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Farming, marketing, and changes in the authority of elders among pastoral Rendille and Ariaal
By admin | July 23, 2008
Abstract. Pastoral cultures of East Africa include certain institutions that meet requirements
for labor organization and control over resources. Institutions that have been adapted to multispecies
pastoralism in arid or semi-arid environments include: a patriarchical and gerontocratic
control over resources that permits polygyny; an age-system that both dictates work roles and
legitimizes control over resources; andmarriage practices that permit elder males to control the
labor of unmarried junior males. All of these institutions and ideals are interrelated, reinforcing
each other and perpetuating the social and ideological order of society. When the economy
changes, however, institutions may also change or perhaps become less useful for organizing
society. Such is the case for Rendille and Ariaal of northern Kenya who now farm and are
more involved in the market economy than their pastoral kin. The result is greater economic
opportunity for young men of the warrior age grade, while ways for elders to maintain their
authority continue to exist.
Introduction
Generational variations in concepts of personhood and the importance of
seniority and filial obligation in ordering relationships and guiding actions
are two themes noted among many societies in sub-Saharan Africa (Udvardy
& Cattell 1992: 275). These themes support the authority of elder males over
their juniors. But modernization and social change have created new kinds of
cultural ambiguity for the aged that includes both greater structural powerlessness
and new opportunities (Udvardy & Cattell 1992: 275). Elders among
historically pastoral Rendille and Ariaal currently face this ambiguity as they
migrate to the recently settled agricultural community of Songa. On the one
hand, the age-system, which legitimizes the authority elders have over junior
bachelor warriors, is weakening in significance as the economic importance
of livestock diminishes. On the other hand, elders have adopted land into
their sphere of resource control, thereby ensuring dependence of these same
warriors.
In this paper, I argue that settlement, cultivation, and cash selling increase
the economic autonomy of previously pastoral bachelor warriors. Agriculture
and market integration both serve to undermine ideology and institutions
adapted to the pastoral economy that support age and sex hierarchies. Rather
than segregating elders, women and warriors, farming brings these three
groups together for more efficient production. Performing many productive
tasks without help from others and in the same location breaks down sociality
and the respect people of various age and sex categories have for each other.
Greater opportunity to market produce, receive an education, or pursue a
wage job create individual incentives that only further remove people from
their pastoral roots. These individualizing features associated with farming,
marketing, and Western institutions and ideology create individualizing
incentives for warriors in Songa that do not exist in the pastoral sector.
However, modernization does not necessarily decrease the authority elders
have come to expect. New opportunities for the younger generations in the
cash economy are often poorly paid, while elders can consolidate their control
over increasingly valuable land (Spencer 1990: 27). In addition, economic,
social, and ideological aspects of pastoralism and the continued relationships
with pastoral kin help maintain the pastoral culture in Songa. It is essential to
explore what changes have taken place and what may become of the future for
those Rendille and Ariaal who now emphasize farming over pastoralism and
become increasingly involved in a modernized world that so often negatively
affects the options for, and importance of, older individuals.
Research on aging and the aged suggests that an important component of the
elderly’s position in society is whether they continue to control knowledge
and material resources (Cattell 1989: 226). Cross-cultural surveys of non
industrial societies show the prestige and power of senior generations is
linked to their experience and control of information and resources (Holy
1990: 167; Spencer 1990: 8). This is particularly true among East African
pastoralists, in which married elder males are leaders both in public and at the
household level. Goody (1976: 117–118) links the superior position of elders
to the economic arrangement, in which domestic groups carry out production
in nonindustrial societies, whereas in industrial societies the domestic group
is strictly a consumer. The former arrangement permits the senior generation
to control the basic means of production and thereby ensure dependence from
the younger generations.
In pastoral societies, as men gain in seniority and status, their ability
to delegate large amounts of work to women and unmarried men increases
(Draper 1989: 155–156). Rendille, Ariaal, and Samburu societies are gerontocratic
in that elders control almost all of the important resources and,
therefore, the labor of dependent women and warriors (Spencer 1965, 1973).
Other anthropologists report a similar pattern for many East African pastoralists
(Edgerton 1971). However, the lifestyle at the predominantly farming
community of Songa differs from the patriarchal, hierarchical household
organization of pastoralists in important ways that suggest some elements
of the age and sex hierarchies are being eroded. These differences give elders
in Songa less authority and control over resources and labor of warriors. The
significant decrease in reliance on livestock lessens warriors’ herding and
defending tasks and also diminishes the importance of the age-system for the
rituals of which livestock are crucial.
Control over access to livestock and marriageable women are important
components of elders’ authority. By controlling the herd, an elder can
be assured that his sons will remain dependent on him and provide him
with labor. He can legitimately do this because males cannot manage their
economic affairs until they reach the elder age grade and marry. Age-system
restrictions on warriors until they reach the elder age grade and marry. Agesystem
restrictions on warriors marrying early and interacting with other
members of society therefore support elders’ authority (Spencer 1973: 93).
Although age-sets are not corporate property-holding groups, age-systems
legitimize the expropriation of warriors’ surplus labor by the community
through the mediation of elders (Rigby 1992: 65–66). But the gerontocratic
structure of Rendille and Ariaal societies may be affected by new economic
factors. The farming community differs from the pastoral one in important
ways that potentially give elders in Songa less authority and control over
resources and labor of warriors. Compared to pastoral communities, Songa is
much larger and houses are more spatially separated. This layout decreases
the incentive for elders to socialize in groups. Greater reliance on farms than
on livestock lessens warriors’ herding and defending tasks, which diminishes
the economic importance of the age-system.
