Eco-mapping

Muthee Thuku, Porini Association/Agikuyu Peace Museum, Nyeri

Eco-mapping is the drawing of maps that are different from conventional government maps. It involves a community mapping out its territory’s ecosystem complete with sites that are of cultural and historic importance to the community. A community is able to show its heritage, rivers, forests, sacred sites and animal and plant species in a particular ecosystem. In the process, a community redefines its relationship with nature. The process has helped communities shift their way of thinking from ownership of land to being part of a territory.

During the land adjudication process in colonial times, people were given pieces of land and title deeds to show ownership. Other parts were left as government land or as forest under the central government or local authorities. As a result, people were alienated from their territories and their cultural and natural heritage. Their way of thinking and their world views became distorted, since it is clear that a people’s thinking is born in their territory.

The process also involves mapping out the presence or otherwise of other developmental aspects and their impact on cultural and natural heritage. The maps therefore become a basis upon which a community can negotiate with the government.

The process, which is led by elders, also offers a chance for intergenerational knowledge transfer. The elders visit particular sites with the youth where stories are given, dances performed, and generally a lot of indigenous knowledge is passed on from the elders to the youth. The history of the community, which lies and is expressed within such sites, is passed on from one generation to the other. The journey back to the past is documented in the form of writing the people’s story of origin.