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Fauna, Fire, and Farming: Landscape Formation over the Past 200 years in Pastoral East Pokot, Kenya

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Abstract

Fire was a key element of grass savanna formation all over eastern Africa. In the northern Baringo plains, Pokot pastoralists prospered in the nineteenth century, coexisting with huge herds of wildlife. During the twentieth century, the savanna ecosystem changed from a grass-dominated to bush-dominated as a result of growing numbers of livestock and people, which brought not only elephant hunts but also intensive grazing and changing fire regimes. Subsequently, herders diversified their livelihoods, and these land-use changes in the East Pokot highlands led to the spread of the endemic plant Dodonaea viscosa (Sapindaceae) beyond its original habitat. Ingolds’ concept of taskscape is applied here to illustrate a temporal, consecutive perspective of landscape transitions against the background of disappearing landscape agents (in this case large herbivores and fire).

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Notes

  1. In the history of pastoral East Pokot, the de jure and de facto territory, which is nowadays occupied by the Pokot people, was, and to some extent still is, contested. From time to time, Pokot, Turkana, Samburu, Tugen, Karimojong and IlChamus people are involved in violent conflicts.

  2. Pastoral farming must be distinguished from other kinds of farming. Pastoral Pokot recently applied basic farming strategies (twig fencing, hoe ploughing) for maize cultivation. However, pastoral farming contributes to a livelihood that is still predominantly based on livestock products. In contrast, farming in the Pokot highlands, as described for the case of Churo, involves proper fencing, technology use, and marketization of farm products.

  3. An increase in population numbers of more than 66% within 30 years is extremely high and the census data must be regarded with caution. Migration from other regions in Kenya into East Pokot does not account for the vast increase of the population. Rather, access to improved health services and decreasing death rates must be considered. Elderly people in East Pokot, however, stress the significant increase in population numbers by recalling the few households in their neighbourhoods in the past and confirm the current trend.

  4. Beech (1911: 8) describes the lowland Pokot as follows: “The pastoral Suk keep and breed cattle, sheep and goats, [...]. As with the Nandi, cattle-herding is the favourite – indeed the only – occupation of the pastoral Suk.”

  5. Currently accepted spelling: Laikipia

  6. Before dams and boreholes were established, water was always a crucial resource in East Pokot. In the rainy season, water availability was good in natural pools (takarai) and in the river beds (accessed by shallow wells). In the dry season, scarcity of water forced pastoralists to move to better pastures and more reliable water sources, such as Lake Baringo, where they compete for resources with neigboring groups.

  7. Conant contrasts the categories “bushland” and “grass-bushland” to indicate bush encroachment.

  8. Depending on their concentration, saponines can have strong antiprotozoal effects due to changes in the rumen flora.

  9. Many people consider that the soil fertility is low in farms where Dodonaea viscosa grows. They observe a link between the infestation of Dodonaea viscosa and low yields of their maize harvest. Though the link between low soil fertility seems reasonable, the argumentation can be inverted. Rather than Dodonaea viscosa being the cause of low soil fertility, it can also be an indicator for monocropping and a lack in crop sequences. Maize is the staple food and mainly used for cooking Ugali, the local maize mush, or for selling. Since Dodonaea viscosa advances beyond its natural habitat, it may be a successor plant on highly degraded soils.

  10. During the dry season, pastoral Pokot can rarely fall back on alternative forage areas since most sites are depleted. This constantly leads to violent clashes in the border zones with neighboring groups, e.g., “Cutting bullet supply key to draining swamps in the North Rift of lawlessness” (Daily Nation, November 9, 2014: 10);

    “Bandit raids push 10,000 out of school in Baringo” (Daily Nation, March 18, 2015: 1); “Baringo County conflicts. Why peace remains a pipe dream” (DN2. Attachement to the Daily Nation. August 11, 2015: 2–3);

    “Police seem overwhelmed by insecurity in Baringo” (Daily Nation Online, March 16, 2017: http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Letters/Police-overwhelmed-by-insecurity-in-Baringo/440806-3850884-f1efkf/index.html (last accessed (30/03/2017)); “Bandit attacks force hundreds to flee homes in Baringo” (Daily Nation Online, February 22, 2017: http://www.nation.co.ke/counties/baringo/Bandit-attacks-force-hundreds-to-flee-homes/3444812-3823130-cyh7foz/index.html (last accessed (30/03/2017)).

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) under the research unit 1501 “Resilience, Collapse and Reorganisation of Socio-Ecological Systems of African Savannas,” located at the University of Cologne and the University of Bonn. Special thanks to Michael Casimir, Michael Bollig, Gerda Vobis, and the Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology at the University of Cologne. We would like to specially thank Charles Lorot for his support and assistance during fieldwork. We are much obliged to the Ethnodocs at the Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology at the University of Cologne. Special thanks to Mirijam Zickel, Marius Linnartz, and Vera Krieger for their constructive support.

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  1. Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    Hauke-Peter Vehrs

  2. Department of Plant Nutrition, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Gereon Romanus Heller

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Correspondence to Hauke-Peter Vehrs.

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Forschergruppe 1501.

Resilience, Collapse and Reorganisation in Social-Ecological Systems of East- and South Africa’s Savannahs.

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In search of order: institutional change, violent regulation and environmental knowledge under conditions of rapid social ecological change.

Grant number: BO 1123/11–2.

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Vehrs, HP., Heller, G.R. Fauna, Fire, and Farming: Landscape Formation over the Past 200 years in Pastoral East Pokot, Kenya. Hum Ecol 45, 613–625 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-017-9926-1

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