Those who get to know indigenous Africans often find a special bond with them. Those who get to work with them and help them are an elite group. Some of them are instructors and students at Prescott College.
Over the past 20 years more than 150 PC students have helped with the research on Decolonizing Maasai History, a new book by Maasai activist Meitamel Olol Dapash and Prescott College history professor Mary Poole. The book offers a fresh view of Maasai history that’s based on Maasai points of view and concern.
Poole asserts that Prescott could learn a lesson from this partnership about how, particularly in this time of great social division, people can mobilize and come together for the future to learn how to build more caring communities.
Dapash and Poole recently gave a presentation at Prescott College celebrating the publication of the book and the partnership between PC and the Maasai people. “Moments like these are rare in Maasailand,” Dapash said.
Indeed, it was hard to not be moved by how people from different continents and eye-opening backgrounds came together for a brighter future.
“I am proud of the future that this book brings forward.” — Meitamel Olol Dapash
Internationally recognized for his activism, Dapash has said the writing of this book began 120 years ago, when the British colonized Kenya, in Maasai territory. “They wiped out livestock and brought smallpox,” he continued. “It’s just like what happened to Native Americans here.”
Having taught and worked on the Navajo and Hopi reservations for decades, I was glad to hear Dapash make this connection, as the parallels are unavoidable for Americans. Dapash said the Maasai elders signed off on giving up their land for one kilogram of sugar. This is also similar to what happened to Native Americans, the language barrier preventing them from knowing what they were signing.
Dapash has led a movement to correct “wrong versions of history that were written to justify the theft of Maasai land.” “We need to correct that distortion,” he said. “History is powerful. It can destroy or build a nation.”
Dapash said that before the British came the livestock and wildlife were plentiful, but the colonizers did not care about this. “When justice is destroyed, it can drive a country to downfall,” he said.
He made the point — on Martin Luther King Day — that justice must be pursued and that wrongs cannot be righted if they are not documented.
Dapash recalls being taken off to a boarding school. He was happy at the time because he wanted to go to school, but the community was devastated because they believed the children would be brainwashed. Indeed, the government wanted to send the children back to the community as agents of the state. But the Maasai rebelled, including Dapash. Many were jailed and others fled to America; Dapash went to Seattle.
In 2001 he returned to Kenya, after the regime that subjugated the Maasai was thrown out. In 2010 Kenya adopted a new constitution recognizing indigenous citizens, and that constitution remains in force today.
The Maasai continue to educate through the Maasai Education, Research and Conservation Center (MERC), where Dapash serves as founding director. He and Poole co-founded the Dopoi Center for community organizing and education at MERC.
For 20 years Dapash has been working with Prescott College students to research and write the history of Maasai from their point of view. “Everything had to be vetted by the community,” he said. “The students were incredible. They accessed the national archives, which was something we couldn’t have done. The teachers were beautiful because they care about their students and they also care about the social-justice issues.”
Lena Abraham, Isis DeVries and Adam Grimm have been among the many PC students who worked on research for the book in Maasailand, and they also spoke at the event.
Lena said it was exciting to go to another land, where they learned what was possible. Isis described the beauty of Maasailand in great spirit of the community and shared ideals with the students. “They were open to us,” she said. Adam said the Maasai were great at communicating with the students. Poole said the students and teachers worked with Maasai youth on training for economic empowerment as well.
Dapash said that he and Poole never discussed writing the book, it just came together naturally. “I am proud of the future that this book brings forward,” he said. “This will now be used as a reference to Maasai history.”
Dapash says his people live in Maasailand, which is an important point as they fight to reclaim their land. British colonialists took their land and the Maasai people, now 1.5 million strong, were absorbed into parts of Kenya and Tanzania. They are now working, with the help of PC students and others, to reclaim their land, culture and language.
Poole pointed out that there are still gaps in the written record. “We are working to negate a false history,” she said, which the colonialists rewrote to meet their desires. This story questions who has the right to tell that history. “We are struggling with history today as some seek to do away with Critical Race Theory,” she said.
Poole is a member of PC’s faculty of Critical Social Justice and Solidarity. She has worked with Dapash for more than 20 years to reconstruct Maasai history and support Maasai land-rights activism.
One of the points made during the event is that we can’t fight darkness with darkness, and lightness fights off darkness. The partnership between the Maasai people and Prescott College students does just that.
