Becoming indigenous in the pursuit of justice: The african commission on human and peoples'; rights and the Endorois

African Affairs

Volumn 111, Issue 442, 2012, Pages 24-45

  Lynch, Gabrielle ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ETHNICITY; ETHNOPOLITICS; GOVERNANCE APPROACH; HUMAN RIGHTS; INDIGENOUS POPULATION; NATIONAL POLITICS; SOCIAL JUSTICE; TERRITORIALITY;

AFRICA;

EID: 84855685697     PISSN: 00019909     EISSN: 14682621     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/afraf/adr063     Document Type: Article

References (123)

1. ACHPR, 'Case 276/2003: Centre for Minority Rights Development (Kenya) and Minority Rights Group International on behalf of Endorois Welfare Council versus Kenya', February 2010, p. 1, (15 March 2010).
2. John L. Comaroff and Jean Comaroff, Ethnicity, Inc. (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 2009).
3. Gabrielle Lynch, 'Kenya's new indigenes: negotiating local identities in a global context', Nations and Nationalism 17, 1 (2011), pp. 148-67.
4. Ronald Niezen, The Rediscovered Self: Indigenous identity and cultural justice (McGill and Queen's University Press, Montreal, 2009), p. 177.
5. See also Michaela Pelican, 'Complexities of indigeneity and autochthony: an African example', American Ethnologist 36, 1 (2009), pp. 52-65.
6. Dorothy Hodgson, 'Becoming indigenous in Africa', African Studies Review 52, 3 (2009), pp. 1-32.
7. Ronald Niezen, The Origins of Indigenism: Human rights and the politics of identity (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 2003)
8. ACHPR, Report of the African Commission's Working Group of Experts on Indigenous Populations/Communities (Transaction Publishers/ACHPR and IWGIA, Piscataway, NJ, 2005), p. 87
9. Dorothy Hodgson, 'Introduction: Comparative perspectives on the indigenous rights movement in Africa and the Americas', American Anthropologist 104, 4 (2002), pp. 1037-49.
10. Lynch, 'Kenya's new indigenes'
11. Pelican, 'Complexities of indigeneity and autochthony'
12. Terence Ranger, 'The invention of tradition revisited: the case of colonial Africa' in Preben Kaarsholm and Jan Huttin (eds), Inventions and Boundaries: Historical and anthropological approaches to the study of ethnicity and nationalism (Roskilde University, IDS Occasional Paper No. 1, 1994).
13. Lynch, 'Kenya's new indigenes'
14. Gabrielle Lynch, 'Negotiating ethnicity: identity politics in contemporary Kenya', Review of African Political Economy 33, 107 (2006), pp. 385-410.
15. Catherine Boone, 'Africa's new territorial politics: regionalism and the open economy of Côte d'Ivoire', African Studies Review 50, 1 (2007), pp. 59-81.
16. Robert H. Bates, When Things Fell Apart: State failure in late-century Africa (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2008).
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18. Kevin Dunn, '"Sons of the soil" and contemporary state making: autochthony, uncertainty and political violence in Africa', Third World Quarterly 30, 1 (2009), pp. 113-27, p. 113.20.
19. Hodgson, 'Becoming indigenous in Africa'
20. Niezen, The Origins of Indigenism, p. 9.
21. Jim Igoe, 'Becoming indigenous peoples: difference, inequality and the globalization of East African identity politics', African Affairs 105, 420 (2006), pp. 399-430.
22. Also Hodgson, 'Becoming indigenous in Africa', p. 23.
23. Lynch, 'Kenya's new indigenes'
24. Niezen, The Origins of Indigenism, p. 9.
25. For example, Hodgson, 'Becoming indigenous in Africa'
26. Igoe, 'Becoming indigenous peoples'
27. Lynch, 'Kenya's new indigenes'
28. Interview, Endorois political activist, 12 March 2011
29. Baringo District Annual Report, 1955, p. 4.
30. Benjamin Kipkorir, The Marakwet of Kenya: A preliminary study (East African Publishing House, Nairobi, 1975)
31. Gabrielle Lynch, 'Moi: the making of an African 'Big-Man', Journal of Eastern African Studies 2, 1 (2008), pp. 18-43.
