Join the walking tour – discovering multi-ethnic Budapest on foot (Part 3)

Kit Dorey who interns in MRG’s Europe office, Budapest, shares his experience from one of the activities organized to mark Action Against Racism week. See Part 1 and Part 2.

March 23rd: Downtown and the Jewish Quarter
A Tour of the Jewish Quarter would not make sense without stopping outside the Grand Synagogue of Dohany utca, which is where we met today. Now the setting for the Hungarian Jewish Museum and the Raoul Wallenberg Holocaust Memorial Park, it was built as the centre of Neolog Judaism. This is a form of Judaism that began in the late 19th Century as a response to the modernism of the period, and as a foil to the predominately Orthodox population. In fact, thanks to Zoltan’s expert knowledge of the area, we were able to see for ourselves the development of Jewish theology in the city, represented by the variety of synagogues serving different religious branches.

Firstly, we were lucky to be allowed to investigate the Orthodox Jewish compound on Dob utca, hidden from the main street and equipped with kosher butcher, yeshiva (Jewish school) and place of worship.

We also went to see the remains of the synagogue that lies on Rumbach utca. This particular synagogue was built as a place for those who did not want to follow the stricter rules of Orthodoxy, but also did not appreciate the modernity of the Neologs, perhaps taking a position comparable to the one that Anglicans and Episcopalians take in relation to Catholics and Lutherans. This building, pictured here, has an especially emotive significance, as it was used to collect the Hungarian Jews before they were taken to concentration camps in May 1944. Nowadays, robbed of all its fittings, it stands empty and unused.

Synagogue on Rumbach street

As Zoltan told us at the beginning of the tour, the existence of the so-called “Jewish Quarter” is owed to the laws of the time when Jews began to settle on the other side of the river from the Castle District. The city walls of Pest stood all the way until the middle of the 19th Century, and no Jew was allowed to traverse them. When the walls were taken down, the rules of settlement became less strict, but already by this time there was a thriving community in the seventh district that was happy where it was. Even today, as a greater number of people (descendants of Hungarian Jewish émigrés) return to the city, they tend to repopulate the same area in which their ancestors lived. After visiting four synagogues, three of which still operate and host thriving congregations, it is a validating experience to see how Jewish culture and religion continue to shape the atmosphere of this district to such a large extent.

Romanian Orthodox Church, Budapest

After leaving the old Jewish Quarter, we made our way downtown, towards the Danube River, where we set about exploring the history of the various strands of Orthodox Christianity, which came with the centuries-old settlement of an assortment of national minorities. We started with the Romanian Orthodox Church on Hollo utca, where Zoltan’s contact, Father David (pictured with Zoltan here), met us to talk about his congregation and the history of the building. The church is hidden in what looks from the outside like a regular apartment building, so it was extremely strange to pass through the gate and be faced with nuns and icons. Father David told us that he regularly gets a congregation of around 200, who come from all around the city, and it was refreshing to hear that the political antagonism that sometimes appears between Romania and Hungary had not transferred itself into relations with his community.

Our next stop was the Greek Orthodox Church, only a couple of streets away, to meet Father Kirill. The Greek Orthodox Church is an extremely grand affair: the front wall of the nave is absolutely covered in beautifully painted icons and towers above decorated lecterns. The Greeks, as Father Kirill pointed out to us, have a very long history of settlement in Hungary, and there are many Hungarians around today who can claim Greek ancestry.

However, the history of Greek settlement in Hungary is not quite as long as the history the Serbs, which dates back to the Middle Ages, as we learnt when we met Borislav Rusz, from the Centre for Serbian Minority Self-Government, at the Serbian Orthodox Church. The largest number of Serb immigrants arrived in 1690, after the Hapsburgs took control of this territory. After the arrival of about 40,000 families, for a short while Serbs were the ethnic majority in Buda, Pecs, Szeged and Sezentendre, and many of these families stayed in order to integrate with the local Hungarian population. Although the numbers are not as high as they once were, Serbians still have a long and dignified history of settlement in and relations with Hungary and, ever since 1993, when the Minority Act of the Hungarian Constitution recognized the Serbs as one of the 13 official national and ethnic minorities of Hungary, the Serbs (along with the Greeks and Romanians) have shared rights to a certain level of independent governance and cultural autonomy. This autonomy has ensured the survival of their traditions to the current day.

