By Lucas Kasosi (Maasai, CS Intern)
If cities had ghosts, Nairobi would be haunted by the whispers of those it displaced. Beneath its glass towers and frantic highways lies a past rarely acknowledged: a history of forced removals, treaties signed under duress, and land slipping through Maasai hands like water.
By Georges Dougnon (Dogon, CS Staff)
By Lucas Kasosi (Maasai, CS Intern)
When Mona Omar (Somali/Maasai) was a child, the land still spoke. Elders could predict the rains by watching the sky, birds, and the flowering of certain trees. They knew when to move to better pastures, which rivers would swell, and how to prepare for the dry season. The land was alive until one day, it wasn’t.
By Lucas Kasosi (Maasai, CS Intern)
If you ever find yourself in a remote Samburu village at night, you might stumble upon a scene that feels straight out of a centuries-old tradition women huddled around a bonfire, their voices rising and falling in conversation as the fire flickers against their beadwork and shukas.
The Endorois Indigenous Women Empowerment Network is an Indigenous women-led, community-based organization founded in 2016, deeply committed to promoting self-determination, amplification of voice and status, and empowerment of marginalized women, persons with disabilities, youth, Endorois youth, and other Indigenous and marginalized communities in Kenya.
JAC 106.2 FM is a community radio station based in Kwale, Kenya, specifically targeting members of the Indigenous Mijikenda community.
By Xiting Tong (CS Intern)
Under the sprawling branches of ancient trees by Lake Bogoria, Elders and young people sat together. The Elders, whose faces bore the gentle lines of time, shared stories with the young generation. Their voices, though quiet, carried the weight of many years of Indigenous wisdom and experience. “I have come to learn that there are many Elders who have a lot of stories to tell, and we have to reach them through this project,” says Rodgers Kibet (Endorois), a youth from Mochongoi.
By Peter Kinyanjui (Gikuyu)
In Kapsokwony, located in Bungoma County, Kenya, lives Emmanuel Kiplimo (Ogiek), an Indigenous young man concerned about his community’s lack of access to education and health services. Emmanuel’s Cultural Survival Indigenous Youth Fellowship focused on community radio production to promote health, education, and gender inclusion. His concerns were rooted in the lack of response from the government. The Kenyan government’s healthcare and education services in the country are not reaching his community.
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.
