Being Maasai, Becoming Indigenous: Postcolonial Politics in a Neoliberal World

1. Becoming Indigenous in Africa

1 X Becoming Indigenous in Africa On August 3rd, 1989, Moringe ole Parkipuny, long-time Maasai activist and former member of the Tanzanian Parliament, addressed the sixth session of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations (UN Working Group) in Geneva, Switzerland. After noting that this was a “historic moment,” since he and a Hadza man from Tanzania were the “first representatives of any community in Africa that have been able to attend this very important forum,” he described in vivid terms the contemporary situation in Africa: “The environment for human rights in Africa is severely polluted by the ramifications of colonialism and neo-colonial social and economic relationships in which we are compelled to pursue our development and our sovereignty in a global system replete with injustices and exploitation” (Parkipuny 1989). He discussed the relative recentness of political independence for most African countries; the difficulties of overcoming colonial legacies of unequal rights, resources, and access to political power; and the “might of Western economic hegemony.” But, he warned, the intense efforts by many African nation-states to build national solidarity through the production of national identities “have thrown wide open the floor for prejudices against the fundamental rights and social values of those peoples with cultures that are distinctly different from those of the mainstream national population. Such prejudices have crystallized in many African countries into blatant cultural intolerance, domination and persistent violations of the fundamental rights of minorities” (Parkipuny 1989). In East Africa, he claimed, two of the most “vulnerable minority peoples” were hunter-gatherers and pastoralists: These minorities suffer from common problems which characterize the plight of indigenous peoples throughout the world. The most fundamental rights to maintain our specific cultural identity and the land that constitutes the foundation of our existence as a people are not respected by the state and fellow citizens who belong to the mainstream population. In our societies the land and natural re- 26 Being Maasai, Becoming Indigenous sources are the means of livelihood, the media of cultural and spiritual integrity for the entire community as opposed to individual appropriation. As a result, “our cultures and way of life are viewed as outmoded, inimical to national pride and a hindrance to progress. What is more, access to education and other basic services are minimal relative to the mainstream of the population of the countries to which we are citizens in common with other people” (Parkipuny 1989). As Parkipuny claimed, this speech did indeed mark a historic moment in local, national, and international affairs; it was the first public assertion by a Maasai leader that Maasai, and indeed, certain other historically marginalized groups in Africa, were part of the transnational community of indigenous peoples. Moreover, the forum for this pronouncement, the UN Working Group, indicated a new willingness of that body to entertain claims that African groups such as Maasai shared common histories, grievances, and structural positions within their nation-states with long-recognized “first peoples” from white settler colonies in the Americas, New Zealand, Australia , and elsewhere. As such, long-accepted definitions of “indigenous” were being challenged, with pressure to expand their meanings to encompass new categories of similarly disenfranchised peoples. Over the next twenty years, Maasai, Kung San, Batwa, and other African groups became actively involved in the international indigenous peoples’ movement with the support of transnational advocacy groups. They also formed regional and continental networks to pressure African states to recognize the presence and rights of indigenous peoples within their borders, to support and coordinate the activities of African NGOs within the UN process , and, more specifically, to promote ratification of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Declaration). Although they quickly achieved international recognition and visibility for their struggles, they encountered deep hostility from most African nation-states, who claimed that all of their citizens were indigenous, argued that indigenous rights fomented “tribalism,” and challenged any discussion of collective rights or restitution. As I was told (sometimes quite forcefully) every time I presented my research in Tanzania, “we are all indigenous in Africa.” Given the hostility of their nation-states and fellow citizens, how and why did certain historically marginalized people in Africa decide to become “indigenous ”? This chapter traces the history of the engagement of African groups with the international indigenous peoples’ movement; how the concept of “in- Becoming Indigenous in Africa 27 digenous” has been imagined, understood, and used by African activists...