Herd / Bling Culture

Herd / Bling Culture

Another powerful example of parallelism between African and Western cultures manifests itself in the perceptions and attitudes surrounding status and wealth.  One of the deeply ingrained cultural patterns in tribal society here in Kenya is the representation of wealth through cattle ownership.  Simply stated, rich guys have loads of cows, sheep, and goats.  At first blush, that doesn't seem like a problem, or really all that unusual.  We could easily say the same of segments of Canadian economy - the bigger the cattle operation, the more money it brings in.  However, in Kenya, the cattle herds are not really a commercial venture.  These shepherds will accumulate the herds primarily for the purposes of demonstrating status.  They rarely butcher them for meat, and these varieties of cows and goats are not good milk producers.  They need to watched constantly and moved to new grazing areas regularly.  These people almost never sell an animal.  In a way, the herd is like a bank account, into which deposits are made, but out of which withdrawals almost never happen.  The cows are a way to show everybody else how wealthy and put-together the owner is.

At first, I thought this was absolutely crazy.  Not only are the cows a good food source, but they could be managed and sold to generate a stable income, just like any cattle farm in Canada.  In addition, this practice means that the lion’s share of the land is pasture, reserved for the exclusive use of the privileged animals.  What an inefficient use of land that could be used for crops or orchards with a much higher rate of return! Why would these guys spend their days grazing cattle, with no apparent purpose other than to impress their buddies?

That’s when I began to reflect on our own culture in Canada, and the ways in which we gauge each other.  Are we any less silly when it comes to status?  I thought of all the ways we impress one another, like diamond adornments (shiny rocks), or massive houses for two occupants, or big RVs we take out twice a year, or closets full of shoes, or car collections, or five thousand dollar handbags.  The list goes on.  Really, the drive to accumulate stuff just manifests itself differently in a different culture.

That doesn't mean it’s okay.  It isn't okay.  It’s materialism.  And look at the massive trouble that has gotten us into in the west.  We've created an economy entirely dependent on people’s ever-increasing appetite for stuff.  If people stop buying, we feel the pain.

All this makes me realize that the superiority I might feel at bearing witness to this herd culture is unfounded and wrong.  But it does, yet again, reinforce the idea that education is the key to coming to terms with the problem, and pursuing a solution.  I believe and hope that the next generation, having learned so much more about the world than their parents, will not be content to follow around a bunch of cows in order to prove its worth.  And ultimately, I hope that the next generation will not make the same mistakes in the pursuit of status over common sense.

On the way to Lodwar

We made the four-hour drive back to Nairobi this morning, to greet the group, recently arrived from Canada.  What a sight - two dozen jet-lagged mzungas on the tarmac, boarding a little Canadian-made turboprop plane.  Despite the lack of sleep, everyone is in high spirits, and a few Tusker beers were consumed at the little bar in the airport.  

Mmmmm, Tusker.

In the airport during the wait for the much-delayed plane, I had a chance to chat with Bev, who actually lived in East Africa for many years back in the sixties, working for the Canadian Economic Development Agency.  He was here during and immediately after the British pull-out, and he had some amazing stories about life in Kenya and Tanzania in the sixties.  I was flabbergasted to learn that, during that time, the population of Kenya was only about 3 million people.  Today it is 40 million.  In 50 years, the number of people in this country, about the size of Alberta, has increased by 12 or 13 times!  No wonder there are infrastructure issues.  I would hazard a guess that if Alberta saw that kind of population explosion, even with our heritage fund, we would be struggling to keep up.  I mean, look at Fort MacMurray: a little increase from 40,000 to 100,000 in ten years has caused immense pressure on the infrastructure.  Another amazing observation from Bev: when he was here in the sixties, Nairobi was a quiet little town, with very few cars and lots of trees and flowers.  Crime was virtually non-existent, and residents complained sometimes that it was too quiet.  What a difference 50 years brings!

Farmers Market

Lodwar

There are no lights on the runway in Lodwar, so planes cannot land here past sundown.  It was a race against time to arrive in time to land.  The plane touched down in the twilight, which made for a surreal experience disembarking and loading into the nine cars that waited to take us to St Theresa’s Diocese.  A small crowd gathered to watch the spectacle as we sorted people and luggage into cars.  Then, in a macabre imitation of a funeral procession, the cars proceeded to drive single-file slowly through town with hazards blinking.  

And what a town it is.  As we drove through the dusty streets, the scenes that unfolded out the windows were other-worldly.  There are no street lights, but there are some lights from the businesses and homes along the road.  The buildings are mostly timber and tin shacks, occasionally brick.  There were people everywhere we looked - gathered on the corners, or in little cafes, playing cards, weaving through traffic and around burning garbage on boda-boda’s.  And almost everyone turned to stare as we passed, keenly interested in the strange mzunga “funeral procession”.  I suppose it wasn't just a strange sight to us.  

I have experienced a strange phenomenon here as I have acclimatized to my surroundings.  Upon first arriving and travelling through the streets of Nairobi, the ‘poverty’ I saw around me was shocking.  However, as I got used to the surroundings and the lifestyle, I realized I really wasn't looking at poverty at all.  I was looking at a different culture and lifestyle than the one I came from.  Poverty is the inability to look after the basics - healthy food, clean water, shelter, protection, education.  Really, that’s a hard thing to judge from the windows of a car.  (It’s also a hard thing to judge through a TV screen or a magazine page).  The longer I am here, the more accustomed to the scenes outside the window I become.  What at first looked like abject poverty, now looks like Kenyan business as usual.  My comfort-level with my surroundings has steadily increased, along with my perspective.  There are poor people here, just like there are poor people everywhere.  The key is not painting everybody with the same brush.

That said, Lodwar is most definitely the poorest place we've visited so far.  “Lodwar?  Why would you go there?” is a comment I have received two or three times from Kenyans.  It’s a bit of a backwater.  I would guess that has a lot to do with the environment.  Looking out the windows of the plane as we flew in revealed miles and miles of dry, barren landscape, relieved here and there by the snaking green of a river bed.  There are so few resources.  However, Eric tells me that the Chinese have recently found oil here, so for better or worse, we’ll see how much that changes things over the next few years.