32. G. W. B. Huntingford, The Peoples of Kenya - No. 11. The Nandi (Ndia Kuv Press, Nairobi, 1944), p. 20.
33. Endorois: who are they?', Daily Nation, 11 September 1996
34. David Anderson. expressed this through email correspondence in July 2010, basing his view on the extensive interviews and fieldwork conducted for his PhD thesis. Similar positioning was found by Peter Little among the Il Chamus community of northern Baringo in the 1980s and 1990s - a community that now also regards itself as distinct ('Maasai identity on the periphery', American Anthropologist 100, 2 (1998), pp. 444-57).
35. Juma Kiplenge, 'The Endorois community: general file', document submitted to the High Court, Nakuru, on 19 April 2002. Copy given to the author by EWC.
36. Interview, Endorois political activist, 12 March 2011
37. Interview, Endorois youth, 17 March 2011.34. Letter from the EWC chairman to the Director of Culture, 9 August 2003, copy given to the author by EWC.
38. Interview, Charles Kamuren, Nakuru, 1 September 2005
39. Interview, Juma Kiplenge, Nakuru, 26 January 2005
40. Interview, Tugen clergyman, Nakuru, 8 September 2005
41. Interview, Tugen politician, Nakuru, 27 January 2005
42. Bengt Karlsson, 'Anthropology and the "indigenous slot": claims to and debates about indigenous peoples' status in India', Critique of Anthropology 23, 4 (2003), pp. 403-23, p. 404.
43. Niezen, The Rediscovered Self, p. 79.
44. Tania Murray Li, 'Articulating indigenous identity in Indonesia: resource politics and the tribal slot', Comparative Studies in Society and History 42, 1 (2000), pp. 149-79.
45. Comaroff and Comaroff, Ethnicity, Inc
46. Jean-Francois Bayart, 'Africa in the world: a history of extraversion', African Affairs 99 (2000), pp. 217-67, p. 218.
47. Carola Lentz and Paul Nugent (eds), Ethnicity in Ghana: The limits of invention (St Martin's Press, Basingstoke, 2000)
48. Comaroff and Comaroff, Ethnicity, Inc
49. Hodgson, 'Becoming indigenous in Africa'
50. Kiplenge, 'The Endorois community'
51. Interview, Charles Kamuren, 10 March 2011
52. Lotte Hughes, 'Mau Mauing the flak catchers: their struggle for a Kenyan sacred forest' (paper presented at the 'Reimagining Postcolonial Futures Conference', University of the Western Cape, 9-11 July 2009), p. 11. In this quote, Hughes refers to Kikuyu struggles for Karima Forest in President Mwai Kibaki's Othaya constituency.
53. For a similar analysis of sacred sites as 'sites of protest and resistance' see Michael Sheridan, 'The dynamics of African sacred groves: ecological, social and symbolic processes' in Michael Sheridan and Celia Nyamweru (eds), African Sacred Groves: ecological dynamics and social change (James Currey, Oxford, 2008), p. 24.
54. See E. P. Thompson, 'Eighteenth-century English society: class struggle without class?', Social History 3, 2 (1978), pp. 133-65, pp. 147-9.
55. James Ferguson, Expectations of Modernity: Myths and meanings of urban life on the Zambian Copperbelt (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 1999), p. 238.
56. 'Endorois', Daily Nation
57. ACHPR, 'Case 276/2003', p. 2.
58. David Anderson, Eroding the Commons: The politics of ecology in Baringo, Kenya, 1890-1963 (James Currey, Oxford, 2002), p. 299.
59. 'Endorois', Daily Nation
60. Interview, Charles Kamuren, Nakuru, 1 September 2005
61. Endorois, Daily Nation
62. Jacqueline Klopp, 'Can moral ethnicity trump political tribalism? The struggle for land and nation in Kenya', African Studies 61, 2 (2002), pp. 269-94.
63. Anderson, Eroding the Commons, p. 299.
64. Kiplenge, 'The Endorois community'
65. Endorois, Daily Nation
66. '11 Baringo men held on assembly charge', East African Standard, 12 November 1995
67. Amnesty International, 'Kenya: repression and resistance' (AI Index: AFR 32/034/ 1994, October 1997), (17 March 2010). Overall, Kiplenge faced 10 to 11 incitement charges arising from his work for the EWC. Interview, Nakuru, 26 January 2005.
