Love in Times of Climate Change
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Love in Times of Climate Change How an idea of Adaptation to Climate Change travels to northern Tanzania Sara de Wit Love in Times of Climate Change: How an idea of Adaptation to Climate Change travels to northern Tanzania Inaugural-Dissertation to complete the doctorate from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Cologne in the subject of social and cultural anthropology presented by Sara de Wit Born on 3 October 1982 In Santiago (Chile) Cologne, December 2016 In loving memory of my mother Elisabeth (1950-2002), who always travels with me Acknowledgements This dissertation is the fruit of a research project carried out within the context of the Priority Program “Adaptation and Creativity in Africa: Technologies and Significations in the Production of Order and Disorder” (SPP1448). It has been a great privilege to participate in this extraordinary interdisciplinary framework, which has not only been intellectually inspiring but has also contributed to a sense of belonging. I wish to thank the German Research Council (DFG) for providing financial support, and the Co-Spokespersons Richard Rottenburg and Ulf Engel for creating and holding this framework together. This research has in turn formed a part of the jointly coordinated sub-project between the University of Cologne, Bayreuth and Bonn: “Translating the Adaptation to Climate Change Paradigm in Eastern Africa”. My appreciation goes to the project-leaders Detlef Müller-Mahn and Martin Doevenspeck, and my supervisor Michael Bollig, for his support, knowledge and confidence in my work, and for giving me so much freedom. I owe much to my exchange with all the juniors and principal investigators, and to the support of my companions Michael Stasik, Florian Weisser, Jullia Willers and Eva Riedke of the SPP, who have made this journey a particularly enriching experience. I feel truly blessed to have had Dorothy Hodgson as my second supervisor, whose expertise, dedication, and critical eye have been an abundant source of inspiration. Due to her tremendously important work on the Maasai, I believe that this study stands on firmer ground. Other scholars who have, in the course of this research, provided me with insightful comments are Ben Orlove, Mike Hulme, and Terrence McCabe. My dear colleagues and friends from the University of Cologne – The “Marienburgers”: Thekla Kelbert, Anne-Christina Achterberg- Boness, Christiane Naumann, Diego Menestrey and Elsemi Olwage – have been an anchor of joy in the past years in an otherwise lonely trajectory. I also wish to thank Monika Feinen for the cartography and Pax Amphlett for proofreading this whole manuscript. Without my friends and informants in Tanzania this research would not have been possible. Seth and Caroline’s hospitality has been boundless. “Thank you for having accepted me into your family”. My gratitude also goes to my research assistants Naini Mollel, Musa Kamaika and Saruni Shuaka Kaleya, and to Joyce Msigwa from the University of Dar es Salaam for all the audio translations and transcriptions. I am particularly indebted to Saruni for uncountable hours spent walking through the plains of Terrat with me, and to transcribing and translating policy workhops with such care and devotion, as well as for your kindness and eagerness to learn. I am grateful for our serendipitous encounter. The Maasai family of Petro Lesindi, Mama Eliya, Mama Nasinyari, Logolie, Sembeyan, Banji and all the children who allowed me to dwell in their boma deserve special words of praise. To Petro: thank you for providing me with a house and for allowing me to share in the intimate space of the lifeworlds of your family, achenaleng! I owe my deepest gratitude to all my informants and to the villagers of Terrat, who have shared their stories, hopes, dreams and anxieties with me. The support of Israel, the VEO of Terrat, was indispensable in gaining access to the field. My gratitude also goes to my dear friend Beny, who helped me to fix my 20-year old i Suzuki Samurai more than a dozen times. I cherish the joyful memories of the time that Leboi spent with me herding cattle and making jokes. I also acknowledge the assistance of TNRF and all the other NGOs in Arusha. My admiration of Alais Ole Morindat cannot be left unmentioned, for being such an inspirational visionary and for his continuous effort to fight for the rights of the Maasai communities in Tanzania. The permission granted by the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) to carry out my research is also acknowledged. Finally, my heart-felt gratitude goes to my friends and family – who have promised to finally read my work – which I doubt they will do, but that’s fine. If I were you, I would also spend my time on things that I have been longing to do, for too long. I am full of awe of my