Images of East Africa in the Western mind are often composed of solitary acacia trees on an open plain in photographs or lions hunting zebra in a bloody primal encounter in nature documentaries. Rarely have people been present in the creation of meaning of these landscapes, but they have had a hand in the environmental composition of these images. This dissertation explores the meaning people attached to the Amboseli landscape through the ways they engaged with wildlife, livestock, natural resources, and each other. It is a history of a place, a landscape and all the layers of memory, identities, beliefs, and experiences associated with it. The Ilkisongo Maasai who live there are the primary group that created meaning in Amboseli, but there have been many others, including scientists and conservationists who spent decades in this savanna ecosystem and many others who spent little to no time there but were part of the process of conceptualizing what Amboseli was, is, and should be. Amboseli is a dry, dusty grassland at the northern foothills of Kilimanjaro. The Ilkisongo subgroup of the Maasai has lived on these plains for over 200 years. Their emergence here is evidence that, despite being persistent pastoralists, the Maasai have a dynamic history and are anything but the static representation of a timeless past as perpetuated by many in conservation, the colonial and independent governments of Kenya, and popular media images. During colonialism and after, the government managed wildlife within and beyond the boundaries of protected areas and many politicians argued this was necessary for Kenya’s economic development. Seemingly at odds with this assessment was the argument that Kenya needed to develop the land to its most productive capacity. The establishment of Amboseli National Park, hunting and poaching, scientific research, the creation of group ranches, and the development of livestock are important elements of understanding of different ways of conceptualizing a place and how this led to the present-day emphasis on community-based conservation.Conservation and natural resource management in Kenya has long been the domain of scientists and social scientists, and historians have overlooked the role of wildlife and peoples’ relationship with it. I also show how pastoralism was central to Kenya’s development, particularly in the post-colonial era, even if it was marginalized by a national emphasis on agriculture. In this history of Amboseli, I combine oral and written sources to examine how different approaches to conservation and natural resource management have evolved as Kenya changed, as the Maasai adapted to these changes, and as the international conservation and scientific interests engaged with the local politics and society in the region. The historiographical dynamics of this research blend African history with the history of science and the environment as well as with conservation social science to show that African involvement in wildlife and natural resource management shaped and was shaped by the integration of multiple perspectives in this landscape.
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