Serbian Orthodox Church, Budapest

However, a serious point came out of Borislav’s words. The new government of Hungary is set to reevaluate the constitutional protection of the relative independence of minority groups. No one is yet sure what will come out of these discussions, but there is a concern that they will impinge on the historical freedom of many of the minority citizens of Hungary, including the Romanian, Greek and Serbian communities we have been privileged to investigate today. For all those that understand the significance and value of diversity in political life, let us hope that whatever comes out of these talks does not impinge too heavily on the national and ethnic minorities, of all kinds, that live in Hungary today.

This was the last of our guided tours to mark the EU Action-Week Against Racism. For all those who live in Budapest, please take the time to view these places for yourself, as well as other parts of the city we have not been able to visit. For all those who live outside Budapest, I would encourage you to discover the history of minority communities in your own country and to explore both their historical traces and their present situation.

These tours were developed and delivered by Minority Rights Group, Szubjektív Értékek Alapítvány and Rockhoppers. Please view www.rockhoppers.hu if you are interested in exploring minority Budapest further.

Join the walking tour – discovering multi-ethnic Budapest on foot (Part 2)

Kit Dorey who interns in MRG’s Europe office, Budapest, shares his experience from one of the activities organized to mark this week. See Part 1.

March 20th: The 8th District
The overlooked 8th District was our destination for the second of our guided tours celebrating minority Budapest, for the EU Action Week Against Racism. Overlooked because it is mistakenly presumed by many (tourist and Hungarian alike) to be not worth visiting and devoid of historical interest. The aim of our tour today was to demonstrate that this is simply not the case and, in addition, to meet, in person, representatives of the most numerous minority populations in this region of the city.

Our tour guide Zoltan Nagy

A sizeable group met at ten o’clock this morning, at Blaha Lujza square, the square that was the destination of many of the immigrant populations that began to arrive after 1989, including those from Africa and East Asia. We began by heading straight into the heart of the 8th district, going directly to Köztársaság square, the scene of uprisings in 1956, and the historical setting of a thriving Jewish community, the synagogues of which were dismantled long ago. One of the most tragic aspects of the 8th district is how few synagogues actually remain, in an area that used to host several in each locale. The open space that exists now does not provide much evidence of the thriving markets and settlement blocks that used to fill it up.

It was in this setting that we stopped to talk to Bela Radics, who had accompanied us for the first part of the tour. Bela is an independent Roma rights activist, who took the time to tell us all about the victimisation of his community. The majority of the Roma population in Budapest live in the 8th district, and it is not wholly a coincidence that this is the area of the city that gets the least attention from authorities when it comes to development. Bela spoke to us about the persistent lack of political representation and opportunities that continue to affect the Roma. It was a great opportunity to question an experienced activist in the field of Roma rights, and it was a stark reminder of the difficulties facing the largest minority group in Hungary.

The alter of one of the synagogues we visited

Another excellent opportunity for a face to face discussion was provided by Zoltan, as we were taken to see the synagogue on Teleki square. In contrast to grand synagogue that lies in the centre of the capital, this one was located in a converted apartment within a residential block. Set up at the beginning of the 20th Century by Jewish communities emigrating from Ukraine, Poland and Russia, the decor has not changed since then. The beautiful old benches, books and altars were breathtaking, and, after the men donned their skullcaps, we were able to sit in the pews as our host, Gabor, told us about the history of this place of worship and the revival of Jewish identity in recent years.

We then made our way further away from the city centre, paying attention to the examples of art nouveau on the walls of the buildings that we passed. Our tour culminated with the Józsefváros Market, also called the Chinese market for the high proportion of Chinese-Hungarian shopkeepers there. In clear view of the Chinese University of Budapest, the market is the business place of Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Turkish, Arabic and Roma stall-owners, and is one of the best places to go if you want an overview of the minority and immigrant populations of the city. It is a great shame that it exists so far away from the administrative centre of Budapest and the life of most of the citizens, but an excellent place to stop for some noodle-soup, which is exactly what many of us did as soon as we reached the end of our excursion.

In contrast to yesterday’s tour, which was a valuable insight into the historical influence of minority communities, today was very much about the present . The 8th district is home to a lively symbiosis of many different communities, and the tour we embarked on today showed clearly that it deserves to be seen as a precious and vital aspect of the capital, in a way that it is currently not by the general population.

Our last tour, on Wednesday, will focus on the downtown area of Pest, the home of Serbians, Roma, Romanians, Jewish and Turkish people, both past and present. These tours were developed and delivered by Minority Rights Group, Szubjektív Értékek Alapítvány, and Rockhoppers (please view www.rockhoppers.hu if you are interested in exploring minority Budapest further!).

