Imagine a Maasai warrior, or a Maasai woman adorned with beads - it's one of the most powerful images of tribal Africa. Dozens of companies use it to sell products - but Maasai elders are now considering seeking protection for their "brand".

Dressed in smart white checked shirt and grey sweater, you'd hardly know Isaac ole Tialolo is Maasai.

The large round holes in his ears - where his jewellery sometimes sits - might be a clue, though.

Isaac is a Maasai leader and elder. Back home in the mountains near Naivasha, in southern Kenya, he lives a semi-nomadic life, herding sheep, goats, and - most importantly - cattle.

But Isaac is also chair of a new organisation, the Maasai Intellectual Property Initiative, and it's a project that's beginning to take him around the world - including, most recently, London.

"We all know that we have been exploited by people who just come around, take our pictures and benefit from it," he says.

"We have been exploited by so many things you cannot imagine."

Crunch time for Isaac came about 20 years ago, when a tourist took a photo of him, without asking permission - something the Maasai, are particularly sensitive about.

"We believed that if somebody takes your photograph, he has already taken your blood," he explains.

Isaac was so furious that he smashed the tourist's camera.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22617001

Gus: I only used an old personal picture to attract attention to the way people's lives can be disrupted by government decree, a thousand miles away... Read article linked at top...

Tanzania has been accused of reneging on its promise to 40,000 Masai pastoralists by going ahead with plans to evict them and turn their ancestral land into a reserve for the royal family of Dubai to hunt big game.

Activists celebrated last year when the government said it had backed down over a proposed 1,500 sq km “wildlife corridor” bordering the Serengeti national park that would serve a commercial hunting and safari company based in the United Arab Emirates.

Now the deal appears to be back on and the Masai have been ordered to quit their traditional lands by the end of the year. Masai representatives will meet the prime minister, Mizengo Pinda, in Dodoma on Tuesday to express their anger. They insist the sale of the land would rob them of their heritage and directly or indirectly affect the livelihoods of 80,000 people. The area is crucial for grazing livestock on which the nomadic Masai depend.

Unlike last year, the government is offering compensation of 1 billion shillings (£369,350), not to be paid directly but to be channelled into socio-economic development projects. The Masai have dismissed the offer.

“I feel betrayed,” said Samwel Nangiria, co-ordinator of the local Ngonett civil society group. “One billion is very little and you cannot compare that with land. It’s inherited. Their mothers and grandmothers are buried in that land. There’s nothing you can compare with it.”

Nangiria said he believes the government never truly intended to abandon the scheme in the Loliondo district but was wary of global attention. “They had to pretend they were dropping the agenda to fool the international press.”

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/16/tanzania-government-accused-serengeti-sale-maasai-lands

The Saudi Royal Family should go and shoot themselves in the head should they accept or "demand" to go and shoot wildlife on Masai lands...

Sometimes in Khartoum, you see long convoys of blacked-out 4x4s, full of game hunters from the Gulf, drive through the centre of the city and disappear into the countryside, returning only to snake their way back to the airport. You’ll never catch their passengers in town, socialising or hanging out.

You only hear stories of Saudi hunters camped out in the wilderness, having brought the entire infrastructure and staff of the hunt with them, including cooks, food, beaters and handlers. They shoot desert species of gazelle, oryx and Nubian ibex, and take them home as trophies. There are reports that sometimes they don’t even bother to fly through Khartoum airport, choosing instead to construct makeshift landing strips in the middle of the wilderness that are dismantled after they depart, sometimes apparently in massive military C-130 planes. Quietly, under the radar, they get their game, and someone gets paid.

How these expeditions are set up, who arranges them and exactly who gets paid is a mystery – but it couldn’t happen without Sudanese government involvement.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/17/rich-gulf-arabs-tanzania-hunters-masai-rights

Taking offence

But some indigenous community members are aggravated by his approach, and particularly the title of his work: "Before They Pass Away". Some have complained the photos misrepresent the lives of many indigenous groups.