What gives Songa warriors more economic autonomy is the way labor
and access to resources are organized in the farming economy. While having
ultimate authority over both land and animals they have allotted their wives
and sons, elders do not control the produce because of the understanding
that the individual can control the produce he or she has grown. Women and
warriors must provide the elder with farm labor, but they have control over
money made from selling produce they have grown in their allocated subplots.
This is something warriors cannot do in the pastoral economy, in which
the elder owns the animals and his son cannot sell any without permission.
Pastoral women can sell their milk if there is a market, but they must rely
on elders for access to essential herding labor. With farming, the same tasks
can be performed by elders, women or warriors are supposed to give part of
their profits to their husbands, they have more of a say in how their money
is spent than pastoral Rendille and Ariaal women who rely on their husbands
for access to practically all cash. Occasionally, an elder might demand some
money from his son, but it is understood that warriors are permitted to spend
their money as they please.
The founding and occupation of the agropastoral community of Songa
Songa is located on the southern slopes of Mt Marsabit, in Northern Kenya’s
Marsabit District, Eastern Province. Marsabit is the largest, most arid, and
least populated district in Kenya (Fratkin 1991: 1). Mt. Marsabit itself is
an extinct volcano that rises from the desert floor to an altitude of 1865
meters. The southern side of the mountain is semitropical forest that has been
declared a game reserve. This forest gradually slopes into scrub bush before
turning to desert. Songa lies on this interface between forest and bush, 15
kilometers south of the district capital, Marsabit town.
An AIC missionary, Earl Anderson, brought the first settlers to Songa in
1971. These settlers had been living in the Rendille town of Loglogo (at the
foot of Mt. Marsabit) and were relying on famine relief food from the AIC.
Anderson showed the original settlers how to farm, primarily maize, beans
and fruit trees, and helped to establish the irrigation system, primary school,
dispensary, and church. Today, almost every family compound has a water
tap, next to irrigated crops such as sikuma wiki (collard greens), tomatoes,
and bananas. Maize and beans are grown in adjacent fields and small numbers
of cattle and goats are herded on the outskirts of the community.
Almost all of the inhabitants of Songa (population 2,750) are Rendille and
Ariaal, two pastoral ethnic groups who have been on friendly terms since
Ariaal came into existence around the middle of the 19th century. While
Rendille live in the Kaisut Desert with their camels, goats, and sheep, Ariaal
live on the fringe of the Ndoto Mountains southwest of Marsabit so that
they may be nearer to environments suitable for cattle as well as camels
and small stock. These two ethnic groups share strong economic and social
relationships not only with each other, but also with Samburu who live in the
highlands to the south and west. It is from Samburu that Ariaal, and more
recently Rendille, originally obtained their cattle. Members of these three
ethnic groups continue strong social and economic bonds today.
The age-system and intergenerational relationships
Rendille and Ariaal age-systems support the authority of elders through
the structural superiority of senior generations over junior generations. In
age class systems of the type Rendille and Ariaal practice, ‘age assumes a
pre-eminent as a principle of social structure’ (Bernardi 1985: 2). Their agesystems
are of the initiation type, sharing two basic features: males have no
social autonomy until initiated into a new generation of the age-system, and
males of around the same age are initiated into the same age-set and pass
through the age grades of the age-system together (Bernardi 1985: 44). Initiating
a new age-system and passing through certain grades endows age mates
with rights, obligations, and social status. A key feature of age-systems is a
complementarity in which unity among peers is in contrast with a seniority
of elders over junior males (Spencer 1965: 81–82, 1990: 9–10).
Rendille and Samburu, and thus Ariaal, age-systems are basically similar
(Spencer 1973:33). Members of an age-set are initiated every fourteen years
via circumcision and they may not marry for ten or eleven years (Spencer
1973: 33). Initiates ideally join age-sets three generations below their fathers
(Spencer 1973: 34). Males pass through three principal age-grades or stages
that members of the same age-set pass through (Spencer 1965: 81). The first
period is boyhood, which lasts from birth to adolescence and is prior to
initiation into an age-set. Upon circumcision, an adolescent enters a period
of warriorhood, lasting up to early manhood before marriage. The period of
elderhood is reached when a man marries and continues until his death.
Studying how modernization affects Rendille and Ariaal of various ages
is facilitated by their age-systems because, as Fry notes, ‘age set societies
make explicit that which is more covert and diffuse about age in other kinds
of societies’ (1980: 7). Since one’s position in the age-system to a great
extent dictates his rights and obligations, the degree to which Rendille and
Ariaal adhere to age-system rules will have profound effects on males at
various stages of their lives. In particular, elders may find it increasingly
difficult to expect support and deference from warriors who now feel the pull
of individual market incentives encouraged by the agricultural economy of
Songa.
For Rendille and Ariaal, and Samburu as well, elders are understood to have
authority (amri in Kiswahili, nkitoria in Kisamburu) because, as leaders of
their families and of society, they can direct the actions of others. Their
authority includes ownership and control over the major resources of land
and animals. Interviews with 29 elders, 42 women, and 32 warriors from
Songa and 21 elders and warriors and 23 women from six pastoral communities
included questions on whether Songa elders had as much authority
as pastoral elders and whether the autonomy of women and warriors was
increasing. In addition to the basic yes/no questions and short answers, more
detailed open-ended questions included how farming and marketing were
affecting authority and autonomy and whether elders, women, or warriors
in Songa were different from their pastoral counterparts. Questions were
formulated prior to the fieldwork, but were extensively modified in the field
to better fit informants’ understandings. All interviews were conducted either
in Kiswahili by myself or in Kisamburu or Kirendille with the aid of my
assistants who translated directly to me. As Rendille and Ariaal are highly
sex-segregated societies, I employed one male and one female assistant for
interviews with males and females respectively to minimize bias.