Stay tuned for news of tomorrow’s exhibition, for “Comics Against Racism”, to be held at the EU-pont in the Millenáris after 7.00.

Kit Dorey

• Continue to Part 3

Join the walking tour – discovering multi-ethnic Budapest on foot (Part 1)

Kit Dorey who interns in MRG’s Europe office, Budapest, shares his experience from one of the activities organized to mark this week.

For this year’s European Action Week Against Racism (14th-27th March), Minority Rights Group is marking the occasion with a set of three tours that focus on the multiplicity of minority specific influences on Budapest, both throughout history and in the modern day. With the aid of the tour company, Rockhoppers, and the knowledge and experience of Zoltan Nagy, our guide, we aimed to draw attention to the many cultural, religious and international factors that have shaped this beautiful city. Marketed to both tourists and city-dwellers, the tour demonstrates even lifelong Budapestians may not realise how much diversity has enriched their environment and continues to do so today.

March 19th: The Castle District and the Upper Thermal Springs- We began our series of tours, fittingly, with the 1st district, also known as the Castle District. Those who were not put off by the slightly unfortunate weather were not to be disappointed, as we meandered our way through the ancient streets.

The Castle has become a symbol for Hungarian independence and identity, built in the 14th Century, rebuilt many times, reclaimed from the Ottomans in 1669 and surviving 31 armed assaults on its walls. Those with a narrow view of what it means to be truly “Hungarian” could well underplay the influence of minority communities in this part of the city. In fact, from the first, Zoltan made it clear how misrepresentative this impression is. Even the magnificent Church of St. Matthias spent the Ottoman occupation as a mosque, a balcony being built around it so that the muezzin could call people to prayer.

The clear dividing lines within this relatively small area have existed for a very long time. A good example of this is the disparity between the two main places of prayer, St. Matthias and The Church of Mary Magdalene (pictured left), only a short walk from each other. Before Ottoman rule, the congregations were split into German and Hungarian worshippers; afterwards, between Muslim and Christian. Similarly, we were able to stand at the intersection of two perpendicular streets that were designated for the “Germans” and “Italians”, ensuring their separation in domestic life.

The presence of ancient Jewish populations is also surprising for those who presume that the first populations lived downtown, on the other side of the river: in fact, the earliest Jewish settlers, in the 11th Century, lived on the hill that was to become the Castle. Evicted from Budapest in 1360, the (probably quite sheepish) King Louis was forced to officially invite them back a few years later, due to economic turmoil. Evidence of their history there can be seen from the remains of an ancient synagogue, one of the walls of which are still visible on the north eastern side.

Other bits of information, which cannot be gleaned from simply walking through the area, include the fact that the long-standing Hilton hotel was a Franciscan monastery and a Turkish stable in past lives, a fact only in evidence externally from a section of wall on the left hand side of the entrance.

We finished our tour by leaving the castle and travelling down the hill towards the Upper Thermal Springs: the Ottomans left several of the extant baths behind as their legacy, one of which you can see pictured here. The focus of the tour really made it clear, in the most historically preserved part of the Budapest, how much minority populations (especially the Jewish, Italian, German and Turkish settlers) have built the city and contributed to its rich historical background.

Tomorrow, we will travel to one of the least explored parts of the city, the 8th District, to examine the influence of the Roma, Chinese, the Jewish and many others. These tours were developed and delivered by Minority Rights Group (www.minorityrights.org), Szubjektív Értékek Alapítvány (www.szubjektiv.org), and Rockhoppers (please view www.rockhoppers.hu if you are interested in exploring minority Budapest further!).

Kit Dorey

• Continue to Part 2

Part 2 – Maasai women speak up of abuse and violence

MRG’s media officer Farah Mihlar shares her stories from the sidelines of a media training for community activists in Nairobi, Kenya. Read part 1 here.

Part 2

Yes, they did make it on time, but Stella overslept. The poor thing was completely embarrassed as she came down to a few grumpy stares, though just 30 minutes late. Our trip was to Mara to visit Maasai communities. Joining us was Jedrzej, a journalist working for Polish political weekly magazine, Polityka. His visit is part of an MRG project to increase awareness of issues on minority and indigenous communities in the EU new member states.

Despite coming in earlier than the two party animals, I was knocked out and fell asleep through the early part of the journey, only to be woken to Jedrzej clicking his camera to some of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen. We were driving on a road nestled in between towering mountains. Narok town is a little less than 3 hours from Nairobi.

