Decolonizing Maasai History: A Path to Indigenous African Futures

Join us on Tuesday, January 28 at 4:00pm for an engaging conversation with Maasai leader and activist Meitamei Olol Dapash and historian Mary Poole about their new open-access book, Decolonizing Maasai History: A Path to Indigenous African Futures. Their work offers a new version of Maasai history based on Maasai memory and concerns. Through their rich and detailed narrative, we learn not only about the history of the Maasai as they understand it, but also about the relations between politics and Western history; about the untold history of Kenya both pre- and post-nationhood; about why the creation of nation-states is not synonymous with liberation; and about how and why Indigenous approaches to land obstruct global processes of resource extraction. All of this finds wider resonances that upend received narratives of post-“independence” Africa and offer new opportunities for the emancipation of Indigenous communities from neo-colonial regimes the world over.