father’s lifelong efforts in understanding the world through the eyes of another, which must have inspired me, and I thank you for endowing me with a great dose of perseverance. And I thank Yaelita, for illuminating our lives with your colourful presence. Thomas Oudman deserves credit for the rainfall graphs and for bringing to my attention the “folktale of the Indian and the meteorologist”, and also for sharing in a parallel “island universe” on Texel, while we were both struggling our way through the existential loneliness of doing a PhD. Appreciation goes to my uncle Dick for making me change the first sentence of this manuscript, which was indeed too long, and to my aunt Trudie for giving me permission to use her beautiful painting for chapter 3. Your graceful existence is a true source of happiness. I also owe a big thanks to Ton Verbeek and Geke Westera for providing me with shelter so that I could finish this dissertation. The encouragement of my dear friend Antje Visser has meant more to me than she might possibly be aware of. The encounter with my friend Jörg Döbereiner in Tanzania has greatly enriched my fieldwork, and I am also thankful for all your invaluable comments on my chapters. I am indebted to my anthropologist friend André Bakker in Brazil, whose luminosity left important traces on chapter 8, and, on my life. The depth of my love and gratitude for my brother and sister extends far beyond the realms of language, but I know that I am, because you are. This “Comic Sans” is for you two. One person without whom this thesis would have never seen daylight is Chris, whose faith, love and extraordinary patience elevate my existence like a divine melody. ii Preview Imagine an atmospheric scientist, a journalist, an NGO worker, a donor, a herbalist, a farmer, a fisherman, an activist, a religious leader, a government official, a traditional leader, two Maasai pastoralists, a filmmaker and an anthropologist engaged in a conversation. Most of the interlocutors speak English, some speak Swahili, and only two speak Maa. The tone is somewhat urgent. The story that has brought them together is about a world at risk. Indeed, it is the highly complex story and observation of an altered climate - which scientists have come to subsume under the denominator of climate change or global warming - that made all these people convene. These two Maasai men have travelled from afar and appear somewhat puzzled. There is no word for this pending catastrophe in their language yet. It is a story that needs to bridge not only linguistic barriers but also cultural ones. It was at that particular day in Dar es Salaam where I witnessed for the first time the unfolding of a climate-change spectacle. It was also the day on which the contours of “my field” most notably crystallized, and after which I began to have an idea of which trails to track. And so I followed the two Maasai men to their village Terrat, where I spent many hours walking and herding cattle, trying to understand what climate change means to the pastoral Maasai of this particular locality. I also followed Joseph - the NGO worker who seemed the embodiment of a “development broker” - to Arusha. He illuminated the historical complexities between the irreconcilable worlds of the Tanzanian government and Maasai realities. And there was Eric, a representative of the civil society in Tanzania who had pushed the climate change agenda in Tanzania further. I visited him in Dar es Salaam, but our paths also crossed on many other occasions such as the international climate change conferences in Durban and Doha. I also followed climate scientists like Madumi to the University of Dar es Salaam, and the filmmaker to his studio where he edited his own version of the story. And I tried to follow government officials such as Paul, but very often to no avail, for they did not have time for researchers. Yet I received documents: draft policies, official policies, development policies, climate change strategies, adaptation plans, mitigation plans, poverty reduction plans, communication plans, assessment reports, evaluation reports, workshop reports and so on. And there were conferences, meetings, workshops, sensitization events, public hearings, and seminars – all revolving around the question of how to adapt to a changing climate. A great part of my following this climate-change spectacle thus consisted of following the actors and their script, that they performed again and again in a different setting and on a different stage. This thesis tells the story of a travelling story and all the varying lifeworlds that it has entangled and brought to life along its way. Following this trajectory provides insight into how climate change, as a statistical description, becomes an agentive force and imaginative resource that is inexhaustible in meaning; a power that operates well beyond its atmospheric properties.