NAIROBI, Kenya – The Marakwet community is the latest tribe in Kenya to get a traditional homestead built in the Bomas of Kenya to showcase its cultural heritage which is distinct from the larger Kalenjin ethnic group.
Community members participated in the construction of a Marakwet traditional homestead ahead of the community’s first cultural festival slated for Friday, 8 November 2024.
Marakwet is now the 24th community to have a traditional homestead built in the Bomas of Kenya.
The others are: Mijikenda, Taita, Kuria, Kisii, Luhya, Kamba, Kikuyu, Meru, Embu, Gabbra, Somali, Sakuye, Rendile, Samburu, Borana, Sengwer, Turkana, Pokot, Njemps, Maasai, Kalenjin, Iteso and Luo.
During the festival, the Marakwet community will showcase its rich cultural heritage, including how it harmoniously co-existed with wildlife, its rich variety of food, how to cook traditional dishes as well as how the traditional homestead serves as an embodiment of the embedment of the natural world through its architecture and home making materials.
“So, we harmoniously lived together with our animals. We always make sure our environment is conducive for all of us. We are showcasing this because Marakwet has a very rich history, but it has never been documented. Our culture is rich, in terms of the cultural songs, the economic life, the food that we eat and even the rites of passage that we do. All of them serve to educate the community on the dos and don’ts of life. We work to show the world that we exist,” said John Kisang–chairman, Marakwet Cultural Festival.
The cultural heritage of the Marakwet community has been passed down from one generation to the next through customary laws, storytelling, proverbs, popular sayings, taboos, rites of passage ceremonies and naming of children and clans.
Kikie Kendagor, a member of the Marakwet Cultural Festival planning committee, said the environment has also been strongly embedded in the life of the community, with all Kalenjin clans named after wildlife and children named after natural phenomena such as seasons.
Kikie said the environment is central to the life of the community because the Marakwet land lies between natural forests (Cherangany Hills Forest), the “Hanging Valleys” [Kerio Valley Escarpment), Rift Valley floor and the riverine ecosystem. The Cherangany Hills Water tower is one of Kenya’s big five water tower and an importantbird area – IBA. The wider landscape, referred to as the Cherangany-Elgeyo Hills Ecosystem, consists of 12 protected forest blocks and hosts critical headwaters for Nzoia, Turkwel and Kerio rivers.
“Marakwet is embedded into conservation on the basis of the customary laws which the community is enshrined into. For instance, Marakwet customary law says that we relate with wildlife or natural resources and that is seen when naming children and through totems in clans. For instance, a child who is named after Kiprop, this is a child that translates into seasons because the rainy season is called Kibor or Cherop for a lady, and in our clans, you will find that the clans are named after certain animals.
For instance, a clan named Kimoi is after buffalo, and a clan named after elephant is known as Terik. With all this naming, it is a symbol of how the Marakwet community related well with conservation or the wise use of natural resources,” said Kikie. With a bachelors degree in management of wildlife, Kikie is in charge of communications and documentation of the Marakwet culture for the festival.
Some of the community’s proverbs strongly linked to nature, Kikie said, include the popular one that says “One tree can never make a forest,” and “the cow that grazes carefully lives long.”
“Conservation of nature is intricately linked to the diverse cultural practices of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities whose livelihoods entirely rely on natural resources. For instance, the Sengwer who belong to the larger Marakwet community, dwell in the natural forests in the Rift Valley where their distinct culture has maintained the forests’ pristine nature and sustained the ecosystem health and services it provides to humanity. It is against this backdrop that WWF-Kenya is supporting the Marakwet Cultural Festival 2024 to celebrate their cultural heritage and traditions and to provide them with a platform where they can amplify their voices on environmental conservation issues and shape policies affecting them in line with the Voices for Diversity project objectives,” Dr Yussuf Wato – Manager Biodiversity, Research and Innovation, WWF-Kenya.
In the recent past, Kikie said that the community has experienced the negative impacts of climate change, noting that the reduction in the population of birds whose feathers were used during initiation ceremonies of boys into adulthood.
