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Amanda Lewis-Nang鈥檈a鈥檚 research brings historical perspective to the issues of land management and resource stewardship in Kenya.

By Robyn Rime

Amboseli National Park in Kenya is one of the best places in the world to get close to free-ranging elephants. The park, formalized as a national game reserve in 1948 and as a park in 1974, seeks to protect a unique ecosystem through conservation, wildlife viewing and tourism. Supporting endangered species in the wild seems indisputably worthy 鈥� after all, who doesn鈥檛 want to protect elephants?

And yet, responsible land stewardship isn鈥檛 that simple.

鈥淚 thought I would be researching a positive, progressive history that looks at bad actors in colonial Kenya and ends with the indigenous Maasai able to manage the land themselves,鈥� says Amanda Lewis-Nang鈥檈a, assistant professor of history. 鈥淥f course, it鈥檚 much more complicated and messy than that, which is how history usually is.鈥�

Lewis-Nang鈥檈a, who specializes in African history and the history of science, has focused her interdisciplinary research on the history of pastoralists and wildlife conservation in East Africa and Amboseli, a region where the Maasai people have lived for many generations. Her examination of the park鈥檚 history and its ramifications on the surrounding community blends archival and scientific research with oral histories of scientists, conservationists, Kenyan wildlife service officials 鈥� and particularly the Maasai. 

The Maasai are a semi-nomadic, pastoral tribe that lives by herding cattle and goats under a communal land management system. For hundreds of years, they have moved their livestock based on a seasonal rotation, utilizing resources in a sustainable manner. However, explains Lewis-Nang鈥檈a, the growing conservation movement in the mid-20th century led Kenya鈥檚 colonial policymakers to set aside land for game reserves and national parks, and new land management systems took hold. 

And the Maasai鈥檚 way of life began to change. With restricted access to critical pastureland and water resources, says Lewis-Nang鈥檈a, Maasai were forced away from livestock grazing and into farming, becoming less nomadic and more sedentary. For a people financially and culturally dependent on livestock 鈥� a man鈥檚 worth was measured by how many cattle and children he had 鈥� the conservation movement has led to significant socio-economic challenges. 

Today, the area around Amboseli is witnessing the emergence of what Lewis-Nang鈥檈a describes as community-based conservation. 鈥淭hose concerned about wildlife and people鈥檚 relationship with the environment have found ways to reconcile the needs of the community with the long-term survival of wildlife,鈥� she says.

Lewis-Nang鈥檈a鈥檚 research looks at how scientists and local communities have developed a better understanding of both the ecosystem and human-animal relationships. 鈥淚n the 1960s, scientists were attracted to what they thought of as 鈥榰ntouched landscapes鈥� in which to study species like elephants and baboons, which was not true at all 鈥� more recently, they鈥檝e realized this is actually a human-shaped landscape,鈥� she says. 鈥淪cientists are also involving local Maasai so it isn鈥檛 just white western researchers coming in and doing the work. They make sure that local communities benefit from incoming tourism dollars with new schools and clinics, as well as from the science 鈥� for instance, how to better manage the land when elephants come through on a migratory route so they don’t trample your farm.鈥� 

Watching community-based conservation develop in Amboseli encourages Lewis-Nang鈥檈a to hope for its growth in the United States as well. 鈥淢ost of our parks have what鈥檚 called fortress conservation, where you may build an invisible or literal fence around the park 鈥� people are kept out and wildlife is kept in,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hat idea did not work well for Africa. Thinking of the history of parks and protected areas as social spaces could be a better way to understand this dichotomy that we always create between civilization and nature. I believe the history of the conservation movement in Kenya can dispel the notion that pastoralists are somehow antiquated and not part of the modern world.鈥� 

After all, she says, the Maasai are interested in the same responsible land management and resource stewardship that modern ranchers are 鈥� 鈥渋t鈥檚 just that their lifestyle looks a little different.鈥