Durham: Duke University Press.

Tsing, A.L. 2015. “The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins.” Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Tsing, A.L. 2017. “A Threat to Holocene Resurgence Is a Threat to Livability”. InThe Anthropology of Sustainability: Beyond Development and Progress, edited by M. Brightman and J. Lewis, 51-66. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Wass, P. 1995. “Kenya's Indigenous Forests.” Gland: IUCN.

World Bank Inspection Panel 2014. “Investigation Report.” [online document] Available at: http://ewebapps.worldbank.org/apps/ip/Pages/ViewCase.aspx?CaseId=89[date accessed: 22.01.2018]

Yablon, N. 2009. “Untimely Ruins: An Archaeology of American Urban Modernity 1819– 1919.” Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Published

2020-03-16

Issue

Section

Research Article

How to Cite

Lunn-Rockliffe, S. (2020). Beyond the Ruins of Embobut: Transforming Landscapes and Livelihoods in the Cherangani Hills, Kenya. Journal of Contemporary Archaeology, 6(2), 274-296. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.38591