Our master guide Kedoki and the ever entertaining Eunice, both colleagues of Esmael and Stella, join us as we make our way to Mara. We are stocked with peanuts, water bottles and Esmael’s great idea of Kenyan ice cream. The drive to Mara is arduous and long, the road is in a terrible condition but the company is excellent. We talk about life, kids, romance. When we finally get to Mara, we are stopped at the gate to the wildlife reserve, and asked to buy tickets. While we are swamped by women selling beaded chains and wooden carvings, only Kedoki’s masterful negotiations and contacts within the community get us in. At the entrance to the village we visit, young Maasai men, in colourful robes, welcome us. They sing and dance to a traditional welcome song, whilst Esmael and Jedrzej have to join in.

We are later taken on a tour of the village. We meet women making beaded ornaments, and they show us their hunting tools and how to start a fire. Much of the tour is touristic and it is clear that the villages in Mara have had to adapt themselves to the increasing numbers of tourists visiting the game reserve. I try to avoid the tour guide, and speak to the elders and women about the difficulties they face. The elders explain that they have very limited access to health facilities and schools. They have to walk miles to get to the main road and hope a passing vehicle stops to take a sick person to hospital. ‘We get nothing from the government. You saw the road you came on, they can’t even build the road,’ they say. The Kenyan government earns millions of dollars from tourism, Maasai Mara being one of the most visited places.  It is getting dark and we have to leave to get out of the reserve before it is too late.

I crash into bed, in the guest house room, and watch the Kenyan version of X Factor. The talent was amazing, several Whitney Houston’s and Mariah Carey’s in the making. Just as I was beginning to warm up to the Simon Cowell equivalent on the judging panel  there was a power cut!

I am woken on Sunday morning by the call to prayer from the Narok mosque, and again a few hours later by an array of different church sessions. There are several evangelical groups that practice in Narok. All have their own choirs and sermons that are played out on loudspeakers.

On Sunday, we visit another village closer to Narok. Miriam has helped organise this. Pauline Kinyarkoo, who works with Miriam and is a local councilor, takes us around.  Pauline is a larger-than-life character; she is full of life and energy, kindness and love. We first stop to pick up Mary, a peer advisor to the village we are visiting. It is Sunday so she is at a service in the makeshift little church by her house. Little kids sing and dance the praises of Jesus.

Pauline Kinyarkoo, a woman Maasai activist and councilor, addresses elders in the community

As we enter the village, Pauline first introduces us to the elders. In African tribal culture elders have a very important role to play, respecting them and seeking their approval is a must. After interviewing the elders, Pauline gathers the women in the village so I can speak to them about gender issues in the community. We go and sit under a tree outside the village fence, surrounded by the vast, beautiful terrain of dusty land stretching miles before reaching the mountains.

The women take time, but slowly start talking about the difficulties in their lives. Maasai women, like most pastoralist women, are discriminated against and ill treated on all fronts. They suffer discrimination by people from other communities, those who live in the towns, who look at them as backward, ignorant and dirty. They have no place in their own community, and are oppressed through various cultural practices, including child marriage, polygamy and female genital mutilation. They open up, with their stories, their pain, both physical and emotional. I am touched by their willingness to share these intimate, painful experiences. I ask if I can write about them – they tell me to take their stories to the world.

Maasai women in Kenya

On our return we stop at Mary’s home for a cup of tea. She has six lovely children, I ask if I can take her smallest.  The little fellow cringes behind her as she teases to send him with me. We have to leave as it is getting late and I need to return to Nairobi.

I leave Kenya with many wonderful memories, the beautiful landscape, the music and rhythm, the spicy food and the diversity and different stories from each community. But what I will never forget is the tremendous courage and strength of all of the women I met, in Nairobi, Narok, and Mara, who fight tirelessly everyday to give their young girls a better life.

• View a gallery with additional images from Farah’s trip to Mara – part of the Minority Voices Newsroom

Part 2 – “We have become squatters in our own home.”

In the second part of his 2-part blog, Carl Soderbergh reflects on a land rights issue which is confronting Maasai in Loliondo District of northern Tanzania. See Part 1 here.

While the Maasai whom Lucy and I met in Loliondo are not directly affected by what is happening to those living in the Ngorogoro Conservation Area, they follow it with concern. More particularly, they have their own land problems.