Subjects from both Songa and the pastoral communities were chosen
based on whether there was at least one warrior-aged son in the family. Families
with traditionally dressed and western dressed warrior sons were chosen
to include these two types of warriors. While both types of warriors may
have attended school, traditionally dressed ones spend more time engaged in
social activities typical of pastoral warriors, singing, dancing, and grooming
themselves. Warriors in their mid-teens or less were not interviewed because
their immaturity made it more difficult for them to answer the questions. In
addition to households with warrior aged sons, eleven Songa households were
chosen that did not have warrior aged sons in order to broaden the age range
of elders and women interviewed.
Households and informants were not selected randomly. Instead, my
assistants contacted households based on my criteria for the types of informants
I was looking for. Of the roughly 285 households in Songa, 42 were
selected. Rather than surveying a large number of households, this number
was chosen to allow more time for multiple interviews with informants and
for other observations and surveys of the community. The goal of selecting
households was to interview people of various ages who had lived in Songa
for different amounts of time in order to include a wide enough variation in
responses.
One woman from each of the 42 sampled households in Songa was interviewed.
Only 29 elders were interviewed because some of the women were
widows or were second or third wives whose husbands lived elsewhere. In
one case the husband was herding his animals far from Songa and did not
return home while this research was being conducted. Because some of the
households were too recently established to have sons of warrior age or their
warrior sons were away herding, 32 warriors were interviewed. Since men
typically marry their first wife who is at least fifteen years younger and it
is acceptable for a man to remarry after his wife has died, widowers are
extremely rare among Rendille and Samburu and I did not encounter any
while living in Songa. In contrast, because of the age disparity between
husbands and wives and because women are not allowed to remarry after the
death of their husbands, widows are common household heads. A brief return
visit to Songa one year after the original fieldwork was conducted included
reinterviews with ten elders, eleven women, and seven warriors to discuss the
conclusions I had drawn from the initial fieldwork.
Rendille and Ariaal from the 23 pastoral households were also interviewed
to place farming and marketing’s effects on culture change in a broader
perspective. Interviews took place in the nomadic settlements of Ndikir and
Lontolio, as well as permanent settlements of Ngurunit, Korr, Kargi, and
Karare. All of the settlements are in the Kaisut desert except for Karare, which
is located on Marsabit Mountain, about 20 kilometers from Songa. Twentyone
elders, 23 women, and 21 warriors were interviewed. The questionnaires
were similar to those used in Songa, but were modified to suit the pastoralists’
situation. Reinterviews with six elders, six women, and six warriors were
conducted upon my return to the area one year later.
Continuation of and challenges to elders’ authority in the farming
economy
Among Rendille and Ariaal, elders are believed to have authority because
they control the major resources and can therefore direct the actions of others.
Elders in Songa are no exception. They have been able to incorporate land
into their sphere of resource control because, as property, animals and land
are treated equally. According to informants, farming does not affect whether
elders lose their authority since they own and therefore have authority over
land. Rendille and Ariaal consider the leadership of elders as necessary to the
functioning of their society.
Elders can maintain authority over warriors because the latter have few
economic options outside the subsistence economy. Wage earning opportunities
have been noted for freeing younger men from their seniors, although
there are rarely enough well paying jobs to grant younger men complete selfsufficiency
(Foner 1984: 217). This is particularly true in sparsely populated
northern Kenya. The more realistic goal for most warriors in Songa, particularly
those who have not gone to school or who have dropped out, is to marry
and obtain farmland, both of which require the assistance of their fathers.
Bridewealth is still paid in cattle, and warriors obtain cattle mainly from their
fathers or other senior male relatives. Good land near water taps is a scarce
resource and is in the hands of elders. Land can be bought, although not
very easily since Songa residents are beginning to realize its value. One can
clear bush for a farm, but uncleared land is beyond the reaches of the irrigation
system, which makes growing lucrative fruits and vegetables difficult.
Land on the outskirts of Songa is also more susceptible to encroachment by
baboons during the day and by elephants at night. The most feasible option
for warriors is, therefore, to work for their fathers, with the knowledge that
they will eventually obtain their own farms when they reach elderhood and
marry.
There are, however, concerns that elders are losing their authority in
Songa.Many Songa informants claim elders have less time than their pastoral
counterparts to socialize under the elders’ shade tree and discuss community
affairs. While this assertion is not supported by time allocation data that
compared pastoral and agropastoral Rendille and Ariaal communities (Smith
1997: 161), there is also the concern that it is less convenient for Songa elders
to meet because houses are more spatially separated. In addition, women and
warriors are thought to be increasing their independence through controlling
their own work. This individualizing nature of farming enhances the ability
of individuals to make money from their own efforts in their gardens.
Understanding changes in elders’ authority from the point of view of those
living in Songa does not tell the whole story. These people may not be aware
of, or refuse to acknowledge the possibility that elders are experiencing a
decline in their control over resources and community affairs. It is necessary
to include the views of pastoral Rendille and Ariaal to obtain a greater understanding
on whether elders’ authority is diminishing in Songa. Chi-square
tests were conducted to compare whether Songa and Reserve informants
significantly differed when asked if elders in Songa had as much authority as
pastoral elders and if farming decreased their authority. Table 1 summarizes
the results, with percentages of informant’s responses in parentheses.
