CABESI on Turkana Solutions – Part 2

Interviewee

Rolf Gloor

Director of CABESI

Interviewers

Alison M. Jones

NWNL Director and Photographer

Bonnie Muench

Photographer and Book Designer

In Kapenguria, Kenya, on January 13, 2013

Introductory Note

As Rolf and I continued our conversation, it struck me that his ultimate approach to environmental conservation was similar to that of Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai. She was the first to say to me: “No Water No Peace.” Rolf stood by that belief and found several ways to make his idealism launch peace and prosperity in Kapenguria and along the boundary between two contentious tribes struggling to survive in an arid environment.

Part 1 of this interview is titled: CABESI on TURKANA ISSUES – Part 1

Outline

OFFERING EDUCATION & HEALTH
CABESI for a BETTER LIFE
BEGINNING with BEES
CAMELS and SILK
JATROPHA & BEAUTY PAGEANTS
CABESI PROMOTES SPACE and TIME for PEACE
KITCHENS without BORDERS
WATER without CONFLICT

Key Quote When there is a drought, the Pokot and Turkana must be friends since they live together on the same water. They both want to survive. — Rolf Gloor

OFFERING EDUCATION & HEALTH

NWNL What do you do for local people here to be most helpful?

ROLF GLOOR Here in the desert, we lack quality education. I think it’s very difficult today for a community to sustainably survive without basic knowledge in calculating, writing and reading. Our task here is to improve basic communications and knowledge – but not at the cost of losing traditional knowledge.

Many communities have been told to forget about their indigenous knowledge. They were told to believe in and use our medicine, tablets, injections – and believe in them. So, people lost their knowledge and interest in traditional medicine, before modern medicine got here. Even today, modern medicine is not yet in our clinics or hospitals. Thus, this community got a bit lost.

The right to education faces similar conflicts. Yet, traditional knowledge on how to survive should be as important as the knowledge on how to write and read. The educational issue is these schools are in such deserted areas and unconnected. There is no radio. There is no Internet network – no nothing. It’s not easy to offer quality education in the desert. Also, people get tired in this heat. Teachers are sent by the government, but often they are not motivated to work here. It’s a challenge to motivate outside people to manage schools here.

NWNL Do you think government can help? If so, should it be regional government, national government or international organizations?

ROLF GLOOR Regarding education, the government – especially local government – should play a major role in assuring quality in the schools and that they have teachers and learning materials. But I think the quality education comes from teachers’ motivation. If they feel they are in a prison, they’re not motivated; and if not motivated as a teacher, they can’t offer anything.

CABESI for a BETTER LIFE

NWNL On a larger scale, how can quality of life be improved here in the Turkana region. What is your philosophy for these communities?

ROLF GLOOR For general development issues, I believe we need partners. First, we need somebody who has a good idea; and then, somebody who brings that good idea to a community in a way that the community believes it is their idea. That’s what we did at CABESI.

However, at first, we created a “half piece.” Then we saw the local leaders did nothing with that piece. We realized we didn’t ask what they needed – the other “half piece.” We put one and one together. We started with what they already have and already know. Then we corrected it here and there a bit. We did it so they felt it was their idea; and we involved them from beginning.

Preaching is poison in any development activity. In Turkana and Pokot, it’s your first 10 minutes there that count. If they don’t accept you – even if you are prepared to spend a lot of money – nothing sustainable will happen.

BEGINNING WITH BEES

NWNL How did CABESI begin?

ROLF GLOOR CABESI is project involving camels, bees and silk, under ICIPE, the International Center for Insect Physiology and Ecology, located in Nairobi. Our sponsor is Valuations Switzerland. The project started in 2004 by offering the infrastructure for honey production and using local beekeepers for harvesting and transporting the honey. With our financial infrastructure, the beekeeper who brings the honey is paid. For 10 years, CABESI has extracted, sieved, processed, cleaned, and handled all that is needed to offer honey to the final consumer, including marketing and labeling.

Beside honey, we also created other products like beeswax. Normally beeswax is thrown away in this part of the world. We showed local people how to boil the wax and extract it from the combs. We now produce a wide variety of beeswax products including honey soap which is based in beeswax. Our honey includes propolis cream, and we produce beeswax candles.

