INVESTIGATING PEOPLE-FOREST RELATIONSHIPS AROUND CENTRAL KENYA’S NYANDARWA FOREST RESERVE: UNDERSTANDING THEIR SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS by Gloria Kendi Borona B.E.S., Kenyatta University, 2004 M.B.A., University of Nairobi, 2009 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Forestry) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) November 2017 © Gloria Kendi Borona, 2017 Abstract This study explored how people-forest relationships are forged around Kenya’s Nyandarwa Forest Reserve, and how Indigenous Knowledge Systems of Agĩkũyũ people around the Reserve might contribute to healthy, sustainable people-forest relationships in light of the country’s changing social, economic, and political situations. The study sought to examine:1) how the indigenous communities around Nyandarwa Forest Reserve traditionally understood and sustained interdependencies with the forest; 2) how these interdependencies have transformed consistent with Kenya’s post- independence changes in social, economic, and political situations; 3) to what extent local, national, and international efforts to promote healthy sustainable people-forest relationships are incorporating local communities’ Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS); and, 4) how these communities’ IKS might inform the proposition of an environmental conservation framework for sustainable people-forest relationships. The study was guided by post-colonial indigenous research paradigms anchored in decolonizing methodologies. These methodologies were buttressed by indigenous theories that consider communities as spiritual beings with multiple relations. The study was informed by the traditions and cultural heritage of the Agĩkũyũ people, and augmented by Afrocentric philosophies that underlie African ways of knowing and value systems. Data were collected from community groups, elders, the Kenya Forest Service, and archives. The data corpus was analyzed using NVIVO consistent with the study’s theoretical framework and generated themes that address the research questions. In addition, the research participants contributed to the process as this study sought to elevate the community to the role of co-researchers and to create mutually beneficial long-term relationships. Results show that the pre-colonial manifestation of Agĩkũyũ people-forest relationships were understood through land, that land continues to be a central pillar of Agĩkũyũ indigenous environmental thought, and that one of the historical values of the forest is its role in sustaining the struggle for independence. Further, the study reveals that some indigenous practices tied to sacred sites and food sovereignty have endured, different governance regimes have shifted the way people-forest relationships are ii constructed, and the Agĩkũyũ have been continuously mobilizing to protect their landscape. In the end, this study suggests how IKS can contribute to forging sustainable people-forest relationships, arguably the planet’s most threatened resource. iii Lay Summary This study sought to understand how the Agĩkũyũ people of central Kenya interact with forested landscapes using local knowledge. The main goal of the study was to explore how to apply this knowledge to ensure that forests support community livelihoods, and to inquire into how communities can nourish forests. Results show that the Agĩkũyũ people do not see the forest as a place that is set apart from them, but rather as a part of their larger landscape. Further, local knowledge is produced and nourished by interacting with the land. Some of the active applications of local knowledge are in the recognition of the forest’s role as a site for the war against colonialism, and in seed saving and food production practices, all of which are directly tied to forest conservation. Finally, the study shows that the Agĩkũyũ have been working to protect their landscape for over 100 years. iv Preface This dissertation is an original, unpublished, independent work by Gloria Kendi Borona. This study obtained the approval of the UBC Research Ethics Board (Behavioural Research Ethics Board; UBC BREB Number: H15-02401), and that of the Kenya National Commission for Science, Technology, and Innovation (permit no. p/15/3889/8381). v Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................... ii Lay Summary ................................................................................................................ iv Preface ........................................................................................................................... v Table of Contents ......................................................................................................... vi List of Tables .............................................................................................................. xiii List of Figures ............................................................................................................ xiv List of Abbreviations .................................................................................................. xvi Acknowledgements ................................................................................................... xvii Dedication .................................................................................................................... xx Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Context and research questions ......................................................................... 1 1.2 Background ........................................................................................................ 4 1.2.1 Forest management: The Kenyan context ................................................. 4 1.2.2 The study site: The Nyandarwa Forest Reserve within the Aberdare Conservation Area .................................................................................................... 6 1.3 The Agĩkũyũ people .......................................................................................... 10 1.3.1 The coming of “outsiders” ........................................................................ 13 1.3.2 British settlement on Gĩkũyũ territory ....................................................... 16 1.4 Land tenure: A national perspective ................................................................. 20 1.5 Justification for the study .................................................................................. 21 1.5.1 Indigenous knowledge in conservation .................................................... 22 1.5.2 An examination of African epistemology .................................................. 25 vi 1.6 My positionality ................................................................................................. 29 Chapter 2: Literature review and theoretical framework ......................................... 34 2.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 34 2.2 Global conservation discourse and IKS ............................................................ 34 2.3 Historical perspectives of conservation ............................................................ 36 2.4 Community engagement: Conservation with a human face.............................. 40 2.5 Traditional territories and IKS: This land is our land ......................................... 41 2.6 From ‘Pristine wildernesses’ to a cultural landscape approach ........................ 42 2.7 Merging natural and cultural heritage ............................................................... 43 2.8 A path forward .................................................................................................. 45 2.9 Concepts and theory ........................................................................................ 46 2.9.1 The anti-colonial discursive framework .................................................... 49 2.9.1.1 Dismemberment and remembering ...................................................... 51 2.9.1.2 The anti-colonial thought and environmental philosophy of Thomas Sankara and Amilcar Cabral .............................................................................. 54 2.10 African ethnophilosophy ................................................................................. 61 2.10.1 Stories and proverbs ................................................................................ 62 2.10.2 Afrocentric relational ontologies, epistemologies, and axiologies............. 64 2.11 Reflecting on my own dismemberment ........................................................... 65 2.12 Chapter summary ........................................................................................... 71 Chapter 3: Methodology ............................................................................................. 73 3.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 73 3.2 Selection of participants ................................................................................... 75 vii 3.3 Researcher-community relationship building .................................................... 76 3.4 Methods of data elicitation ...............................................................................