This was most vividly described to us by Sandet Reiya, elder of Mondorosi sub-village. Mondorosi lies to one side of a valley, the sides of which are dotted with several other smaller sub-villages. In the middle of the valley is a large stretch of mixed savannah and forest. The seasonal Pololet river flows through the valley. When Lucy and I arrived in Mondorosi, there were easily 150 men and women waiting to talk to us about their problems. We sat around an acacia tree and gazed out over the valley unfurled below us. In the far distance, I could see the silhouettes of giraffes loping across open ground.

Sandet Reiya

Sandet looked out over the valley. He waved his staff across the expanse and said bitterly, “It is very simple. A person is welcomed into a house and is entertained by the owner. Instead of just visiting, the person occupies all of the place and the owner becomes a refugee… We have become squatters in our own home.”

The placement of the sub-villages follows Maasai traditional good husbandry practices – their communities are built away from the open areas in order to reserve the best land for their cattle.

This practice was drastically curtailed in 2006 following the purchase of over 12,000 acres across the middle of the valley by Tanzania Conservation Limited (TCL), a company linked to the American tour operator Thomson Safaris. TCL bought the land from the state-owned Tanzanian Breweries Ltd. (TBL). TBL’s title dated from the 1980’s but had been disputed by the local communities, who complain of improprieties at the time of the sale. In particular, there are questions concerning whether the Maasai who signed the sale agreement with TBL really had the authority to do so. The communities lost their claim in court and were sadly too impoverished to keep travelling to Arusha in order to follow up the case, missing their opportunity to appeal. At any rate, TBL only cultivated 700 acres and did not establish possession over the rest of the land, so the Maasai of the area continued to graze their livestock on the stretches of savannah above Pololet river.

While questions remain regarding TBL’s title, a further issue is whether the open stretch of land in the middle of the valley was TBL’s to sell and TCL’s to buy. It may largely be open ground, but it was not unoccupied. The fact that there are wild animals there to look at is not an accident. It is very much due to the Maasai communal approach to land as well as their traditional respect towards wildlife. In short, the valley was not Terra nullius.

View over Maasai bomas and towards the disputed land

When Thomson moved in, they sought to create a wildlife sanctuary on the property. Villagers state that Thomson security guards used force to evict Maasai caught grazing on the land. Bomas, the thorn-bush cattle pens typical of Maasai settlements, were reportedly burnt down, and men and boys caught herding livestock on the property are alleged to have been beaten and taken to the police.

One clear sign of the violence was the fact that when we drove between communities on the access roads that run along the edges of property, the boys herding goats or cattle would run and hide when they saw us coming. Everywhere else, the young goat-herders would stand alongside the track, waving and laughing as we drove by.

While Thomson dispute the accounts, Lucy and I met two victims, as well as many others who described helping those who had been beaten. One of the victims is David, a man in his twenties whom we met in Mondorosi.[1] He described being caught near Pololet river in 2007. Six Thomson security guards ordered him to get into their vehicle. When David refused, the security guards kicked him and beat him with sticks. David was pushed to the ground; one man sat on his chest and held him by his throat. The beating lasted an hour, David said. He rolled up his trouser legs and showed us the scars. David was taken to the police station in Loliondo, where he was held for 24 hours. He did not receive food, water or any medical help. He was released after the community raised 100,000 Tanzanian shillings.

The involvement of the police appears to form a pattern and explains why the victims have not dared to bring charges against their assailants. Another Maasai was shot in the jaw in 2008, when he and nine others demonstrated on the property; police arrived and started shooting when the group refused to disperse.

At each of the meetings, Lucy and I asked the women who were present how they viewed the situation. I was struck by the response we got from the women of Sukenya sub-village, who otherwise praised Thomson for the income-generating scheme it had introduced – namely a market for handicrafts to which it brings its visitors. These women are presumably benefitting from Thomson’s presence. And yet they also emphasized that access to land is a gender issue, since it affects their families. It is their children who are being beaten, they said.

PWC Women’s Choir

On our final day, Lucy and I were invited to the PWC women’s choir graduation ceremony. The songs were beautiful, and some of the women began crying while they were singing. One of the songs was about the land issue. With tears streaming down her face, the chairwoman of the choir stepped forward and pointed towards the children sitting off to one side. She said that their children are being beaten and some are getting lost in the bush as they run away.