68. Interview, Charles Kamuren, Nakuru, 1 September 2005
69. Letter from the Endorois Welfare Management Committee to the Commissioner of Mines and Geology, 7 March 2002. Copy given to the author by EWC.
70. CEMIRIDE, 'Mining of the red ruby in Baringo: a report on events and issues raised by the Endorois community' (unpublished report, November/December 2004, given to the author by the EWC)
71. Interview, Charles Kamuren, Nakuru, 1 September 2005
72. The associated sense of 'abjection' and 'disconnection' is captured in two short films that were produced by CEMIRIDE and Witness in 2006 as evidence for the African Commission. These can be watched at (1 July 2010).
73. ACHPR, 'Case 276/2003', p. 2.
74. H ru, Misc. Civil Case No. 183 of 2002, 19 April 2002, pp. 5-6. Copy given to the author by EWC.
75. (17 March 2010).
76. Cynthia Morel, in response to a question asked at a panel organized by MRG and Advocates for International Development on 'Landmark ruling on indigenous land rights before the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights: a victory at the expense of wildlife conservation?', 27 April 2010
77. George M. Wachira and Abiola Ayinla,'Twenty years of elusive enforcement of the recommendations of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights: a possible remedy', African Human Rights Law Journal 6 (2006), pp. 465-92, p. 472.
78. Rose D'Sa, 'Human and people's rights: distinctive features of the African Charter', Journal of African Law 29, 1 (1985), pp. 72-81, p. 81.
79. Frans Viljoen and Lirette Louw, 'State compliance with the recommendations of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, 1994-2004', The American Journal of International Law 101, 1 (2007), pp. 1-34.
80. Cynthia Morel, 'Defending human rights in Africa: the case for minority and indigenous rights', Essex Human Rights Review 1, 1 (2004), pp. 54-65, p. 59.
81. Argun Sengupta, 'On the theory and practice of the right to development', Human Rights Quarterly 24, 4 (2002), pp. 837-89, pp. 840 and 846.
82. B. Obinna Okere, 'The protection of human rights in Africa and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights: a comparative analysis with the European and American systems', Human Rights Quarterly 6, 2 (1984), pp. 141-59, p. 148.
83. Justice C. Nwobike, 'The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and the demystification of second and third generation rights under the African Charter: Social and Economic Rights Center (SERAC) and the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) v. Nigeria', African Journal of Legal Studies 1, 2 (2005), pp. 129-46.
84. Morne van der Linde and Lirette Louw, 'Considering the interpretation and implementation of Article 24 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights in light of the SERAC communication', African Human Rights Law Journal 3 (2003), pp. 167-87, p. 167.
85. Christof Heyns, 'The African regional human rights system: the African Charter', Penn State Law Review 108, 3 (2003-4), pp. 679-702.
86. Kealeboga Bojosi and George M. Wachira, 'Protecting indigenous peoples in Africa: an analysis of the approach of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights', African Human Rights Law Journal 6 (2006), pp. 382-406, p. 390.
87. ACHPR and IWGIA, Indigenous Peoples in Africa: The forgotten peoples? The African Commission's work on indigenous peoples in Africa (Transaction Publishers/ACHPR and IWGIA, Piscataway, NJ, 2006), pp. 12 and 14.
88. ACHPR, 'Case 276/2003', pp. 34-5.
89. UN, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007), pp. 2, 4 and 5, (17 March 2010).
90. Lisl Brunner, 'The rise of peoples' rights in the Americas: the Saramaka people decision in the Inter-American Court on Human Rights', Chinese Journal of International Law 7, 3 (2008), pp. 699-713, p. 699.
