In the Laikipia region of Kenya, it’s dry. Very dry. It hasn’t rained for 18 months, creating a desperate situation and bad feeling between the indigenous herders who have grazed in the area for centuries and the white landowners who have stayed in Kenya after the independence. They have erected electric fences that block the herders’ traditional grazing routes and hired soldiers to keep the herders’ animals away. A situation that escalates as the drought lengthens and a political election approaches, eventually leading to violence against animals, black herders and white landowners alike.
Following the desperate herders of the Samburu tribe and nervous landowners, ‘The Battle for Laikipia’ tells a thrilling and paradoxical story of the complicated legacy of British colonialism and yet another of the many consequences of climate change. The Samburu tribe drink the cow’s milk, eat its meat, give it as a gift and are buried in its skin, while many of the landowners were born and raised in Kenya and need all the grass for their own cattle.
In the Laikipia region of Kenya, it’s dry. Very dry. It hasn’t rained for 18 months, creating a desperate situation and bad feeling between the indigenous herders who have grazed in the area for centuries and the white landowners who have stayed in Kenya after the independence. They have erected electric fences that block the herders’ traditional grazing routes and hired soldiers to keep the herders’ animals away. A situation that escalates as the drought lengthens and a political election approaches, eventually leading to violence against animals, black herders and white landowners alike.
Following the desperate herders of the Samburu tribe and nervous landowners, ‘The Battle for Laikipia’ tells a thrilling and paradoxical story of the complicated legacy of British colonialism and yet another of the many consequences of climate change. The Samburu tribe drink the cow’s milk, eat its meat, give it as a gift and are buried in its skin, while many of the landowners were born and raised in Kenya and need all the grass for their own cattle.
94
2024
Swahili,English
Kenya
WATCH THE TRAILER
IMAGE GALLERY
CREDITS
DIRECTOR
Daphne Matziaraki, Peter Murimi
EDITOR
Sam Soko
PRODUCER
Daphne Matziaraki, Toni Kamau
CINEMATOGRAPHER
Daphne Matziaraki, Peter Murimi, Maya Craig
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Roger Ross Williams
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