The chi-square test indicates no significant difference in the perception of
authority between Songa and Reserve elders. Table 1 shows the calculated
chi-square value of 2.66 has a p < 0.05, which is less than the distribution
table value of 3.84 at the 95% confidence interval and one degree of
freedom (Ott 1988: a7), indicating no significant difference between Songa
and Reserve informants’ answers. Time allocation data also support the view
that Songa elders have as much authority as their pastoral counterparts in that
their leisure times do not significantly differ.
The chi-square test in Table 1 on whether farming affects elders’ authority
yielded a value of 4.9, which is significant for the chi-square having a
p > 0.5 with a 95% confidence interval and one degree of freedom. To
those living in Songa, farming and concomitant separation does not diminish
elders’ authority since significantly fewer of them mention this as a problem.
However, Reserve informants believe that farming affects the leadership
function of elders as a group. Meeting daily to discuss community affairs is
considered an important role for Rendille and Ariaal elders as community
leaders. The farming economy prevents Songa elders from meeting because
they must distance themselves from each other in order to have large enough
farms.
Elders’ authority and women’s and warriors’ autonomy are not mutually
exclusive according to elders from Songa. Elders can still have as much
authority at the same time women and warriors have more autonomy through
farming and selling produce. Many women and warriors from Songa believe
that elders control them less because they have greater control over their own
work and its products (produce and the money made from selling it). This
suggests that the increased autonomy of women and warriors derives from
access to the market and the type of work they perform. The ability for individuals
to do all phases of farming – preparing the soil, planting, weeding, and
harvesting – not only grants women and warriors greater autonomy, but also
makes for more self-reliance. In the pastoral economy, people from different
age and sex categories are involved in different phases of production. Women
typically milk the animals and maintain the house, while warriors look after
livestock in the distant stock camps. Elders contribute considerably less labor,
dedicating their time instead to herd management and settling community
disputes. Some of these age and sex specific tasks are carried over in Songa.
Warriors still herd animals, and women still maintain the houses and milk
the animals. For the first time, however, an individual warrior or woman can
work in his or her own plot and claim the profits from it.
Warriors’ autonomy and new economic opportunities
The ideal that elders are leaders of Rendille and Ariaal society has not yet
seriously been challenged. For the most part, Songa informants believe that
warriors obey elders as much in Songa as they do in the Reserve because
elders have authority over all warriors, regardless of where they live. Some
women and warriors do, however, think that warriors obey elders less in
Songa because they live and socialize with other members of the community.
In particular, Songa warriors spend time around women, something pastoral
warriors are prohibited from doing.Warriors are also more inclined to believe
that farming lets them concentrate on their own mashamba to the neglect of
helping their fathers. Although land is a new resource and farming requires
more work input that can lead warriors to ignore helping their fathers, the
proximity of warriors to elders makes it easier for warriors to be controlled.
This proximity counteracts the individualizing tendencies of farming and
marketing.
A crucial difference between selling crops versus livestock is that only the
latter creates a conflict of interest between the warrior and the elder. In the
pastoral economy, most of the animals a warrior herds are owned and therefore
controlled by his father. Farming, however, lets the warrior personally
benefit by concentrating on his own shamba. If the warrior tries to sell an
animal, his father loses one animal from the family herd. But if a warrior
sells crops he has grown, the father still has his land. In the former situation,
any gain by the warrior is a loss for the elder. In the latter situation, benefits
to the warrior do not diminish the elder’s property.
Economic autonomy for warriors begins when they can obtain farmland.
All sons can expect their fathers to give them land to farm when they are
warriors, similar to the way pastoral warriors are given animals by their
fathers. Land can be obtained more easily than animals because clearing the
bush for one’s own farm is not automatically another’s loss. Water for crops
can be obtained either from the father’s tap or, if cleared in the small valleys
between ridges, from nearby waterholes.Warriors can quickly amass cattle by
raiding enemies, but the repercussions from the law and from counter raids
make this costly. Perhaps in the future land will be harder to get as more
bush is cleared and population density in Songa increases, but for now land
is easier to obtain than animals. Furthermore, the incentive to obtain land is
heightened because elders do not control produce to the degree they control
animals and because warriors now know the profitability of farming.
While the authority of elders is considered to be the same whether in
Songa or the Reserve, significantly fewer Reserve informants claim warriors
in Songa obey elders as much as their pastoral counterparts. The chi-square
value in Table 2 of 5.47 has a p > 0.05 which is significant at the 95%
confidence interval and one degree of freedom (percentages of informants’
responses are in parentheses). More pastoral Rendille and Ariaal say Songa
warriors obey elders less because farming and marketing encourage selfishness
and abandonment of pastoral culture. Songa warriors also interact more
with elders and women, an activity that causes warriors to ignore cultural
restrictions. They are often in the same house with elders or women, something
very rarely encountered in the Reserve. By contrast, Reserve warriors
avoid entering houses that an adult is in, unless the adult is the warrior’s
mother.
The age-system gives warriors freedom while at the same time making
them obey elders. Most warriors want to continue the tradition of warriorhood,
in part because they are at their most autonomous in the stock camps,
away from the direct rule of the elders. The freedom warriors have when away
from the elders is based on the understanding that warriors respect elders
by keeping their distance. One cannot separate these two seemingly contradictory
elements of warriorhood. When farming replaces herding as a way
of life, working side by side with elders on the farms makes the separation
of warriors from elders obsolete. At present, only educated Songa warriors
consider warriorhood a nuisance because it is somewhat incompatible with
farming and the profits that can be made, but I suspect the significance of the
age-system and warriorhood will eventually diminish for all young men as
farming and marketing take precedence over herding.