Last year we managed to produce about 45 tons of honey. The year before we had 25 tons. We started with only about 5 tons. So, since we began, we exploded from 5 tons to 45 tons. The market is no problem because our products are quality products. With quality products, you find always a market.

CAMELS & SILK

ROLF GLOOR Our CABESI project has also focused on camel transportation, as well as on bees and silk. We targeted honey, but the sweetest honey is very far from main roads. So we needed camel transport. It was hard for locals to believe camel transportation would work, so we had workshops to teach and excite people. But, indeed, it was not sustainable. Today, we no longer use camel for transportation.

Instead, we focused on camel health issues. Camels were dying and nobody knew why. Drugs were not available. So, we connected people here with a veterinarian in camel husbandry. We also distributed camel drugs so locals could address camel diseases.

With our wild silk program, we still struggle to reproduce the silk moths in good numbers so that we don’t destruct the ecosystem. That is still in the research stage. What we know is how to produce the silk. We are producig a very beautiful brown soft cloth; but what we don’t have enough of production in the base yet to make a business out of it.

NWNL You mentioned challenges you’ve faced with the silk business….

ROLF GLOOR One problem was with the silkworm cocoons – the raw material for silk – that are targeted by birds and lizards. The one way to avoid these predators eating our caterpillars is to puts net over the cocoons and the caterpillars while eating.

The bigger problem is that all the trees here, where our silkworms live, are full of thorns. And when you hang a net twice or thrice from one thorny branch to another thorny branch, then it’s torn, worn out and useless. I am not sure the birds are a serious danger. If you could produce caterpillars en masse – in the hundreds of thousands – it wouldn’t matter that the birds eat some. That’s the approach we’re trying now. I am tired of these trials and errors. We’ve worked for 10 years on producing silk, and so far we have created only one meter of silk cloth.

But CABESI means more that many yards of silk. We are respected in the community. We were welcomed at the beginning, and through hard work, we showed the community that development is possible. It’s not easy to work with communities, especially these that are practically nomads. But, through this, we became connected to other possible projects, developments and donors.

JATROPHA & BEAUTY PAGEANTS

ROLF GLOOR Our new activities include a jatropha project, sponsored by the Swiss embassy. We wanted to produce lamp oil from jatropha [an evergreen bush with medicinal properties] so people wouldn’t have to buy kerosene anymore. That oil burns very beautifully and it chases the mosquitos away, without any smoke. But our problem is in the business part of the project. A Turkana youth group had a press and was supposed to produce and sell that oil. But they never managed it properly. One reason was they were several times attacked by the Pokot youth on the other side of the river. And another problem was elephants would sometimes destroy the plans.

That was not successful, but it led me to a long-term idea I had regarding peace. I produced beauty shows with Turkana, Pokot and Kalenjin people in the border region between Pokot and Turkana. These beauty shows invited young ladies to enter a friendly competition for the most beautiful lady in the region. Both times it was a very huge success – and beautiful.

We had other cross-community peace events and wanted to continue; but we were stopped by gunshot warnings. So, it’s too risky now. But we might revive it as a new peace activity to create in our neutral space with a restaurant for often-conflicting tribes. We hope sometime the Turkana and Pokot people will sit at the same table joking, eating and playing.

We have other projects like showing people how to sun-dry mangos so they could sell those not eaten right away. And women who do beadwork make beautiful cards and create pictures with gold beads which we sell in Switzerland. I probably forgot a few things because we have so many projects in CABESI.

CABESI PROMOTES SPACE and TIME for PEACE

NWNL What dreams do you have for the future for CABESI?

ROLF GLOOR The future plans for CABESI are to create a sustainable atmosphere for continuing our work. I wish CABESI could expand further in Turkana country. We especially want to establish a friendly, business-community atmosphere between the traditionally-feuding Turkana and Pokot people. We tried once by setting up a collection center for honey. It didn’t work. We did a lot of training, but the Pokots refused to bring honey to Turkana to sell it, even though it was nearby.

