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LOIYANGALANI |
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LOIYANGALANI -"the place of the trees"- is a vague agglomeration of
grass huts, mud huts, tin shacks, a police station, a school, a pair of
campsites, "the mission" and "the lodge". It's a small community far
from metropolitan Kenya, without newspapers and often without beer (a
real measure of its isolation). The land around is mostly barren and
stony, scattered with the carcasses of livestock, with palm trees and
acacias clustered around the settlement's life source, a hot spring of
fresh water. This empties into two pools near the police station, one
for men, the other for women.
The village came into being in the early 1960s with the Oasis Lodge and
its airstrip, and the Italian mission to the Elmolo people, a small
group who live by hunting and fishing on the southeastern lakeshore.
Somali raiders ransacked both establishments in 1965, but since then the
two institutions have been left alone. The mission is now starting to
thrive and its net of influence has reached most of Loiyangalani's more
permanent inhabitants, especially the children who come to the school.
For all its apparent drabness, the village isn't dull. When you've had
enough of haggling for artefacts and fantastic quartz, onyx, amethyst,
and other semi-precious stones collected from Kulal - as well as the odd
fossil - you can wander over to the springs and the school. You'll
inevitably pick up a cluster of teenagers - Turkana, Elmolo, Samburu,
Rendille - eager to practise their English. Swahili has never made much
impact up here and English is the usual teaching medium. Education is
perhaps the most positive of the major influences - which otherwise
include state interference, Christianity and tourist money - bringing
pressure to bear on local customs and traditions.
The mission , while changing the structure of traditional society
(through conversions to Catholicism, which have been particularly
effective among the Elmolo), is at the same time helping to make local
people sufficiently independent to resist unwanted change and to make
choices about their future, by helping to set up income-generating
schemes such as the shops, some of the boats and a new service station.
Some of the Italian missionaries are extremely open and informative and,
although you can't be assured they'll have any time to meet you, the
chance to talk to them about Loiyangalani may well arise if you're
around for a few days. For non-Christians, however, the whole concept of
missionaries and their work can be difficult to swallow. For all their
schools and clinics, it's difficult to escape the feeling that these
people - for so long "untouched" by the outside world - managed very
well with their original beliefs and traditions, which formed the basis
of their society, cosmology and human relations. With Christianity now
ascendant, the old structures are breaking down fast and some risk being
lost completely (the Elmolo lost their language in March 1998 following
the death of its last speaker, for example). By preferring to convert
children, rather than their more obstinate parents, the deeper morality
of the well-meaning missionaries is questionable at best. More
positively, there's a small library at the mission, which you're free to
use.
Loiyangalani's " beach " is a grubby strip a couple of kilometres down
the road. Many of the loose stones on the shore shelter scorpions (not
serious) and carpet vipers (very serious). In the evenings, dances often
take place around Loiyangalani - informal, energetic, pogo-ing
performances for fun, always worth checking out. Track them down by the
booming sound of collective larynxes. It's the girls who ask the boys to
dance, and you're welcome to join in (no cameras or torches unless
permission is expressly given and paid for, usually Ksh300 per person).
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