At present, Rendille and Ariaal elders and warriors have little desire
to abandon the age-system. Among Ilparakuyo Maasai agropastoralists,
warriors historically resisted commoditization and external political control
by organizing themselves and maintaining the importance of age-system
rituals (Rigby 1992: 80). Since colonial times Ilparakuyo elders, on the other
hand, attempted to weaken the age-system in order to lessen the power that
warriors had through their solidarity. Rendille and Ariaal warriors also want
to perpetuate the age-system and warriorhood because of the respect accorded
them as protectors of society and because warriorhood is a time of cama-
raderie and freedom unequalled in a man’s later years. Rendille and Ariaal
elders also have not attempted to weaken the age-system since this very
system assures their control over resources and the labor of warriors.
Unlike what Rigby claims for Ilparakuyo Maasai warriors, Rendille and
Ariaal warriors do not resist commoditization. They use some of their earnings
to purchase Western goods. Flashlights, digital watches, and shoes and
socks for ritual occasions are new prestigious items. Many warriors in Songa
and settled towns in the desert think themselves as the most ‘developed’ of
all warriors because they are interested in education, making money, and
purchasing Western clothes and other goods. It is possible that new consumer
demands will diminish the importance of warriorhood and the age-system,
and hence support of elders’ authority. Warriors who wish to remain as they
are and only borrow certain objects from Western culture, such as digital
watches or flashlights, may find it more difficult to do so as prices for these
objects rise, forcing them to sell animals, crops, or do wage work, activities
that only further increase dependency on the outside world.
Present day warriors are proud of their customs and place great importance
on respecting and obeying elders. They are still needed for herding, raiding,
and defending against neighboring ethnic groups who vie for water, pastures,
and now farmland, around Marsabit Mountain. As recently as 1996, after the
long rains had failed to produce good pastures, Rendille and Ariaal warriors
from Marsabit Mountain herded animals across the Kaisut desert to Samburu
territory on the Lbarta plains many kilometers west. Here again they were
needed to defend against raiding Turkana from the north who themselves had
suffered drought.
What is apparent from interviews is that more pastoral Rendille and Ariaal
see greater autonomy for Songa warriors than do Songa residents themselves.
It is not that pastoralists or farmers are more correct in their assessments; they
approach the issue from different experiences. Pastoral elders can more easily
control the economic activities of warriors, while farming and marketing give
warriors in Songa more opportunities. Since these latter activities have been
practiced for just over one generation, any increase in autonomy for Songa
warriors is in its infancy. It remains to be seen whether the age-system will
stay intact and whether elders will be able to enforce their authority over
warriors.
The effects of new work and living arrangements
The new living arrangement brought about by Songa’s agricultural economy
breaks down the respect warriors have for elders. Among pastoral Rendille
and Ariaal, respect is synonymous with adherence to the rule of spatial sepa-
ration. Separateness is deference. But the notion of respect is loosened in the
farming economy because people must now work and live together in order to
make the economic system function. Tensions between the generations may
arise when warriors live in the community full time and ignore the rule of
segregation that accompanies warriorhood. Elders may suspect that warriors
are attempting to commit adultery, while warriors themselves may revere
elders less, as contact between the generations increases.
Many tasks in the pastoral economy are age and sex specific. Warriors
manage the fora camps and water the animals, two tasks that are performed
away from the community. With farming, everybody works side by side
within the same shamba, and there is more overlap with regard to tasks.
This living arrangement is new to pastoral Rendille and Ariaal and ultimately
decreases the respect warriors have for elders as warriors become
more involved in their own individual economic pursuits. At present, warriors
in Songa continue to respect the elders highly. Most Songa residents do not
think that warriors living and working with the rest of society is incompatible
with showing respect to elders. But pastoral Rendille and Ariaal are more
likely to comment on the importance of this difference. To them, it is a sign
of disrespect for warriors to spend too much time in the mixed company of
elders and married women.
As the economic situation changes, so do certain cultural practices that
fulfill economic requirements. Such is the case with warriorhood. The need
for a segregated group of bachelor warriors to perform vital herding tasks
changes into a situation in which young men must direct their efforts toward
tasks that take place within the community and alongside elders and married
women. Songa warriors are then expected to market produce and can take
the opportunity to profit from their individual efforts in ways not available to
their pastoral counterparts.
Western education, health care, and religion affect the role and authority
of older Africans (Udvardy & Cattell 1992: 276). These institutions are
increasingly becoming a reality as well as a necessity among Rendille and
Ariaal. Nowhere is this truer than among those who live in Songa. Of all
these institutions, western education has the greatest effect on intergenerational
relationships because it is almost exclusively directed at the younger
generations. The availability of school for settled people is combined with
the Kenya government’s emphasis on educating children and Rendille and
Ariaal acknowledged importance of a western education in today’s climate
of increased contact with the market economy through wage jobs and gear-
ing production for each generation. In addition, Songa residents are aware
that the modern agricultural knowledge taught in school will increase farm
productivity.
African intergenerational tensions heighten as younger generations adopt
Western ideals and lifestyles (Udvardy & Cattell 1992: 277). One of the
consequences of Western education is the tendency for Rendille and Ariaal
warriors to devalue the knowledge and authority of elders as representatives
par excellence of the traditional social order. Warriors might not feel the need
to defer to elders unless the latter still control the major resources. Elders of
Somalia’s Bay Region have been able to control sons by incorporating new
resources, such as education, into their existing system of property by making
sons dependent on them for school fees. They have been able to do so because
education is so expensive that only wealthier men can afford to send children
to school (Glascock 1986: 67). In Kenya, however, the public school system
is more widespread and affordable, particularly at the primary level, which
makes the education of not just one or two sons possible. It is the goal of
practically all Rendille and Ariaal families in Songa to educate several of
their children.