Maanda Ngoitiko

Lucy and I met with Thomson representatives on the last day of our visit to Tanzania. They expressed an interest in a mediated solution. We welcomed this, given the strong emotions the situation arouses. Indeed, Maanda Ngoitiko, Coordinator of PWC, put it simply. She said,  “Since Thomson came, I have had no peace of mind.” At the same time, the Thomson representatives vigorously denied all accusations of violence, saying  variously that it had only occurred during the days of TBL, that it had been exaggerated because of the political ambitions of local NGOs, and that it was due to inter-clan rivalries – something that we as foreigners could not comprehend during such a short visit.

In my mind, though, none of Thomson’s arguments explains why those little boys ran away and hid in the brush, leaving their goats and cattle untended, whenever they saw us coming in our 4-wheel drive vehicle. And when we parted company, I wondered what Thomson’s customers would make of the fact that their very presence strikes terror in the heart of young boys.

• See also: Condé Nast Traveler‘s recent article “Last days of the Masai?“

Notes

1. David’s name has been changed to protect his identity.

Turning down a visit to the human zoo

Cecile Clerc

Cecile Clerc, MRG’s Head of Fundraising, discovers how Thailand’s tourism industry is exploiting highland ethnic minorities…and does the right thing.

This time it was South East Asia. Thailand, to be specific. But I was not on an MRG trip but enjoying three weeks under the sun while my friends and family were freezing in Europe. In my rucksack, I had my trekking boots, swimming costume, sun-cream and a pile of books. I even had my husband with me to carry the rucksack! 100% different from my usual MRG trips then…Or was it?

I admit I completely managed to forget about work and MRG at the beginning of my trip. I almost forgot to check before Christmas if the judgement of the Finci Case (an MRG project I’d fundraised for) was made public.

I immersed myself in the craziness of Bangkok. I cycled across the ruins of Sukhotai, an old capital in the Central Plains. I tried all local food possible, including hot pumpkin in coconut milk, a dessert I now love. I learned more about Buddhism and was fascinated by the temples.

Maybe I did think about MRG when visiting the Museum of Siam in the capital, where many references to the ethnic diversity of Thailand were made. Although maybe not…

However, arriving in Chiang Mai brought me back to ‘my’ reality. It is a nice, quiet, provincial town in the north of Thailand and the main centre for hill tribe trekking.

And here I was, walking across the city and passing in front of dozens of ‘travel agents’, displaying pictures of tribesmen and women, dressed in their traditional outfits and encouraging tourists to book a tour to visit a tribal village. In fact it was promoted just like a visit to the zoo.

Thailand is home to numerous communities ranging from the Chao Ley in the Southern islands of Koh Lanta, Phuket or Kho Phi Phi and the Moken who still lead itinerant lives around the Ko Surin Archipelago (both groups often called ‘Sea Gypsies’) to the Karen, Hmong and Lahu in the hills of the north. Since the mid-Seventies, a large percentage of minorities known as ‘hill tribes’ who live in the north, are made up of refugees from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.

I had of course read about Thailand’s ethnic minorities before travelling. But I was certainly not prepared for the industry generated around them. And I could not help wondering how beneficial to these communities such an industry is. Surely, sending crowds of tourists to a village must be disruptive to their traditional way of life? And how can we be sure that the profits from this lucrative tourism are actually benefiting the communities?

I’d read on various leaflets distributed by the travel agencies promoting these visits that ‘hill tribes are very welcoming’. Well, do they have much choice?

Here I was- back to thinking about work and about all MRG campaigns to ensure that the rights of ethnic, religious and cultural minorities are fully respected worldwide. It reminded me especially of an online campaign we ran to promote sustainable tourism in Africa.

MRG is not yet working in Thailand. One day maybe? In the meantime, it is down to individual tourists like you and me to think about the consequences of our holiday activities.

I obviously refused to go on a hill tribe trek. Instead, we decided to go for a ‘normal’ trek across the beautiful Doi Ithannon natural park. We looked for a ‘green’ travel company (hard to find but really worth it) whose guide thanked us for not asking for hill tribe trekking.

The best coffee shop in the world

IThe scenery of our walk was breathtaking. And when I asked on the way back if we could stop for a coffee somewhere (OK I can admit it now…I was simply exhausted and wanted to sit down), our guide offered to take us to a local coffee cooperative entirely managed by a local community. It was the best coffee I’d ever had.

And overall probably one of the best holidays of my life. Since it was after all holidays, I can finish this post with a typical holiday picture, right?

