AN ASSESSMENT OF THE MAASAI RESIDENTS’ VIEWS ON TOURISM IN THE MAASAI MARA NATIONAL RESERVE, KENYA

Purpose of the study: The purpose of this study was to survey the residents’ attitudes on the impact of tourism on Maasai Mara National Reserve and to identify critical issues and tourism development concerns of the Maasai residents associated with the social, economic, and environmental sustainability of the Maasai Mara National Reserve. Methodology: Data for this study was collected from June-October 2015. The participants were residents, 18 and older, from three group ranches. Data were collected using single-stage cluster sampling to identify three group ranches, Koyiaki, Olkinyei, and Siana, in the Maasai Mara region. A semi-structured, open-ended questionnaire was used for face-to-face and photo-elicitation interviews of 24 respondents. Data were subsequently analysed using the Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) technique. Main Findings: The study identified six overarching themes; conservation, cultural change, community development, employment, livestock, and small business. This study found that residents perceived tourism with mixed feelings, both negative and positive. More specifically, residents living closer to the tourism destination experienced direct and tangible benefits as compared to those who live far away. Applications of this study: The results of this study are important for tourism planners, practitioners, and conservation managers in developing holistic strategies that promote sustainable tourism development in the Mara region of Kenya. Novelty/Originality of this study: The success of the tourism industry depends on the involvement of the local people. Lack of cooperation of the local communities in tourism development projects could lead to anger and mistrust, influencing perceptions of tourism and its three basic areas of benefits and costs: social, environmental, and economic. This study, for the first time, attempted to describe the resident’s attitudes towards tourism development in the Mara, results which can be used to improve the participation of local residents to ensure sustainable tourism development in destinations.

Passion to Heal – Dermatology volunteering in the Maasai Mara, Kenya

During summer of 2018, ME to WE organized a dermatology volunteer trip in Masai Mara region of Kenya. Our volunteer group included physicians, physician assistants and medical assistants. We volunteered at the Baraka Hospital along with the local staff there. Our goal was to help treat and triage patients with skin conditions and in the process educate local staff about Dermatology. We saw patients with a variety of skin conditions, including Filariasis, Onchocerciasis, Chromoblastomycosis, Discoid Lupus and others. In addition, we visited local schools to screen students with common skin conditions. We saw approximately 800-100 patients during our time there. On our last day at the hospital we organized lectures to teach the local team about common skin conditions. The key challenges to our work there were limited resources and time available, socio-economic difficulties of the local population, lack of an established dermato-pathology center, etc. The key strengths of the trip were very well organized trip from ticketing to lodging to itinerary, very supportive local staff and how grateful patients were with evaluation of their conditions. Our trip also included local cultural programs that allowed us to learn more about the people there. In a short span of one week, we were able to help in the care of the local patient population and in the process learn about local culture, socio-economic structure and medical practice there.

Engaging Men in Women's Economic Empowerment in Butiama District, Mara Region, Tanzania

The chapter addresses women's income poverty using men as active participants in empowering women economically. Butiama district was used as a study area, using 120 women and their husbands who were beneficiaries of the programme dealing with loan provision. As an outcome of the study, men had little participation in women's economic activities, hence, women's economic empowerment was at medium level. Unlike men, women's income was used for fulfilling basic needs of the family, therefore, had little impact on their economic empowerment. By conclusion, men as decision makers have high impact on women's economic empowerment. It is recommended that, awareness creation among men would enhance their participation in empowering women. Improvement of women's access to and control over production resources would improve their income. It is recommended that lobbying and advocacy approaches should be applied to enable women's control over the production resources.

Engaging Men in Women's Economic Empowerment in Butiama District, Mara Region, Tanzania

The chapter addresses women's income poverty using men as active participants in empowering women economically. Butiama district was used as a study area, using 120 women and their husbands who were beneficiaries of the programme dealing with loan provision. As an outcome of the study, men had little participation in women's economic activities, hence, women's economic empowerment was at medium level. Unlike men, women's income was used for fulfilling basic needs of the family, therefore, had little impact on their economic empowerment. By conclusion, men as decision makers have high impact on women's economic empowerment. It is recommended that, awareness creation among men would enhance their participation in empowering women. Improvement of women's access to and control over production resources would improve their income. It is recommended that lobbying and advocacy approaches should be applied to enable women's control over the production resources.

Engaging Men in Women's Economic Empowerment in Butiama District, Mara Region, Tanzania

The chapter addresses women's income poverty using men as active participants in empowering women economically. Butiama district was used as a study area, using 120 women and their husbands who were beneficiaries of the programme dealing with loan provision. As an outcome of the study, men had little participation in women's economic activities, hence, women's economic empowerment was at medium level. Unlike men, women's income was used for fulfilling basic needs of the family, therefore, had little impact on their economic empowerment. By conclusion, men as decision makers have high impact on women's economic empowerment. It is recommended that, awareness creation among men would enhance their participation in empowering women. Improvement of women's access to and control over production resources would improve their income. It is recommended that lobbying and advocacy approaches should be applied to enable women's control over the production resources.

Nata Deverbal Nominalizations

In Nata, an endangered Eastern Bantu language (E45) spoken in the Mara region of Tanzania, deverbal nominalizations present certain properties. Morphologically, they consist of four morphemes, ordered left to right: (i) a phonologically predictable pre-prefix; (ii) an N-Class prefix; (iii) a verb stem; (iv) a harmonic final vowel (FV) suffix. Semantically, Nata nominalizations fall into three classes: entity-denoting, state-denoting, and event-denoting. Syntactically, (i) entity Ns have a singular/plural distinction, but event Ns are number-neutral; (ii) entity Ns cannot be modified by an adverb, but event Ns can be; (iii) entity Ns optionally introduce an internal argument, while event Ns do so obligatorily. It is proposed that Nata nominalization construal arises compositionally via features introduced by the final vowel (ACTOR, THEME, EVENT), and features introduced by the N-class prefix (HUMAN, NON-HUMAN). Nata confirms the relevance of proto-roles and event arguments and shows that the event/entity partition is derived compositionally.

Nominal and Verbal Tone in Nata

This chapter examines core tonal properties of Nata, a Lacustrine Bantu language (Guthrie E-45) spoken in the Mara region of Tanzania. In most instances, both in nouns and verbs, a Nata word exhibits a single high tone, which is restricted to a small number of locations. Though Nata’s tone system might appear simple, close examination of nouns and verbs uncovers considerable complexity in the system. Nouns exhibit lexically encoded distinctions; verb roots exhibit no lexical distinctions, but inflected verbs differ tonally depending on tense/aspect/mood. The sparse distribution of high tones follows from simple edge effects whereby tones are located relative to well-motivated morphosyntactic boundaries. The analysis, framed in a lexical allomorphy approach, crucially depends on correct identification of the macrostem, with a novel aspect being the extension of the macrostem to nouns. This extension is adopted on the grounds that nouns and verbs share similar surface patterns, captured by reference to a common domain.