Roth (1991) discovered among pastoral Rendille that poor families send
more children to school because of less need for them as labor and to maximize
the chance for these children to get wage jobs in the future. In Songa,
however, most families send their children to school. Nobody lives far from
the school, which is also affordable because the NGO Food for the Hungry
International has been sponsoring children and paying for improvements to
the school. While it is true that females are educated less often (they are
expected to help their mothers with domestic duties) and drop out at a younger
age (to marry), parents in Songa recognize the benefits of an education in
today’s world. They want children to attend school not only for the better
chance of getting jobs, but also to learn new agricultural technologies.
Educated young men have advantages over elders when dealing with
new types of knowledge such as the market economy. Cowgill and Holmes
note that, ‘in a changing society, the young people are nearly always better
educated than their elders and thus the latter lose the authority deriving from
superior knowledge’ (1972: 313). Among Sidamo of Southwest Ethiopia, for
instance, young men have been accepted by elders as spokesmen and leaders
when dealing with government officials and coffee merchants (Hamer 1972:
30). Children in Songa learn about agriculture and business in school, which
puts them in a superior position to elders with regard to farming techniques
and growing crops for sale.
In recent years, the principle of seniority can be circumvented through
education or alternative income and prestige, all of which lie outside the tradi-
tional culture (Cattell 1989: 237–238). New social institutions and economic
changes have affected the authority of elders among both Tiriki of Kenya and
Irigwe of Nigeria. Wage labor, cash, imports, churches, dispensaries, agricultural
services, and administrative bureaucracies, all of which are primarily
occupied by the young and educated, have made many traditional duties
and concomitant power and respect bases of elders obsolete (Sangree 1992:
354). Young Tiriki and Irigwe who are educated, especially males, can now
circumvent much of the ritual and economic power of lineage and clan elders
(Sangree 1992: 356).
Most parents in Songa decide together to educate their children. They typically
send only some children to school because others are needed to farm,
herd animals, or help around the house. This is the case when another child
has married or has obtained a job elsewhere. Even if parents want to continue
sending their children to school however, they may not be able to raise enough
money for the costly secondary school fees. There are also some children who
refuse to go to school or drop out because they want to be warriors or nekerai
(girlfriends of warriors).
Western education is a mixed blessing. On the positive side, children
learn about agriculture and can help their community, or their education may
translate into a future job. Some educated warriors think their uneducated
counterparts are wasting time with traditional activities, and emphasize the
benefit of learning how to farm. The down side, however, is that educated
young people can leave their culture behind and refuse to listen to their
parents or the elders. This is something about which elders are especially
concerned.
The decreased interest that warriors have in obeying their parents or
the elders will take time to manifest. There are presently few employment
options, especially in northern Kenya, and young men still value warriorhood.
Many warriors who have finished primary school, and even some who have
finished secondary school, continue the traditions associated with warriorhood.
They herd animals, wear traditional warrior costume, and socialize
almost exclusively with their peers.
The greater emphasis placed on education in Songa, both because it is
easier to send children to school nearby as well as because parents recognize
the benefits of education, is acknowledged as decreasing the importance
warriors and the community as a whole place on the warrior lifestyle. In a
conversation with two elders who have educated warrior sons, education was
considered to be a necessary component of future Rendille and Ariaal subsistence,
particularly in Songa. Both men discussed how the living and working
conditions brought about by farming make rules on segregating warriors from
the rest of the community harder to follow.
Some warriors here go in groups [as they do in the Reserve]. They should
eat separate, even take maize flour to the bush [to cook as ughali]. There
is a barrier between educated and traditional warriors. Educated ones take
food at home and do not follow traditional warriors into the bush. They
think traditional warriors are stupid. It is not necessary and too hard to
go to the bush to get firewood and cook. Traditional warriors [on the
other hand] think educated ones are stupid because they do not hide their
food. It is hard for [traditional] warriors with clay in their hair to follow
customs. Maybe in five years coming everybody will take their children
to school. It is too hard for educated warriors to go to fora or the bush.
Is it farming, education, or both that makes warriors leave their traditional
life?
Both. When you take children to school they will continue to farm, sell
and look for money. They are used to beds and will say that herding life
in fora is too hard. They think life here [in Songa] is easier.
Isn’t it still necessary to have traditional warriors to herd animals?
Yes, because your animals must go to fora. But I am talking about five
years from now. When we were warriors, life was hard because we took
animals to fora far away. Sometimes we could stay away for three years.
But here it is easier to get food. Now, everybody wants to take their
children to school. But they want to have animals too. You need only
one cow for milk and two bulls to plow. You can hire a warrior. Pay him a
heifer or a calf each year to herd the rest of your animals. It is expensive
to do but unavoidable. You should give your animals to a relative to herd.
Then who will herd the animals?
After five years we will not have traditional warriors. This will happen
everywhere. Every place has permanent settlement now. Even Korr and
Kargi [Rendille mission towns in the Kaisut desert below Mt. Marsabit].
Everywhere you see mabati [permanent, iron sheet houses], children will
be going to school. Someone who is educated and married will insist their
children to go to school.
Who will herd the animals when all the children are in school?
The animals will decrease. Just leave a few for milk. The educated ones
will sell bulls and take the money to the bank.
What about a nomadic community likes Lewogoso?
There, even two or three children are going to school. When they get help
from a [development] project to get water and a school, they will leave
that life too.
Both elders somewhat lament educated warriors of today leaving their traditions.
However, they believe that this is necessary for the sake of progress.
