‘If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu’ - My Reflections on Speaking for My Community and Painting my Pain

By Lucia Ene-Lesikar, Elevate Young Minds Director

‘If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu’.

‘If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu’.

I was sat at the Commonwealth Youth Forum when I was struck by this quote spoken by the Rwandan minister of Youth and Culture, Rosemary Mbabazi, who paraphrased president Paul Kagame's famous words. It pushed me to reflect on the importance of not only of showing up to decision making spaces, but also having access to them.

I had the honour of attending both the Commonwealth Youth Forum and the People’s Forum as a Director for Elevate Young Minds in Kigali, Rwanda. After a two-year delay, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Rwandan government finally hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meeting (CHOGM). This runs alongside the Youth, Women’s, People’s and Business Forums.  

Elevate Young Minds Directors at the People’s Forum

As changemakers, we all have topics that hit particularly close to home, and in this case it was knocking on my door. Reports of conflict and evictions in the areas of land my family call home in Northern Tanzania have recently flooded social media, and there’s no surprise how it hasn’t made mass media. Currently, Maasai people are being pushed back off land that they have lived on for centuries. The government claims that there are no evictions taking place, that they are simply demarking protected lands and protecting the local wildlife, but the reality is that they are putting luxury tourism before the lives of the Maasai who live there. Al Jazeera have written an article about it which you can read here. These actions are forcing Maasai people into smaller areas, and this is causing a great deal of hardship as the population density increases, with little access to resources, water sources and less space to graze cattle. Cattle are a significant part of Maasai culture and identity. 

Officials cite that there is no violence from the police, but the reality on the ground is quite different, with authorities coming in with tear gas and rubber bullets, which has caused injury and even the death of a police officer. The news left me feeling incredibly hopeless, frustrated, and a little hypocritical as I sat around some of the people who were pushing these things in office.

Speaking about the importance of Indigenous voices at the Commonwealth People’s Forum.

It always takes courage to speak out, but when you are fueled with such strong emotions it can bring one to life. The opportunity to attend such high-level events is not one that many people get, particularly for women with indigenous heritage. ‘If you’re not on the table, you’re on the menu’, and so often Indigenous women are on the menu. When I was given the chance to address the participants and the panel at the Commonwealth People’s Forum, I did. I spoke about the importance of valuing indigenous knowledge, emphasising that these communities have wisdom and knowledge which are valuable to us now more than ever, which is something we need to consider as we build the future. It took courage for me to do that. The speech wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t planned, but I needed to say something, and I’m so glad I did. I’m proud of myself and I know my family would be too.

My family have instilled in me a strong sense of Maasai identity, we are proud people. Proud of our culture, our traditions and most importantly, our relationship with the land. Even though I spend most of the year on the other side of the world, I am incredibly proud of my heritage. My grandparents fostered in me the belief that indigenous knowledge has been valuable for us in the generations that have passed and in the generations that will come. Its knowledge is timeless and like many indigenous groups, the Maasai’s relationship with the land is symbiotic. They take care of the land, and the land takes care of them. In an era where there are rapid changes to ecological conditions, it is more important than ever to understand how we can live with the land in a sustainable way. This way of life is something most indigenous tribes have mastered, but alas the rapid growth of the agricultural and industrial revolutions and the economic growth and societal  expansions that came with it has resulted in a great genocide of indigenous cultures.

It’s not only the use of force that disturbs me, but also the prospect that Maasai people are being pushed off their land, without any plans on where they are supposed to go or how they are to survive.This dispute over land has been going on for decades, but came to media attention again a few weeks ago, and so it was with this going on in the background that I arrived in Rwanda. It’s been an incredibly emotional few weeks and it has almost constantly been at the back of my mind.

My painting ‘Orpul’

I’ve heard a lot about how art can act as therapy. I’m still working on how I process the things that happen in my life and I have to admit I’ve not yet mastered prioritising self-care, but when I got the opportunity to paint at an art gallery event in Kigali, I knew exactly what I was going to paint. I haven’t seriously painted anything in years. I’ve always loved art, but I never felt like painting was something I was ‘good enough’ at to pursue or even enjoy. But there was something that happened when I brought that brush to life on the canvas. It felt like everything was slowly being released. I painted a landscape, inspired by the hills of my grandparent’s village in Northern Tanzania, and I called it ‘Orpul’. Orpul is a sacred site of healing located in the forests near my familial home. It is an important cultural and spiritual space for the members of my tribe. I called my painting Orpul because I wanted to capture the relationship of healing between the people and the land. It’s not complete, but it doesn’t have to be. In the past I’ve let myself be hindered by this idea that if I paint it has to be perfect, but this time I just painted what I felt, and I was pleasantly surprised and much calmer.

Some of the members of my group from Youth and Human Capital.

I’m happy to have attended both the Youth and Peoples Forums. The opportunity to be at the table and not on the menu is one I do not take lightly. Being at such a table provided me with the opportunity to implement something that can have a real impact on displaced people all over the world. My group in Youth and Human Capital passed our policy which focuses on empowering refugee and displaced youth leaders across the world. Being a part of a changemaking space like I’ve been in the Youth Forum has shown me that having a seat at the table does matter, and that opening the door so that other people can sit too is crucial for change to happen in the right places. Rwanda has taught me so much, and though I haven’t solved the problem, I feel I’ve made some steps in the right direction and ultimately, every step counts as it’s this collection of every single step that gets you to where you need to go.