Cutting a shine on the Endorois dancefloor

Emma Eastwood, MRG’s Trouble in Paradise Campaign Manager, rounds off her trip to the Rift Valley discussing Obama ‘the Kenyan wonder boy’ and struts her stuff dancing with the Endorois. Sign our petition to pressure the Kenyan government to guarantee the Endorois community’s traditional way of life.

Today we take yet another bone-shaking ride up a poor excuse for a road to the Mochongoi Forest, which at around 2500m affords us views of the entire Endorois territory, bordered by dark hills swathed in rain clouds on the horizon.

The forest (which represents about one tenth of their land) is as crucial to the Endorois as the land surrounding Lake Bogoria. In the old days during the dry season the community would migrate up here with their cattle to the plentiful pastures – that was until the government gazetted the Forest in the 1970s, depriving them of yet more of their ancestral homelands.

To an outsider it would seem that the Endorois have plenty of space – only 60, 000 people scattered over a huge area, encompassing dry lowland plains dotted with irrigated maize fields and this highland plateau covered with lush grasslands and conifer groves. Playing devil’s advocate I point this out to Kipkazi, but he’s quick to remind me that the crux of the matter lies in the community’s lack of collective title to any of this land – they live daily with the possibility of being kicked out of their homes at any minute (in much the same way as they were from Lake Bogoria in the 1970s).

High up on the plateau we meet the volunteers who run the Human Rights Office, a humble wooden hut festooned with last year’s Christmas decorations and calendars portraying Obama ‘the Kenyan wonder boy’. Politics – everyone we’ve met so far is obsessed with the subject – the only words in Swahili I can ever make out are Obama, Raila, Kbaki and Obama and more Obama.

The main topic of discussion revolves around whether the presidential candidate will bring about change for Kenyans – so many people are pinning so much hope on this one man. Incidentally in Nairobi we found out that Obama’s father’s family are from the indigenous fisher folk community of the northern shores of Lake Victoria, a group MRG recently featured in our briefing on Kenya.

Paul Chepsoi, the Human Rights Office Chairman, looking incongruously smart in the rural surroundings in his suit and tie, takes us through the history of the dispossession of the Endorois from the Mochongoi Forest (and their continued struggle for the return of their lands). He accompanies us on a tour of the area, which is dotted with traditional mud huts (and some newer dwellings made entirely from zinc sheets, which, although easier to maintain, must become ovens in these temperatures during the day).

We meet the Endorois elders from one of the villages who tell us of how they are forced to graze their cattle on barren lands whilst outsiders have been allowed to settle on more fertile plots.

Volunteers at the Mochongoi Forest Human Rights Office

My education in pastoralist culture continues…I’m told that back in the day an Endorois girl’s family would have received ten cows for her hand in marriage, but nowadays she’s worth only four. My companion Neil wonders whether that’s deflation in the value of girls or inflation in the value of cows…Kipkazi says he would have been a rich man in the old days – he has four daughters!

Later that afternoon our visit to the Endorois community is rounded off by a show of traditional song and dance in a shady clearing backed by an enormous termite mound. After a welcome dance we were shown to a gnarled log and seated to enjoy the show – which features songs about the importance of Lake Bogoria and the community’s hopes for the return of their homeland. I am embarrassingly moved to tears by the spectacle and am thankful for my overlarge sunglasses and the distraction of trying to film and record the proceedings (and keep my dignity when obliged to strut my stuff on the dancefloor…)

Endorois traditional dance

We finish off the afternoon by giving impromptu speeches which we hope in some small way can communicate how, with the support of people like you, the Trouble in Paradise campaign can bring about real change for this resilient and courageous community whose traditional culture and livelihood is under threat.

The road to Lake Bogoria is littered with…..goats, sheep and cows…

Emma Eastwood, Trouble in Paradise Campaign manager is in Kenya to visit the Endorois community. After travelling through the mighty Rift Valley, she ends up in the Lake Bogoria National Reserve – the Endorois ancestral land from which they have been expelled. Read Emma’s blog and sign up to our online petition.

Women in colourful headscarves, children without shoes, men pulling impossible loads taking the place of the donkey they can’t afford, alpine highland scenery and suddenly, on the road about 50km north of Nairobi, the Rift Valley falls away as far as the eye can see below us. Kipkazi, from the Endorois Welfare Council, who is acting as our guide for this trip, Neil, MRG Programmes Assistant, and I, marvel at the view of hazy, distant lakes, extinct volcanic craters and dry flat plains which stretch away to the horizon.

