The grammar of hierarchy has been used in this case to create a false narrative of cultural and technological ‘progress’ of fire-making. Let’s question this notion of ‘simplicity’ by listening to the following video:
In conversation with Amos Karino Leuka and Yannick Ndoinyo
https://player.vimeo.com/video/463044507
In conversation with Amos Karino Leuka and Yannick Ndoinyo from Pitt Rivers Museum on Vimeo.
Amos Leuka is a teacher and long-time activist in cultural leadership and practices. He is a young member of the Loita council of elders and a member of the Land Committee in Loita. As a member of the council of elders, he has been outspoken on the subject of the position of girls in society and on the practice of Female Genital Mutilation. Amos is a founding member of the Pan-African Living Cultures Alliance. He was a member of the 2020 Maasai delegation to the UK as part of the Living Cultures project to decolonise cultural spaces.
Yannick Ndoinyo (member of 2018 delegation to Oxford) is a junior elder from Maasai Ololosokwan village, Loliondo. For several decades, he has been involved in defending and promoting land and human rights of the indigenous Maasai communities in Tanzania. Yannick is Executive Director of the Eastern Serengeti Trust (TEST), a non-profit organisation working to assist local communities, the government and other stakeholders to manage land, wildlife, and local livelihoods.
Listen to discuss the cultural importance of wooden fire-drills and fire-making as part of the inauguration ceremony of a new political leadership cohort.
