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Paper short abstract

This paper examines how people in a mountain region articulate territorial belonging and ownership through everyday talk about indigeneity, livelihood practices and engagement with government actors.

Paper long abstract

“Kenya’s new indigenes” (Lynch, 2011) living in mountainous-forested areas shaped by histories of conservation‑driven dispossession are increasingly (re)claiming territorial belonging and ownership. Drawing on nine months of ethnographic research conducted between May 2022 and February 2023 among the Ogiek of Mount Elgon in Western Kenya, this paper examines how territorial and ownership claims are articulated through everyday talk, livelihood practices and engagement with government actors, particularly forestry and conservation authorities. The paper shows that claims to territory and ownership move beyond court proceedings and activist arenas, as they are embedded in everyday interactions and practices. These engagements reveal how territoriality and ownership are produced across multiple scales—from everyday interactions to ongoing negotiations with government actors—and how claims simultaneously draw boundaries of belonging while invoking micro-ethnic claims to ownership and control. By foregrounding a mountain region in Western Kenya, the paper contributes to emerging discussions of how territorial belonging and ownership claims are articulated globally.