The subdued nature: reading Henry Ole Kulet’s Vanishing Herds through Eco-Marxist lenses
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Date
2020
Authors
Mugo, Muhia
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Taylor & Francis Group
Abstract
Modernity has come to be identified with industrialization and the
changes that accompanied the then-emerging industrial societies.
One major effect of modernity is the rise of the capitalist society on
which Karl Marx’s matrix of economic theorization is founded.
Building on Marx’s critique of the capitalist society, this article
aims at critically reading the relationship that exists between the
project of capitalism and the environment in the context of the
Kenyan Maasai community. As Herbert Marcuse posits, capitalist
production is inherently expansionist and therefore encroaches on
natural space thereby subjecting nature to violence of exploitation
and pollution. For him, ‘ecological struggle comes into conflict with
the laws which govern the capitalist system’. The Maasai community
has been affected greatly by agrarian capitalism that dates
back to colonialism and which has been extended by subsequent
postcolonial regimes. This article argues that the tragic journey
across the Maasai plains undertaken by the two main protagonists
in Henry Ole Kulet’s Vanishing Herds is representative of the effect
that capitalist modernity has had on the Maasai ecosystems. Henry
Ole Kulet tells a tragic story of the loss of Maasai land to commercial
agricultural practices, tourism and settlements, all of which have
profoundly eroded his people’s indigenous identity and culture.
Description
A research article published in African Identities
Keywords
Maasai, modernity, capitalism, accumulation, environment, identity
Citation
Mugo Muhia (2020) The subdued nature: reading Henry Ole Kulet’s VanishingHerds through Eco-Marxist lenses, African Identities, 18:1-2, 130-144, DOI: 10.1080/14725843.2020.1773242