Gaps between the Innovativeness of the Maasai Olympics and the Positionings of Maasai Warriors

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Today, the governance and representation of local communities is one of the point at issue in the realm of wildlife conservation, but the relationships between local agencies and external initiatives have so far not been well studied. This article examines the details and outcomes of ‘the Maasai Olympics’, a recently initiated community-based conservation (CBC) programme in southern Kenya. It is an athletic competition for Maasai warriors, intended to provide an alternative to their lion hunting tradition. The Maasai Olympics are said to be ‘an innovative conservation strategy’. On the one hand, this event is similar to other CBC projects that provide local people with economic benefits and environmental education, while emphasizing respect for local traditions, but on the other hand, it is different and ‘innovative’ in that it mentions an unpleasant local custom and tries to change it. Maasai warriors pretend that they are traditional animal lovers and that they approve of the idea of the Maasai Olympics. This reactive behaviour of the Maasai warriors is their ‘positionings’, and corresponds to the ‘African potential’. However, as their positionings are based on the ‘function of interface’ but without de-romanticization, it results in the reinforcement of outsiders’ stereotypical views and values, leaving the local people’s biggest problem unpublicized and unsolved.