Love of land, locked in our memory and history.
Love of the land in which one has grown is common to most people. We witness the struggle of the Masaai people against the Tanzanian government which wants to move them from their traditional homeland to create an income from tourism.
The question arises, whose advantage is it to have a tourist industry? The travellers will be among the elite in the world as the global economy begins to stumble and collapse. The government officials pushing for this development who no doubt have an economic advantage whether in handouts or kick-backs. Meanwhile a culture seated in the landscape has tales and memories which relate directly to the rivers and hills as well as the individual memories of each member of the tribe. But money cares nothing for this.
Among landless people there are two attitudes. The first is the traditional ‘way of the wheel’ in which all land is seen as hospitable and revered. The travellers try to leave the place they have stopped with no sign of having been there. This is an attitude shared among animals who will seek to hide their droppings. Cats for example.
The second attitude is found among those who have no allegiance to the land at all. For them it is a place to smash and grab, to trash. There is no sentiment towards the land itself, nor the people who live on it but who are viewed as gullible and to be taken advantage of, since the invader – there is no better word for such intrusive behaviour – has no sense of fraternity with others. They come, take what they want and move on, careless of any havoc they leave behind. This rape mentality is seen in many early American movies in the form of the gunslinger or the gang. We can say glorified by the movie industry. So evident in the behaviour of some today.
This expresses what I am trying to say. Thank you Mari. I would love to show you my dance to Gula Gula. It is a dance to ceelbrate the reindeer. I understand there is another choreography to this powerful song. Perhaps many more now.