My hope now is focused on our new project just east of Orwa, called the Calabash Restaurant – our Kitchens Beyond Borders project, which contains the Camel Center and our developing Honey Collection Center, now re-opened. I believe we can to bring a bit of peace into the region. Although even last night, there were shootings there. But peace takes long time, and we can’t blame these boys. They have never seen anything else. We want to show them another way in our restaurant – even if it is only playing cards or watching TV. Just to let them know there’s something else in this world other than fighting. Maybe it will be the first time for them to feel that.

The future for CABESI is multi-faceted. First, CABESI needs to establish security. Development is not possible in a region where people fight nonstop. So, we must work on peace initiatives. And I hope one day we can bring Pokot and Turkana together in business activities, because that is what will bring sustainability.

KITCHENS without BORDERS

NWNL Please describe how Kitchens without Borders helped you develop this Calabash project in a bit more detail. I was fascinated with all that occurs there when I visited.

ROLF GLOOR Kitchen without Borders is a peace organization that partnered with CABESI to set up a restaurant we call Calabash. It’s on the highway from Lake Turkana to Lodwar; and most importantly, on the border between Pokot and Turkana regions. There we offer cheap, but nutritious food. Swiss chefs came to train local community members in cooking, and they are now running the show.. We are offering a restaurant, with an environment of peace of atmosphere and a bit of quality. Part of the kitchen idea is to teach people some manners: how you eat when you sit on a table; how to wait until everybody’s there so you can eat together; and how to say thank you very much when the food is served. Part of the entire idea of Calabash is to be an “island of quality” and to promote health. We also put it in a garden. We call it a “shamba “[small farm], producing some food – all organic, without any poison. We have chickens and goats. Everything is there.

The main thing is to find ways to bring these separate communities together – just to sit together, to play together, to talk together. Nothing more is needed at the moment. Calabash is a first step to bringing these widely antagonistic communities together. It will take a bit more time. We still need some good ideas for how to proceed.

NWNL Do you know of other similar enterprises?

ROLF GLOOR The sponsor of Calabash is a Swiss organization – CSF. They have some projects in South America with similar situations. They too have a kitchen with quality food and bring different members of different communities together in peace. When they have a meal together, it is a very binding activity. Their “customers” don’t have to speak – calm just happens. That’s what we hope we will achieve.

WATER without CONFLICT

NWNL Do you see or experience conflict here over access to river, watering points, boreholes or other sources. As you discussed your peace initiatives, I wondered if that approach could also address water conflicts as a Pokot-Turkana issue?

ROLF GLOOR These communities fight, for many different reasons. The wide understanding is the fight is probably about posture and water. And that was happening quite often between the Pokot and the Marakwet- the specific Turkana branch here living near the Kerio River. As I heard it, the Marakwet changed their livelihood from keeping livestock to organizing shambas [farms] and growing crops, just so as to reduce these conflicts.

But I also wouldn’t say conflict of Pokot and Turkana is over. When there is a drought, the Pokot and Turkana are and must be friends since they live together on the same water. They both want to survive.

The fighting resumes when it starts raining, when they feel they can’t go home without a trophy, so that’s when they fight and steal each other’s crops. But in a drought, they don’t steal crops. Then they are friends. They live together and joke together.

Actually, poaching is not a water issue. I have a peace plan for Marakwet and Pokot. Two young boys with two guns each tried to sing about peace in the region. For half a day they discussed why they kill each other and why they steal each other’s animals. Twelve people came from those areas where killing was happening. They had all lost either a brother, sister or uncle in fights.

They discussed the reasons for their killing. Nobody suggested it had anything to do with water or food. The main reason was the bride price. Number 2 reason was the pride of the warrior, of being a man. Reasons also boiled down to school fees since cows are stolen when a child doesn’t have school fees – but nobody’s broke. In these evolved people, they understand the cattle need the same grass and the same water. Conflict is over water and many other things

NWNL Rolf, this has been a fascinating conversation on your significant attempts at problem solving and being guided by a determination to help create thriving communities. Thank you very much for your time with NWNL and your efforts to change a culture of conflict to a culture of peace.

Posted by NWNL on May 18, 2024.
Transcription edited and condensed for clarity by Alison M. Jones.

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