Thirteenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

The Maasai launched their official quest for an independent Maasailand in the 1950s when Britain was decolonizing Kenya and Tanzania. Today, as these pastoralists seek to reunify their pre-colonial territory and preserve fundamental lifeways, they practice resistant or strategic adaptation, i.e. engaging intentionally with global economies, politics, and identities in ways that support their conservative agenda. Through the twenty-first century, the Maasai of Kenya have embraced a mixed economy, maintaining their cattle herds and participating in tourism-related wage labor. Their leadership in sustainable wildlife management has led to international alliances and visibility, thus enhancing their global social capital. More recently, the opportunities afforded by China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) expanded their network of potential allies. While the BRI may bring Kenya more costs than benefits, China’s articulated commitment to including the Maasai in its development projects provides a dynamic setting in which the Maasai advocate for communal values, ecological civilization, and non-liberal—or, more accurately, not-only-liberal—ideals. Such international alliances represent one of many nested identities for the Maasai as their involvement in national politics includes grassroots educational campaigns designed to immunize voters against the identity-based divisiveness that led to violent conflict following the 2007 elections. Thus, nested or hybrid identities not only serve Maasai objectives, but provide for Kenya a model of positive peace, whose principles include environmental sustainability, equitable distribution of resources, complex networks of reciprocal relationships, and government accountability.