| First, why Kenya? I was looking for an African country that was colonized, which rules out only Ethiopia. I also didn't want a place where I could get killed, which knocks out Sudan and Somalia. I wanted somewhere where the U.S. was very active in providing agricultural aid and had been for some time. Kenya fits the bill but so do many other nations. Kenya specifically had something special: When Monsanto approached USAID to suggest that they would donate technology if USAID would fund the development of "humanitarian" GMOs back in 1990, Kenya was the first country targeted by that program, which began in 1991. (For more, see this article.) This year, Kenya legalized GMOs. Add to that the fact that they speak English, I actually took a class on Kenya in college so I know a bit about it, and it seems like it's a lot easier to find contacts in Kenya to visit than any other country, and the choice was simple.
Once I made my plans, I realized another reason why Kenya's a great pick. Africa's agriculture developed along the same lines as it language families. The first Bantu speakers, for example, domesticated a successful package of crops in modern day Cameroon, West Africa, and used that to spread out across the continent. Ethiopians domesticated another package of crops, as did those living in the Sahel region just south of the Sahara. Ethiopians and their crops are associated with Afro-Asiatic languages and in Kenya I believe the Afro-Asiatic speakers are all within the Cushitic group. Those who domesticated pearl millet and sorghum in the Sahel speak Nilo-Saharan languages (and within Kenya, the Nilo-Saharan speakers seem to be within the Nilotic branch). And Kenya also has plenty of Bantu speakers. So aside from the non-Bantu Niger-Congo speakers of West Africa and the strange group in Madagascar that speaks languages related to languages in Indonesia, Kenya has ethnic groups from each of the major language groups and hopefully agriculture to match! (For a quick primer on this topic, read the chapter on Africa in Guns, Germs, and Steel.)
So here's where I'm going:
Feb 4: Leave U.S. Fly through London, since my flights are always canceled and I might as well be in an English-speaking country when that happens.
Feb 5: I am scheduled to arrive in Nairobi at 9:40pm. If I actually arrive then, I'll be shocked. I'm hoping I get there by Feb 6 or so. (I love you, airline industry...)
Feb 6-7: Recover from jetlag in Nairobi. Visit museums, the huge slum Kibera, the African Network for Animal Welfare and see if I can get in touch with the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), who has not answered any of my emails yet. I REALLY want to hear directly from them what they are up to and how they feel it will help farmers. Maybe look up the World Agroforestry Centre and the International Livestock Research Institute as well. ILRI, to their credit, HAS answered my emails and was in the process of helping me plan to visit one of their sites. Then they asked me who I write for, I gave them the name of my publisher, and I haven't heard anything since. Again, I am VERY interested in hearing about their work directly from them and - even better - directly from the farmers they help.
Feb 8-11: I'll spend this time in Thika, a city about 30 km from Nairobi. From what I understand, this area is mostly populated by the Kikuyu, which is a large ethnic group and also the most powerful ethnic group within Kenya. There are a few NGOs I'll be visiting here, and two groups will take me out to meet the farmers they work with for two of the days I am there:
Feb 12-16: Travel to and visit Samburu. If you look at a map of Kenya, Samburu is roughly halfway between Nairobi and the northern border, directly north of Nairobi. Roughly half of this five day period will be taken up by travel to and from Samburu. The rest will be spent with the Samburu ethnic group. The Samburu are pastoralists who are similar, at least linguistically, to the more famous Maasai. Here I'll be with the African LIFE Network, who doesn't appear to have a website.
Feb 17-19: Back to Nairobi, unless I can find something better to do with myself. I am VERY MUCH hoping to use this time visiting and learning more about KARI, ILRI, and their work. However, I might end up taking a day trip east of Nairobi to visit an ethnic group called the Kamba. The Kamba are a Bantu-speaking group that live in one of two regions targeted by USAID for ag development work. It's a semi-arid region with several ethnic groups (Meru, Embu, and Kamba, if I remember right - all Bantu-speakers). But we'll see. If I do that it would be to visit the family of a random Kamba lady I met here in San Diego at the farmer's market.
Feb 20-24: Fly to Kisumu near Lake Victoria and stay in Bondo District, also near Lake Victoria (Nyanza province if you're looking at a map). Here I'll be with Amy Lint and Malaki Obado of Grow Strong. I have an interview with Amy that will be published soon (I hope) and I cannot wait to share it with you.
The two of them are INCREDIBLE. Malaki is a Luo, the same ethnic group as Barack Obama's dad. Amy's from the U.S. and was assigned to Malaki's area while in the Peace Corps. They lived in San Diego for the past several years and both did amazing work on community food security and urban agriculture, although Amy has been the more recognized of the two (Michelle Obama and the New York Times both thought she did great work - not bad, huh?). Malaki's work is less celebrated but incredible all the same. He does beekeeping and bee rescue and set up an aquaponics facility, among other things.
If you look at a precipitation map of Kenya, you'll see that the area in between Nairobi and Lake Victoria is more or less where all the rain falls. However, Bondo District does not get enough rain. It's also suffering from a very high HIV/AIDS rate, which Amy spoke poignantly about when I interviewed her on Monday. They moved to Kenya yesterday.
Feb 25: Return to Nairobi. Tie up loose ends.
Feb 26: Fly home.
So that's the trip. Also, in case you're wondering, Kenya is home to just about every African animal you can name except gorillas and chimps. Among the animals I might see (or not see, since I'm really there to learn about people, crops, and livestock) are:
- Baboons (Yellow Baboon and Olive Baboon)
- Lions
- Cheetahs
- Leopards
- Cape Buffalo
- Zebras (Burchell's Zebra and Grevy's Zebra)
- Elephants
- Rhinos (severely endangered)
- Flamingos
- Gazelles (Grant's Gazelle and Thomson's Gazelle)
- Wildebeest
- Warthog
- Vultures (Egyptian Vulture, Hooded Vulture, Lappet-faced Vulture, Ruppel's Griffon, White-backed Vulture and White-headed Vulture)
- Ostrich
- Monkeys (Vervet (Green) Monkey, Colobus (Guereza) Monkey, Sykes' (White-throated, Blue or Samango) Monkey, Patas Monkey, De Brazza's Monkey and Red-(Copper-)tailed Monkey)
- Mongoose (Banded Mongoose, Dwarf Mongoose, Slender (black-tipped) Mongoose and White-tailed Mongoose)
- Impalas
- Jackals
- Hyenas
- Hippos
- Giraffes (Masai Giraffe, Reticulated Giraffe, and Rothschild's Giraffe)
- Dik-Dik
- Crocodile
- Bushbaby
- Porcupines
- Much, much more
To put it another way, Simba, Puumba, and Rafiki all live in Kenya, but Timon definitely doesn't. Simba, by the way, is Swahili for "lion." An animal I hope I do not see is a Black Mamba. |
