Reconstruction of agricultural calendar lessons from Western Kenya: crops, cultural events, astronomy and recurrent climate events

Abstract

The Nganyi Community of Western Kenya is custodians of climatic indigenous knowledge (IK) on which their agricultural calendar has relied for close to 500 years. Reconstructing their agricultural calendar heavily depends on narratives. Constructivists argue that reality is socially-constructed and dynamically interpreted. Reconstruction of agricultural calendar requires analytical review of constructs of the calendar. Meteorological department archives digital data banks of climatic variability, but IK is critical and unique in reconstruction of pre-colonial agricultural calendar. Meteorological archival data and IK narratives come in handy. Discussions here-in refer to findings from participatory climate resilience projects conducted through multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral engagement of modern and traditional scientists for supporting documented social learning for climate change adaptation. Nganyi are Bantus whose genealogy is claimed to root from Sudan/Egypt/Congo; linked to Banyoro. In Kenya they are part of Banyore sub-clan of Luyia. They crossed to Kenya in search of arable land through Uganda settled on hilly grounds of Lake Kavirondo (Lake Victoria). Early settlements and food patterns are associated with hunting, gathering and limited agriculture supported on crude tools, indigenous plants with edible leaves, roots and fruits. They demonstrated IK application in managing agricultural calendar sustainably. Because the Nganyi share ecological zone with Luo, they also share how they have evolved their agriculture through application of IK. Like all communities in the world, they are prone to negative global climatic impacts of climate change on agricultural calender, and require adaptation to diversified agriculture for building resilience. Transdisciplinary empirical cases of pilot projects from Kenya, Zimbabwe and Tanzania validated IK’s role in tracking information through relating agricultural practices on agro-ecological zones. The conclusion is that IK and oral literature are plausible and critical sources of information for reconstructing pre-colonial agriculture and understanding of relationships of tribes and their settlements in contemporary times. Further research should integrate IK with modern meteorology for sustainable agriculture.