Panel on Pastoralism in the Face of Climate Change and the COVID-19 Pandemic in East Africa hosted by the Commission on Nomadic Peoples (CNP

On October 20, 2023, the Commission on Nomadic Peoples (CNP) hosted a virtual panel on “Pastoralism in the face of Climate Change and the COVID-19 pandemic in East Africa” convened by Dr. Kariuki Kirigia, University of Toronto, Canada, who was also the discussant.

The panel featured presentations by:

• Emmanuel Leyani (MSc), The Kesho Trust, Tanzania.
• Salau Rogei, Carleton University, Canada
• Justin Raycraft, University of Lethbridge, Canada

Initially the panel was to present its papers at the 19^th IUAES World Anthropology Conference in New Delhi India. However, the panelists were not able to attend the conference in Delhi for various reasons but mainly due to:

1. Inability to secure visas mainly for the panel organizers from Canada due to current Canada-India visa issues;
2. Lack of sufficient funds to support some panel members to travel to India.

The significance and timeliness of this panel discussion meant that it was critical that an alternative way be found for it to proceed. Following discussions between Dr. Ariell Ahearn and Dr. Kirigia, CNP offered to host the panel online on the 20^th of October 2023.

Two main question guided the presentation (1) How were East African pastoralists impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic? and (2) What was the pastoralist communities’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic?

Emmanuel Leyani presented on Tanzania Pastoralist Climate Change Coping Strategies in the Face of Covid19; Dr. Salau Rogei presentation was titled COVID-19, Conflicts, and Pastoralism in protracted landscapes: Exploring Perspectives and lived experiences from Turkana and Pokot communities in Kenya, and Dr. Justin Raycraft presented on ethnographic dimensions of the first Covid-19 wave in Tanzania’s Masailand.

The first presenter, Dr. Raycraft, presented about the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Tanzania’s Maasailand during the first wave of the pandemic, based on his own observations. Dr. Rogei, who presented second, noted that the pandemic was a multiplier risk to Pokot pastoralists who are already affected by the climate change crisis. According to Dr. Rogei, speaking of COVID-19 is explaining the unexplainable: communities perceive it as a curse – God is not happy with injustices and inequities. It is perceived as one of the many tragedies that happened in the past, such as livestock disease outbreaks or droughts. Mr. Leyani, the third presenter, further explained that among the remedies taken by the Maasai community in northern Tanzania to curb the pandemic included ritual performances prescribed by the community spiritual leader, Oloiboni. In Maa language, these rituals are called esajata, endarata, and engipoore.

 

How were East African pastoralists impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic? 

According to Dr. Raycraft, pastoralists were impacted by reduced tourism activities, which resulted in reduced cash flow for local investors and communities that were dependent on the safari industry.

According to Dr. Rogei, COVID-19 was a multiplier risk to Pokot pastoralists who are already affected by the climate change crisis. The Pokot pastoralists reported that COVID-19:

• Eroded resilience within the already fragile social-economic and geographical landscape;
• Diminished movements within and across borders which confined them to doom;
• Rendered markets inaccessible and resulted in food shortages;
• Increased girls’ school dropout rates and led to young marriages that came with increased conflicts;
• Caused failure of cultural structures/peace accords breakdown.

In addition, Mr. Leyani reported that pastoralists in Tanzania were affected through:

• Restricted mobility of people and livestock;
• Restricted assembly of community members for social, cultural, and political issues (i.e., the social distancing and lockdown policies);
• Reduced access to veterinary services;
• Reduced remittances from migrant youth;
• Increased cost of transportation (i.e., hire instead of public transport).

 

What was the pastoralist communities’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic?

According to Dr. Raycraft, pastoralists at the community level took the initiative to implement their own public health measures. For example, the Pastoral Women’s Council an organization run by pastoralists to support pastoralists, especially women, repurposed their vehicle with loudspeakers on top to broadcast international public health guidelines. Such measures included: washing hands, ‘social’ distancing, etc. The rural Maasai villages were said to uphold these guidelines diligently.

In northern Kenya for example, Dr. Rogei reported that community response to COVID-19 included:

• Application of traditional herbs and indigenous knowledge systems;
• Community use of other disasters as a benchmark to handle COVID-19;
• Digitized and commercialized cattle theft.

Mr. Leyani further added that in Tanzania, pastoralists also responded to the pandemic in various ways which included:

• The use of locally available resources to fulfill basic needs: illness – medicinal plants; water and pasture – abundantly available locally due to reduced influx of seasonal migrants from elsewhere;
• The use of local or community traders, ilchulusi, to offset livestock traders who are no longer coming to local markets;
• The use of community veterinary paraprofessionals to offset extension officers who are no longer visiting the community.

 

Conclusion

All presenters had concluding remarks reflecting on the effects of climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic on pastoralist communities. Dr. Raycraft, for example, concluded by emphasizing the need for further research in the following areas:

• Longer-term research to assess the effects of COVID measures on pastoralism in Tanzania;
• Further research on intersections between COVID measures, drought, and livestock movements (i.e., Emmanuel Research 2021-2023).

Dr. Raycraft’s conclusion further observed that pastoralists’ localized forms of rotational grazing remained largely unchanged, but long distance patterns of herder and livestock movements may have been more affected. He emphasized that long distance movements are necessary during times of severe, and prolonged drought.

Dr. Rogei in his conclusion also reiterated that:

• COVID-19 was anti-commons – lack of sharing;
• Pastoralists’ resilience is embedded in mobility – this was curtailed and vulnerability exacerbated;
• It amplified marginalization – the focus of stakeholders was on other areas.

Lastly, Mr. Leyani concluded with the following remarks:

• Pastoralism is a viable livelihood system that supports indigenous and local communities’ social, cultural, and economic development.
• It is resilient and has an adaptive capacity to cope with the current changing climate (i.e., the ability to move livestock elsewhere).
• It is supported internationally and regionally by policies but it is less supported locally by policy and practice.
• Hence, advocacy for its resilience and adaptive capacity to climate change and other catastrophes such as the COVID-19 pandemic, is crucial.

 

Remarks from the discussant

Dr. Kariuki who convened and moderated the panel, remarked that the three presentations provided a rich coverage of the broad pastoralist terrain in East Africa with Maasai communities in Tanzania and Kenya being well represented. The two countries adopted starkly different approaches to the COVID-19 pandemic, where the Tanzanian state for a long time downplayed the pandemic as unfounded and unreal while Kenya adopted lockdown measures that significantly curtailed movement across the country. Over time, however, especially following the passing of Tanzania’s former president, Magufuli, pandemic measures were revised with a major intervention being restriction on movement. In both countries, pastoralists are highly dependent on mobility to access pasture, water, and other resources, and so restricted movement which included the closure of schools halted these dynamics. The presentations showed both how the Maasai experienced difficulties and how innovative coping strategies were devised to live in and with the pandemic. In particular, the Maasai indigenous ways of life and life values became valuable sources of innovative coping strategies underscoring the role of culture as a repository of not only the known patterns of life but also of knowledge of navigating the unknown and uncanny terrains. As such, the pastoral experience of the pandemic in East Africa highlights the significance of thinking around indigenous territories of life in seeking innovative ways of addressing global challenges such as pandemics and climate change. However, rather than implementing control mechanisms against indigenous lifeways, governments ought to support broader expression of indigenous ways of life and relations with people and the land, human and other than human life.