Paper long abstract:

Co-author: Therese Green

Kenya’s Maasai have become increasingly integrated into an economically globalized world, primarily due to growth in the tourism industry. Allied to this has been the gradual ‘neoliberalization of nature’, bringing with it a host of concerns for many communities ranging from the individualization of land tenure to the commodification of culture.

One particular manifestation of this amongst the Maasai, as with many other communities within and beyond Kenya, has been the homogenization of culture, to the extent that distinct front stage and back stage ‘realities’ of Maasai-ness now exist. The former (represented by the ‘traditional’) provides a veneer, satisfying tourist demands and sustaining a growing ecotourism industry. Beyond the veneer there exists a highly dynamic and rapidly changing reality, one characterised by numerous tensions and contradictions.

This paper presents the research undertaken in Loitokitok District, an area predominantly occupied by Maasai of the Kisonko section. The District was long spared the influences of rural ‘modernization’ and the social, economic and environmental calamities which subsequently beset many other parts of Maasailand. Yet more recently tourism has started to impact on the lives of many of Loitokitok’s population.

This paper focuses on the aspirations and perceived opportunities conveyed by children and their parents in light of Loitokitok’s integration into the global tourism industry. Furthermore it explores how these changes have started to impact upon the ways in which respondents value their cultural norms and traditions and how many (especially girls) have started to challenge their own Maasai identity. The paper finally examines how these changes have started to have a tangible impact upon families, most notably through new attitudes towards formal schooling (again, especially in respect to girls). This actor-oriented perspective of ecotourism’s local impacts highlights the complexity of cultural transition and the multiple tensions and paradoxes associated with it.