Background

The Maragoli or (Avagoli) people, whom our projects are designed to assist, are descended from Bantu tribes who have lived on the shores of Lake Victoria for a thousand years. Today, Maragoli identity is influenced by several different political and cultural contexts: sub-continent, nation, ethnic group and sub-tribe. The following overview provides a brief and non-technical description of each of these important contexts.

At the broadest level, the work of our Foundation is located in East Africa, which is made up of the countries of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. East Africa is very well-known among archaeologists and anthropologists as the likely birthplace of humanity, and the region is famous among tourists and safarigoers for its wildlife, game parks and mountains. Along with much of sub-Saharan Africa, however, East Africa stands as one of the poorest regions in the world.

Map of KenyaKenya itself is a nation of approximately 30 million people located right on the equator and on the western shore of the Indian Ocean. The area was colonized by the British in the late 1800s, and it was only after the armed resistance known as the Mau Mau Rebellion that Kenya achieved Independence in 1963. Over 40 different ethnic groups call Kenya home today, resulting in a vibrant mixture of Bantu-speaking peoples, Nilotic peoples, people of Arab ancestry , Indians and some Europeans who have stayed on in the post-colonial period. Most Kenyans today are trilingual, speaking both Kiswahili and English (the language of schools and government) as well as a local dialect that is particular to their ethnic group.

The Luyha are Kenya's second-largest ethnic group, numbering just over a million people. Most of the Luyha people live in the Western Province, though some have migrated to neighboring provinces or have moved to Nairobi. Many Luyha feel that they have been overlooked by Kenya's leaders and by development policies since Independence in 1963, and Western Province is generally regarded as one of the most impoverished regions in Kenya. Very few tourists travel to this part of the country.

Finally, the Maragoli people are a sub-tribe of the Luyha who live in an area of about 200 square kilometers just north of the equator on the western edge of Lake Victoria. The landscape is made up of intensely farmed smallholdings, nestled among undulating hills and valleys, and a vast network of brooks and streams. Known to neighboring groups as "The Rocks" for its lush but boulder-strewn landscape, this area (called Maragoli by the government) receives ample rainfall to support a variety of subsistence (bananas, maize, beans, cassava) and cash crops (tea, coffee, French beans) as well as livestock (cattle, goats). The staple food is ugali, a glutinous polenta-like mixture made from maize flour and water. So important is ugali to the daily diet that there is a special word (kuluga) in the local dialect that means "to cook ugali" and most people consider a meal incomplete if ugali is not served.

Kenya LandscapeIn the early 1980s the Maragoli region had one of the highest population densities in the world, and though the birth rate has fallen since then, the area still has the feel of a rural town, with over 1000 people per square kilometer. Bridewealth wealth negotiations still take place at marriage, and though brides are expected to take their place within a patriarchal kinship system, in actuality, women have a great deal of informal power. Because many men have migrated to the urban areas in the never-ending search for wage labor, however, the women often bear the lion's share of the burden of providing for and caring for their children.

During the colonial period, the Maragoli area was heavily missionized, and small Christian churches are now a defining feature of most villages. In fact, there is a dizzying array of religious organizations-from small groups of Muslims and Catholics to the Protestant denominations such as the Quakers, the Salvation Army and the Pentecostal Assembly of God, just to name a few. Yet imported religious beliefs still co-exist with indiginous rituals in fascinating ways. Funerals, for instance, are a very big deal in Maragoli. They often last many days and involve both church and clan officials, Christian hymns and prayers as well as drumming, dancing and rites devoted to the care of the ancestral spirits.

The rapid pace of change over the past century has produced many problems in the Maragoli region. The shift from pastoralism and horticulture to partial reliance on the capitalist economy has not been easy, and the unemployment rate stands at over 70% in Western Province. Malaria and HIV/AIDS have hit this area so hard that life expectancy has fallen to 55 years, yet access toclean water and affordable health care is beyond the reach of most. Roughly a third of the population live hand-to-mouth, and half of all families cannot afford to send their children to secondary school. The daily need for firewood has had devasting effects on the local environment.

Some of these problems were inherited from a brutal colonial regime in which British rulers systematically took the best land for themselves, taxed the local people beyond their means and ridiculed "native" customs as barbaric. Many people in Maragoli still remember how certain areas in the nearby city of Kisumu were designated off-limits to non-whites, how they were not allowed to drink European beer, or how they had to stand at attention when a white man drove past them on the road. Many of the current inequities in landholdings and in access to education, health care and wage labor stem from the colonial period and from the favoritism shown by missionaries and colonial administrators to certain groups and individuals at the expense of others.

Other problems, however, have resulted from the mismanagement and corruption of Kenya's post-Independence political leaders. The initial optimism in the early years after Independence gave way in the 1980s and 1990s to widespread frustration with the nepotism, tribalism and bureaucratic incompetence of officials who saw government primarily as a way to access resources for their "in-group". Rural dwellers have been especially marginalized by the lack of government attention to improving infrastructure and attending to basic needs such as clean water, affordable education and good health care.

In spite of these challenges, most Maragoli go about their daily lives with dignity and persevere in the face of hardship. They are widely known for their resiliency and for their resourcefulness in finding ways to make a living; the prevalence of so called "merry-go-rounds," or revolving credit associations, is but one example of this. The oft-heard phrase "any time is tea time" shows how the Maragoli have taken a British custom introduced during the colonial period and adapted it to their longstanding practice of reciprocal visiting. Sharing with needy family and community members is still one of the paramount cultural virtues of the Avalogoli, and it is this spirit of compassion and reciprocity that we hope to nurture through our Foundation's activities.

Finally, it is worth noting that although the large majority of the approximately 200,000 Maragoli people live in the Western Province of Kenya, some have migrated to Nairobi or other cities. A very small number have been able to get all or part of their education abroad and now reside full-time in the U.S., the U.K or in other countries. Those who live and work outside the Maragoli region may return home periodically, and they will usually be called upon by family and relatives to send remittances on a regular basis. Many will choose to be buried 'at home" in Maragoli when they pass away.

For more reading on the broader political, historical and cultural context of Maragoli, we recommend the following sources: