Group

• The Tower of London’s Crown Jewel exhibition, which reopened in May, is a turning point in the museum’s narrative.
• The Crown Jewel exhibition showcases the effect of these changing narratives in its display of the Koh-i-noor and Cullinan diamonds.
• Set with more than 6,000 diamonds, nine emeralds, four rubies and four sapphires, the Imperial Crown was made from Indian resources.
• A section of the exhibition displays the dresses and objects of the guards of the Tower of London, who protect the crown jewels.

• Most Pagans view the Earth as the Goddess, with a body that humans must care for, and from which they gain emotional, spiritual and physical sustenance.
• Groups called covens were the norm when I began my research, but as my own research shows, most Pagans now are solitary practitioners.
• Even while the Goddess continues to be revered, the practitioners’ connection to the natural world, at least for many, is also changing.

Spiritual objects

• The objects were seen as connecting the person to both the natural world and to the spiritual realm.
• Some of these objects were then further imbued with spiritual significance by being placed on an altar during a ritual.
• Most often these rituals, a part of Wiccan spiritual practice, celebrated the cycle of the seasons in eight holidays called sabbats.
• The cherished objects can be passed on as gifts to others who may need them.

Process of commercialization

• Commercialization started in the 1980s with the sale of how-to books on Wicca.
• By the 1990s, however, commercialization was occurring more quickly – and having an impact on the majority of practitioners, particularly new entrants.
• Some of the objects that were cherished, particularly colored stones and crystals, were bought at occult bookstores or shops.

Nature online

• With this change in practice, the social bonds and obligations that came with the exchange of knowledge also came to an end.
• There is no longer a need to enter into a forest or go to the shore to find an object that connects practitioners to Mother Nature.
• Nature is still seen as sacred and celebrated in rituals, but more and more practitioners are finding the objects for their altars on websites.

• With some 40-odd ethnic groups, Kenya is a country of ethnic minorities – it has no single dominant community.
• During elections, political parties and candidates do raise policy issues, but ethnicity, or tribalism as it’s popularly called in Kenya, is the default vote-hunting strategy.
• In my view, ethnicity is not an expression of cultural identity or a reservoir of talent for nation building.
• The populace buys into ethnic politics under the false hope that their respective ethnic leaders will help them better their lives.

How ethnicity plays out

• Successive Kenyan presidents, starting with the first, Jomo Kenyatta, anchored the state to ethnicity.
• Their deliberate effort to erase memory and distort Kenya’s contested history fuels ethnicity, too.
• Contrary to popular belief, the Kenyan elite are fixated on ethnicity – not the masses – since it determines access to the benefits of modernity.
• There is a link between ethnicity, elite ambitions and the impact of modernisation.
• Disparities in development provide a basis for ethnicity.

False starts

• It also seeks to streamline political parties to enhance national cohesion and harmony.
• The constitution also provides for the devolution of power and resources through county governments.
• In elections held before independence in 1962, for instance, candidates won elections on the strength of vision and national appeal.
• Kenya’s inability to transcend the ethnic ideology has made it hard to devise alternative bases for political organisation.

Class vs tribe

• In the lead-up to Kenya’s 2022 elections, opponents of class politics equated it to ethnic politics.
• Unlike ethnic politics, however, class politics is programmatic.
• William Ruto, as a presidential candidate in 2022, shifted the discourse from ethnicity to the economy through a “hustlers vs dynasties” ideology.

Next steps

• This has to start with an overhaul of the education system to make it relevant to Kenyan society.
• There is need to empower the minds of citizens by instilling in them a sense of national pride and consciousness.

• This narrow approach will perpetuate the cycles of violence in a country whose population hasn’t known peace for three decades.
• I have researched the micro and macro causes of conflict in eastern DRC since 2017 to understand the motivations of individuals, groups and communities.
• It has failed to protect civilians and picked sides in inter-community violence.

Inside the report

• The report notes that dismantling the terror group’s complex funding mechanisms and networks needs greater collaboration among countries.
• Rwanda and M23: In North Kivu, the UN report has called attention to the violence perpetrated by the Rwandan-backed M23 rebel group.
• The rise of the Twirwaneho: In South Kivu, the UN report documents clashes among groups claiming to be protecting their ethnic communities.
• The report highlights the Twirwaneho, an armed (self-defense) group affiliated to the Banyamulenge, a minority ethnic group in South Kivu.

The report’s loopholes

• But based on my research, it’s my view that violence in the country is intrinsically complex.
• In my view, there are four major loopholes in the report.
• First, the UN experts disregard the prominent roles played by other major actors in the conflict, such as the national army.
• They’ve left out those committed by the Congolese military, and other local and foreign militias.

Way forward

• It took more than a year to document violence in South Kivu and Ituri that erupted in 2017 and this is happening in Maindombe.
• A simplified perspective won’t help to bring peace if the negative role played by security services is superficially covered.