View of the Rift Valley

We see zebras grazing on the outskirts of Naivasha and baboons dodging traffic with tiny babies hanging off their backs. I can’t resist the temptation to text home ( O praise the African obsession with mobile phones) I seem to have a network in even the most remote spots. I receive a reply – London is grey and workmen are drilling concrete on the building site next door…

The Endorois are semi-nomadic pastoralists, people who earn their livelihood through the rearing of livestock. Some say that pastoralists occupy over 70% of the land in Kenya, and this is borne out by what we see on our road trip from Nairobi to Lake Bogoria. As we travel northwards we see hundreds of goats, sheep and cows grazing on sparse patches of grass by the roadside. On entering Endorois territory, just north of the Equator, the animals disregard traffic rules altogether and wander absent-mindedly all over the road, forcing our Kenyan driver John, who seems very used to this behaviour, to respectfully manoeuvre at a crawling pace around the distracted beasts.

Endorois man herding his cows

You wouldn’t want to injure one; these animals are of an almost sacred importance to pastoralist communities and according to Kipkazi a fully-grown cow can fetch around 35, 000 Ksh (about US$500). As Dr Wako, Chairman of the Regional Elders Council, an MRG-backed forum of pastoralist leaders from Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, said to me last week at MRG’s African Commission seminar in Kampala, “For pastoralists, sheep and goats are like a current account, they provide us with ready cash, whilst cattle and camels are a savings account, they provide for our future and our children’s future.”

After five hours of driving we reach Lake Bogoria National Reserve, a game park created in 1973 by the Kenyan government, the object of the Endorois’ struggle. The Endorois were evicted from their ancestral lands to make way for the Reserve, depriving them not only of prime pasture for cattle and goats during the harsh dry season but also of sites important for cultural activities such as naming or initiation ceremonies and the only available salt licks for cows in the area. MRG’s Trouble in Paradise campaign is aimed at helping the Endorois get redress for the loss of their lands.

Entrance to Lake Bogoria National Reserve

As we drive around the lake as the sun begins to set behind the dark escarpment overlooking the Reserve, we see the pink blur of thousands of flamingos gathering by the water’s edge, zebras and warthogs, gazelles, impalas, ostriches and giant tortoises – a veritable wildlife haven and overwhelmingly beautiful. Yet somehow it all seems too empty – there are no humans. Unlike elsewhere, there are no small boys tending their flocks of sheep, or herds of cows here. My appreciation of the wildlife and scenery is tinged by sadness.

Flamingos on the shores of Lake Bogoria

Despite being originally promised 25% of revenue from the Reserve and 80% of the jobs in the park – today only a handful of Endorois work as wardens and the community only began to receive a paltry 4% of money raised at the gates in 2006 (33 years after the creation of the Reserve). Improved roads were also promised by the government when they gazetted the land for the park in 1973. Yet those roads have never materialised – even the road through the Reserve is a match for our 4 wheel drive.

Kipkazi is visibly excited by being back in his homeland – as he reminisces about the fertile grazing and plentiful fresh water supply in the area I picture how it must have been in those happier, more prosperous times.

He points out the hot springs and geysers representing sacred sites for the Endorois, which, together with the flamingos, are one of the main reasons tourists now visit the park. He says that legend has it that ghosts inhabit the geysers and call out your name, enticing you into the afterlife – community elders used to offer tobacco and milk in the old days to appease the spirits. When he was a boy it was forbidden to even mention someone’s name when you were near this place, in case that person was taken away by the ghosts.

We press on and visit other traditional sites. Many of the Endorois’ ancestors are buried around the park – the community would normally come and visit their graves for children’s naming ceremonies, but are now prevented from doing so by the authorities. At the southern, isolated end of the lake Kipkazi shows us the place where young boys (aged around 12) used to come for initiation ceremonies – they would stay for 1 month in the bush. The area is wooded to provide shade for those undergoing the hardships of the ritual and a small river flows nearby which would allow the boys to quench their thirst.

Ancient fig trees at Endorois initiation site, Lake Bogoria

As the light fades we decide to call it a day and head out of the Reserve. Miniature antelopes called dikdiks dodge our headlights along the way.

If you haven’t done already, I urge you to sign up to our online petition supporting the Endorois (and get as many of your friends, family and colleagues to do so too). We’ll be handing the petition over to the Kenyan government at the end of 2008. By adding your voice you can help right the wrongs of the past and allow this unique community to fully benefit from the lucrative tourism conducted upon their homeland.