Boran Herdsmen

Part of the Series: Kenya / Faces of Change collection

This film demonstrates the time-honored solutions to the problems associated with the Boran's dependence on cattle for living. Direct government intervention and the indirect impact of modernization are forcing the old patterns to change. The film depicts herding practices, movement patterns, watering strategies, and the lifestyle of the herdsmen.

The film has special currency for issues in rural development and agricultural, environmental, and human adaption. Courses that emphasize Third World problems, cross-cultural techniques of adaptation, the role of the environment in questions of human survival, and the role of government in rural development will find the film useful.

Major Concepts: Pastoralism, nomadic-sedentary interaction, environmental adaptation, role segregation of men and women in economic and ritual affairs, ritual and the role of the supernatural. Filmmaker: David MacDougall, James Blue, Paul Baxter