Nixiwaka Yawanawá, from the Yawanawá tribe in western Brazil, held a protest outside the London exhibition in September. Yawanawá works with the tribal rights organisation Survival International.

"We are not actually passing away, we are struggling to survive," Yawanawá said.

New Zealand's Maori community has also expressed its shock at being included in the exhibit and considered close to extinction.

While Nelson says he has photographed the tribe's past and present, others say he's neglected the fact that he's showing its future, too. And the question has been raised as to whether Nelson's works have best promoted understanding between indigenous groups and the Western world.

But Nelson defends his project. "The title is very, very deliberate and it is meant to get people's attention. Something is passing away."

Some indigenous people agree. Michael Tiampati is a member of a Maasai community in southwestern Kenya and a manager for a network of pastoral organisations. He says an outsider's exhibition, including photos of the Maasai wearing piercing red sheets and colossal brown headgear, will help.

"It shows the world the reality confronting these communities - the threats to the culture, ways of life and livelihoods," he says.

read more: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/11/photo-controversy-over-indigenous-people-20141117103356815649.html

----------------------

Gus says no matter how much you photograph and record the "culture" it will be disappeared by vested interests who don't care much... The bulldozers, the mining, the hunters will come in chase the indigenous, unless they are URGENTLY  protected from "development" and photographs. In Australia, it is generally accepted that Aboriginal people not be photographed unless allowed by the subjects and when Aboriginal people die, their recorded voices and pictures should always be erase... But a compromised has been reached that a warning be placed on TV shows that could show such departed persons.

I don't know but I would suggest that Noel Pearson, friend of Tony Abbott may not be so enamoured with him these days... Abbott has shafted the Aboriginal cause like you would not believe...

see also: exploiting images of ancestral culture for profit...

Singer Angelique Kidjo is a symbol of Africa's creativity, energy and beauty. Her music is a unique blend of her own very West African heritage combined with funk, jazz and Latin music, and much more.

From the small country of Benin, she has won awards and recognition around the world. But Kidjo is also a champion of African causes.

Through her work with the United Nations and her own foundation, she has travelled across the continent, raising money at times of disaster. But above all else, she has campaigned for the right of more girls to go to school.

And with Africa facing new challenges - from Ebola to extremists opposed to girls' education - she is vocal in her criticism of Western depictions of the continent.

"Do you think everybody in Africa has Ebola?" she asks on Talk to Al Jazeera. "We didn't invent Ebola. It's just a disease that exists there. Like, are we going to be blamed for inventing malaria too? If there is an Ebola outbreak in the Western world, will the media in the West treat it the same way?"

She also expressed her frustration with the way Western media portray Africa as a continent steeped in violence, victimhood and corruption.

"A success story in Africa doesn't interest any media," she says. "They are so eager and hungry for horrible stories from Africa. Why? It looks like the West is the hyena, feeding on the misery of the African people. They should be ashamed doing this."

read more: http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/talktojazeera/2014/11/angelique-kidjo-africa-isn-just-diseases-2014112813420950185.html

Humans' status as a unique super-predator is laid bare in a new study published in Science magazine.

The analysis of global data details the ruthlessness of our hunting practices and the impacts we have on prey.

It shows how humans typically take out adult fish populations at 14 times the rate that marine animals do themselves.

And on land, we kill top carnivores, such as bears, wolves and lions, at nine times their own self-predation rate.

But perhaps the most striking observation, say authors Chris Darimont and colleagues, is the way human beings focus so heavily on taking down adult prey.

This is quite different from the rest of the animal kingdom, for which the juveniles of a species tend to be the most exploited.

Part of this is explained by the tools that human hunters exclusively can deploy.

We can tackle adult prey at minimal cost, and so gain maximum, short-term reward, explained Prof Darimont from the University of Victoria (UoV), Canada.

"Advanced killing technology mostly excuses humans from the formerly dangerous act of predation," he told reporters.

read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34011026

Read from top...