THE SENGWER:

The Sengwer are also known as Cherang'any and previously as Sekker, Siger, Sigerai, Segelai, Senguer, Senguel or Jangwel. They are an indigenous community who primarily live in the Embobut forest in the western highlands of Kenya and in scattered pockets across Trans Nzoia, West Pokot and Elgeyo-Marakwet counties. The Sengwer are sometimes portrayed as a component of the Marakwet people but are a distinct ethnic grouping. The Sengwer people are currently a marginalized community and face significant threats to their identity and ancestral lands. International and human rights organizations including the United Nations, Amnesty International and the Kenya Human Rights Commission recognize the Sengwer as indigenous peoples whose claim to the area goes back hundreds of years and have repeatedly raised concerns about human rights violations against them.


The Sengwer prior to the 19th century herded a distinctive type of long-horned black cattle, postulated by Lamphear (1994) as being a cervicothoraic-humped Sanga crossbreed. During this period, social groupings similar in concept to clans seem to have played a role in the social organisation of the Sengwer. One of these 'clans' was known as the Kacepkai. This clan was displaced during the Turkana invasion of Moru Assiger and were said to have become the diviners of a number of different peoples in the Mt. Elgon region.

The Sengwer are credited with great mystical abilities and divination appears to have played a large role in their culture. The confederacy gave rise to the Meturona line of diviners among the Turkana, the Kachepkai diviners of the Pokot and the Talai diviners of the Uas Nkishu Maasai, the Nandi and Kipsigis.

The most notable element of Sengwer culture was an adornment of a single cowrie shell attached to the forelock of Sengwer women, a hairstyle that was also common to the Oropom who neighbored them to the west and north-west. This dangling cowrie shell was referred to as esigirait, pl. ngisigira and it is from this cultural feature that the Sengwer are said to have derived their name.


REFERENCE BOOKS AND LINKS ABOUT THE SENGWER:

1. MacDonald, J.R.L (1899). "Notes on the Ethnology of Tribes Met with During Progress of the Juba Expedition of 1897-99". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 29 (3/4): 240. doi:10.2307/2843005. JSTOR 2843005.
2. Lang, Chris (15 February 2018). "Threats of eviction against indigenous Sengwer people continue in Kenya". REDD-Monitor. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
3. "Who are we?". SENGWER ETHNIC MINORITY INDIGENOUS PEOPLES. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
4. FAMILIES TORN APART FORCED EVICTION OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN EMBOBUT FOREST, KENYA (PDF). London: Amnesty International. 2018. Retrieved 15 April 2019
5. Lynch, Gabrielle (8 March 2016). "What's in a name? The politics of naming ethnic groups in Kenya's Cherangany Hills". Journal of Eastern African Studies. 10 (1): 208–227. doi:10.1080/17531055.2016.1141564.
6. Muraya, Joseph (January 4, 2018). "Forest is our ancestral land, Sengwer community say resisting eviction". Capital News. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
7. "Kenya / Embobut Forest: UN rights expert calls for the protection of indigenous people facing eviction GENEVA". United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner. 13 January 2014. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
8. "Kenya: Sengwer evictions from Embobut Forest flawed and illegal". Amnesty International. 15 May 2018. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
9. DAYS IN THE COLD: KHRC's Report into the Embobut Forest Evictions. Nairobi, Kenya: Kenya Human Rights Commission. 2014.
10. Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (April 2018). A N INTERIM REPORT OF THE HIGH - LEVEL INDEPENDENT FACT - FINDING MISSION TO EMBOBUT FOREST IN ELGEYO MARAKWET COUNTY A KNCHR REPORT (PDF). Nairobi: KENYA NATIONAL COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHT
11. Vidal, John (7 January 2014). "Kenyan families flee Embobut forest to avoid forced evictions by police". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
12. MacDonald, J.R.L (1899). "Notes on the Ethnology of Tribes Met with During Progress of the Juba Expedition of 1897-99". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 29 (3/4): 240. doi:10.2307/2843005. JSTOR 2843005.
13. Spear, T.; Waller, R. (1993). Being Maasai : ethnicity & identity in East Africa. London: James Currey. ISBN 0852552165.
14. Lamphear, John (1988). "The People of the Grey Bull: The Origin and Expansion of the Turkana". The Journal of African History. 29 (1): 34. JSTOR 182237.
15. Lamphear, John (1988). "The People of the Grey Bull: The Origin and Expansion of the Turkana". The Journal of African History. 29 (1): 34. JSTOR 182237.
16. Jennings, Christian (2005). "1" (PDF). Scatterlings of East Africa: Revisions of Parakuyo Identity and History, c. 1830-1926 (PhD). The University of Texas at Austin. p. 98. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
17. Mwanza, Kevin (January 24, 2018). "Sengwer 'hiding in the forest' amid pressure on Kenya to halt evictions". Reuters. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
18. Mwiraria, Tom (6 July 2018). "Embobut Forest: The only home the Sengwer know". Daily Nation. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
19. Hudson, Michael W. (October 26, 2015). "08:00 am ET In A Kenyan Forest, A World Bank-Backed Project Threatens A Way Of Life". Huffington Post. Retrieved 15 April 2019.
20. "EU suspends its support for Water Towers in view of reported human rights abuses". Delegation of the European Union to Kenya. January 17, 2018. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
21. Agutu, Nancy (January 18, 2018). "EU suspends Sh3.6 billion water project over Sengwer rights abuses". Just Conservation. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
22. Ruto, Stephen (January 17, 2018). "Outrage after KFS wardens kill Sengwer herder in Embobut forest". The Star Kenya. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
23. Mejer, Jakub (March 22, 2018). "Kenya is Violently Evicting an Indigenous Tribe in the Name of Water Conservation". Earth Island Journal. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
24. Langat, Anthony (October 1, 2018). "The Sengwer have a plan to protect the Embobut Forest—and their way of life". Intercontinental Cry!. Retrieved 15 April 2019.

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