Farming and marketing produce are viewed as more knowledge-intensive
economic activities, and education is important for learning how to maximize
crop productivity. The tradeoff is less emphasis on pastoralism, on which
warriors play an essential economic role.
Among agropastoral Samia of western Kenya, many claim that education
is the chief cause of separation between the generations, yet both young
and old realize the value of western education as labor migration plays
an essential role in household maintenance (Cattell 1989: 234–235). Being
more isolated in northern Kenya’s sparsely populated arid regions, Rendille
and Ariaal have experienced less of a pull from labor migration compared
to Samia. But increased sedentarization from the combination of drought,
missionary incentives, and the encroaching market economy has made the
subsistence economy less viable and wage work more attractive. This is
particularly so for educated younger males who, until recently, expected to
occupy the position of warriors with the economic function of herding and
defending their communities’ animals.
It is difficult to predict what the next generation of warriors will do since
age-sets are initiated every fourteen years. If people invest more in their farms
than in animals and increasingly rely on the market economy for basic necessities,
rituals will be the only thing left of warriorhood. The economic and
political functions of the age-system that now exist will be of no use. Already
in Songa, herding warriors regularly interact with the other members of
society when they return home from fora; behavior that is considered to
be a lack of respect. School does nothing to discourage this behavior since
students live at home and learn about agriculture, business, and the potential
of wage jobs. Even Reserve parents are sending their children to school
because droughts have depleted their herds and there are no other options
for their children. The end result will be warrior-aged males concentrating
on education and the possibilities it can bring for a livelihood outside of the
pastoral economy.
Christianity’s effect on elders’ authority
Many Songa residents are concerned with Christianity’s negative effects on
Rendille and Ariaal culture. Of the two churches in Songa, the Catholic
church is more lenient about the congregation following their own culture,
even to the point of acknowledging traditional marriage. One wedding ceremony
I witnessed took place on a Sunday. The priest, a Rendille, held mass at
the compound of the father of the bride because he knew people would attend
the wedding rather than the church service. But the Protestant AIC church
discourages people from participating in traditional rituals or following traditional
customs; it also does not acknowledge traditional wedding ceremonies
or marriages.
The institution of warriorhood is particularly threatened by Christian
values. Group circumcision of adolescent males every fourteen years is a
primary feature of the age-system. This rite of passage turns a boy into a
warrior, who must then defer to elders or face curses and fines from them.
Christianity will surely weaken the age-system through its emphasis on
circumcising boys in hospitals shortly after birth. Another symbol of warriorhood
is wearing traditional warrior clothes and having a distinctive hairstyle
that includes putting udongo (a type of clay) in the hair. The AIC church
is against these practices, which it views as a sign of pagan backwardness.
The concerns about Christianity changing Rendille and Samburu culture are
reflected in the comments of two informants.
People know more about religion. People can follow the ways of Christianity
or Islam. For example, some are following the ways of Somali
because they are Muslim. Or some are Catholic or AIC and they go out of
the culture. They have a [church] wedding, and Samburu and Rendille do
not do that. If your child joins one of those religions he will go out of the
culture. The elders are saying this way of going to churches is not good
(Songa elder).
If all people were going to church, that could affect [changing our
culture]. Not all churches. With the Catholic church, you can still go to
church and you can still do your customs. But with the AIC it will change
the culture. Catholics let people drink or elders chew tobacco. They do not
tell warriors to remove udongo from our heads. But with AIC, they tell us
that because we know God, to remove this udongo and put on shirts, do
not chew tobacco, and so many other things (Songa warrior).
New Christian churches sometimes undermine the legitimacy of old people’s
authority when they are no longer believed to have ritual powers or necessary
knowledge (Foner 1984: 211). The educated youth are among the strongest
followers of both the AIC and Catholic churches. The AIC particularly
emphasizes Christian values over ‘traditional’ ones, discouraging practices
such as weddings outside the church. Through involvement in the church,
young men may find the advice and knowledge of the elders to be antiquated
and refuse to listen to their instructions. Songa is not the only Rendille or
Ariaal community that has experienced Christianity but because the inhabitants
are permanently settled, it is easier for the churches to preach their
values.
Traditional institutions persist, however, despite the imposition of Christian
values. The ideal of polygyny, for instance, is still strong among Rendille
and Ariaal elders. There have been instances in which elders who were
upstanding members of the AIC in Songa have taken second wives. One of
the original seven elders who settled Songa recently married a second wife.
This man is no ordinary elder. He was an original member of the AIC church
committee in Songa and had training as a lay missionary. As a Christian, he
was appointed by the missionary who founded Songa to act as a community
leader. His son is active in the church today and distresses over what his father
has done, but acknowledges that elders still value polygyny even if they are
Christians.
The decline of the age-system and warriorhood?
The economic function of warriors in Songa continues as long as there are
animals to herd. Most of the animals must be kept away from the community
to avoid disturbing the mashamba. Recent clashes and raid with neighboring
Boran still call for warriors to defend the community and retrieve stolen
animals. Not only does the community need warriors for their economic
functions, young men themselves find the warrior life desirous. It embodies a
last chance for freedom from the responsibility that accompanies elderhood.
Wearing traditional dress, singing and dancing, and socializing with friends
are also enjoyable. Even some warriors who wear Western clothes sing and
dance in the afternoon and at night alongside traditionally dressed warriors.
The majority of elders, women, and warriors interviewed currently believe
that warriors will continue their ways despite the various influences of
farming and marketing, increased education, Christianity, and potential for
wage jobs. This applies not only to the present Ilmeoli age-set, for they
will eventually marry and become elders, but future generations as well.
However, many educated elders and warriors predict increasing education
and Western influence will cause the age-system to cease as anything more
than a symbolic function for warriors. Educated warriors, in particular, do not
value dressing up and dancing with their age-mates and nekerai as traditional
warriors do.
The commitment to farming affects circumcision, one of the major rituals
associated with warriorhood and the age-system, by preventing participants
from shifting to lorora (temporary circumcision community) at the time of the
circumcision ceremony. Each clan is supposed to form its own lorora every
fourteen years for the days surrounding the circumcision and initiation of
warriors (Spencer 1973: 87). All initiates and their mothers and fathers must
attend, regardless of how far away they live from their clan’s lorora. This
shifting does not present a problem for pastoralists, as necessary animals for
milk and slaughter can be brought along while the rest of the community’s
members remain behind. In Songa, however, the few families of one clan will
not shift because of their work obligations on the farm.
Last circumcision time [1992–93] we circumcised by clan in lorora in
Songa. Masula clan had their place and Lorogushu had theirs. But since
there are some in Songa who are only a few in their clan, they will just
circumcise with another clan here because they do not want to shift to
where they are supposed to and leave the work in their shamba. If you
are only one or three families you will not form your own lorora. There
is nothing that would stop pastoralists from shifting. The clans initiating
in their lorora will even wait for boys from far places to come before
doing circumcision. It is just Songa people who cannot move because of
farming. But those living in Reserve will shift no matter how far away
they are. In each clan there is a special family who must be present before
circumcision takes place. Even if that family is in Songa, they will be
collected before that circumcision takes place (Songa elder).
One thing that can affect our culture here is maybe education and
people working hard. For instance, during circumcision people shift to
one place. But here fewer people built a hut in lorora because they
are very busy working on their mashamba. Or some [warriors] are in
secondary school or even working in Nairobi (Songa educated warrior).
It is uncertain, not only among anthropologists but among many Rendille and
Ariaal as well, whether warriorhood will continue in a farming community
that is directly tied to the cash economy. One of the difficulties of determining
whether the age-system is disappearing is the length of time it involves. A
period of fourteen years passes from the time a youth is initiated into his ageset
until he graduates into elderhood and a new age-set is formed. The next
age-set initiates might be as interested in continuing the warrior lifestyle as
is the present Il Meoli generation. However, increased education and more
reliance on farming discourage warriorhood in Songa, as many warriors
acknowledge. They have less time to socialize with their age mates while
attending school, especially since teachers discourage boys from participating
in warrior activities and wearing traditional dress. The increased reliance on
farming, with labor demands keeping sons on the farm, will further prevent
future warriors from following the warrior lifestyle, which is so tied up with
the pastoral culture.
Conclusion
The elderly among many ethnic groups throughout Africa seem to experience
the same loss of ritual and material authority through the advent of western
institutions such as schools and the cash economy. For instance, among
Samia, old age was a time for men and women to develop their wisdom
and advise the younger generations. This permitted aged to control material
property and have power and authority (Cattell 1989: 232). But colonialism
brought about several changes that devalued traditional knowledge. Peasant
farming, imported goods, cash, cotton as a cash crop, male labor migration,
centralized leadership, and western education will encourage the younger
generations to value modern knowledge (Cattell 1989: 232–233).
Rendille and Ariaal have also experienced the same outside influences,
especially those who settled in Songa and engaged in farming and selling
produce, that threaten to undermine the authority of the elders. In general,
Songa residents do not believe that elders are losing their control over
resources. The gerontocratic structure of Rendille and Ariaal societies continues
for the most part. Elders have incorporated land into their sphere of
resource control much in the way they control livestock. Their leisure and
work times are in fact similar to those of pastoral elders. Since Songa is barely
more than one generation old, any changes are difficult to detect because they
might be just beginning. The views of pastoral Rendille and Ariaal, however,
suggest ways in which elders’ authority is challenged by factors related to
the new farming economy. The individualizing nature of farming and the
incentive to sell produce that the individual has raised give both women and
warriors opportunities for autonomy that they do not have in the pastoral
economy. More spatially separated living conditions further discourage elders
from meeting in larger groups to discuss community affairs, an important
component of elderhood.
Certain aspects of farming tend to undermine how much warriors obey
elders. Most important of these is the ability for warriors to work for themselves
in their own mashamba. Even though Songa elders still control the
major resources, warriors control their labor and the money they make from
produce sales. Their profits do not adversely affect elders’ resources. In
contrast, warriors are restricted from selling animals because this type of
resource is a major investment that takes years to replace and becomes an
immediate loss for the elder. Warriors in Songa are not unruly. Most of them
express the desire to wait until they are allowed to marry, an indication of
obeying elders. But sex and age segregated work roles and living arrangements
that separate pastoral warriors from their communities no longer serve
as useful a function in the farming economy. It is also more difficult for elders
to keep warriors away from married women.
Cultural rules and values are adaptable, as evidenced by the way elders
have maintained their authority and control over resources in the face of
major social transformation. The age-system has remained intact, with many
young men, even educated ones, stressing the importance of warriorhood for
their identity. Not only does the ideology persist, but there is still a need for
warriors to herd animals. Recent clashes and livestock raids between Rendille
and Ariaal and neighboring Boran have continued the importance of warriors
as defenders of society. But much can happen in Songa that will diminish
the economic and social importance of warriorhood by the time the next
age-set is initiated. New opportunities in Songa that give warriors greater
economic independence impinge upon the privileged position elders occupy
in the pastoral economy. More males will attend school longer, and there will
be less time for pastoral activities as farming and marketing produce become
more important. Therefore, a major mechanism of control that elders have
over warriors and their productive activities may be lost.
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