91. ACHPR, 'Case 276/2003', p. 73.
92. Frans Viljoen, 'A human rights court for Africa, and Africans', Brooklyn Journal of International Law 30 (2004-2005), pp. 1-66, p. 14.
93. George Wachira, African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights: Ten years on and still no justice (Minority Rights Group International and CEMIRIDE, London, 2008)
94. Viljoen and Louw, 'State compliance', p. 14.
95. A. Korir Sing'oei, 'From non-beneficiaries to active stakeholders: the Endorois', Pambazuka News 477 (2010) (4 July 2010).
96. 'Will state respect community's land rights', The Standard, 23 March 2010
97. Interview, Kenyan human rights activist, 14 March 2011
98. Interview, Kenyan human rights activist, 11 February 2011
99. Interviews, Endorois political activist, two local elders, and a youth, 17 March, 12 March, and 13 March 2011
100. Interview, Charles Kamuren, 10 March 2011
101. Open Society Justice Initiative, 'The Nubian community in Kenya v. The State of Kenya, Communication 317/06' (17 May 2010), (11 May 2011).
102. John Lonsdale, 'Moral ethnicity and political tribalism' in P. Kaarsholm and J. Huttin (eds), Inventions and Boundaries: Historical and anthropological approaches to the study of ethnicity and nationalism (Roskilde University, Institute for Development Studies, Occasional Paper No. 1, 1994).
103. Lotte Hughes, 'Rough time in paradise: claims, blames and memory making around some protected areas in Kenya', Conservation and Society 5, 3 (2007), pp. 1-24, p. 16.109.
104. For examples from the Maasai, Coastal, and Kalenjin communities respectively, see Lotte Hughes, Moving the Maasai: A colonial misadventure (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2006)
105. Lotte Hughes, 'Mining the Maasai reserve: the story of Magadi', Journal of Eastern African Studies 2, 1 (2008), pp. 134-64.
106. Karuti Kanyinga, 'Re-distribution from above: the politics of land rights and squatting in coastal Kenya' (Nordiska Afrikainstitutet Research Report No. 115, 2000).
107. Gabrielle Lynch, I Say to You: Ethnic politics and the Kalenjin in Kenya (University of Chicago Press, Chicago IL, 2011)
108. Lynch, 'Kenya's new indigenes'
109. Igoe, 'Becoming indigenous peoples'
110. Hughes, 'Mau Mauing the flak catchers'
111. South Baringo District Annual Report 1951, p. 14.114.
112. Nancy Fraser, Justice Interruptus: Critical reflections on the 'postsocialist' condition (Routledge, New York, NY, 1997)
113. See also Daniel Branch, Kenya: Between hope and despair, 1963-2011 (Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2011)
114. Greg Cameron, 'The globalization of indigenous rights in Tanzanian pastoralist NGOs' in A. Bicker, P. Sillitoe, and J. Pottier (eds), Development and Local Knowledge (Routledge, Abingdon, 2004), pp. 150-1.
115. Lynch, I Say to You
116. Catherine Boone, 'Property and constitutional order: land tenure reform and the future of the African state', African Affairs 106, 425 (2007), pp. 557-86, p. 584.
117. Stephen Jackson, 'Sons of which soil? The language and politics of autochthony in Eastern DR Congo', African Studies Review 49, 2 (2006), pp. 95-123.
118. Peter Geschiere, The Perils of Belonging: Autochthony. citizenship and exclusion in Africa and Europe (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 2009).
119. Ruth Marshall-Fratani, 'The war of 'who is who':autochthony, nationalism and citizenship in the Ivorian crisis', African Studies Review 49, 2 (2006), pp. 9-43.
120. Interview, Executive Director of the Ogiek Peoples' Development Programme, Nakuru, 14 March 2011
121. Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1983)
122. Dorothy Hodgson, 'Precarious alliances: the cultural politics and structural predicaments of the indigenous rights movement in Tanzania', American Anthropologist 104, 4 (2002), pp. 1086-97.
123. Pelican, 'Complexities of indigeneity and autochthony'