TRAILER: Meet the Gabbra People of East Africa: A Special Two-Part Episode Coming Soon to Seedcast

“If you know where you’re coming from, you know where you’re going, and you cannot get lost.” 

At a tea house on the side of the road, on the way to Marsabit, Kenya, a Gabbra senior elder sat down with a member of his community to tell a story about how colonization has affected the rhythms of their peoples’ nomadic ways of life in the grasslands and deserts of eastern Africa, and how traditional knowledge has gotten them through. Drawing from interpretations of the moon, the sun, the stars, the birds, and the entrails of slaughtered animals, the Gabbra’s knowledge can be applied in the world we live in today. This is an invitation to be in dialogue.
 
Enjoy this sneak peek of our special two-part episode, and subscribe to Seedcast today so you can be the first to listen to both episodes when they come out.

For this special collaboration, the Gabbra community shared recordings of their songs and celebrations along with the lands and animals they shepherd.  The Gabbra is a member of the Wayfinders Circle.

We extend gratitude to Ali Mero and Gabbra elder Molu Kulu Galgalo, who were our collaborators for this series.

We also thank the Wayfinders Circle for their support on these episodes.

The Wayfinders Circle was launched as a network dedicated to unleashing the transformative potential of Indigenous lifeways, inspiring all people to reimagine development, conservation, and the way they relate to each other and to Mother Earth. The conveners of the Wayfinders Circle are the Pawanka Fund, the World Union of Indigenous Spiritual Practitioners, and Nia Tero. 
 
Host: Jessica Ramirez. Producer: Jenny Asarnow. Story Consultant: Kamna Shastri. 

Seedcast is a production of Nia Tero, a global nonprofit which supports Indigenous land guardianship around the world through policy, partnership, and storytelling initiatives.

Enjoy the Seedcast podcast on the Nia Tero website, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your other favorite podcast platforms.

Keep up with Seedcast on Instagram and use the hashtag #Seedcast.

Transcript

TRAILER: Meet the Gabbra People of East Africa: A Special Two-Part Episode Coming Soon to Seedcast
August 17, 2022

Jessica Ramirez: It's is our first time doing a two part series! Okay. 

[Sound of Gabbra people singing]

Jessica:  Hey everyone this is Jessica Ramirez. The Gabbra community is coming to Seedcast.

[Singing continues]

They're traditionally nomadic, and they live in close relationship with camels and other grazing animals in the grasslands and deserts of northeast Kenya and southern Ethiopia. 

[Sound of birds and animals in Gabbra land] 

Molu Kulu Galgallo: [Speaks in Gabbra]

Ali Merro: [Translating] We pray to God. 

Molu: [Speaks in Gabbra]

Ali: [Continues to translate] We pray to God. We do our sacrifice on the land. The land will listen to you. The spirit will listen to you. God will listen to you.  

Jessica: A hundred years ago, the elders said that a big change was coming, something they’d never seen before. And that would be hard to survive. 

Ali:  [Translating] It's started with the coming of the colonial administrators who came, they came and colonized.  That is the turning point of events on how they saw changes in, in the lifestyle of Gabbra.

Molu: [Speaks in Gabbra] 

Jessica: And to get through it, the elders said – they would need to hold their traditions close.

Ali: [Translating] We need to look up and see that there's information up there that can help us solve some of the big problems we have down here.

Molu: [Speaks in Gabbra] 

Jessica: We have a really exciting two-part series to share with you. Tune in starting  August 31. 

[Sound of Gabbra people singing]
[Sound of animals[