Where the Earth Remembers: Land, Lineage & Belonging

“Somewhere, the land still knows your name.”

By HerDithy Digital | Global Voices: Roots & Routes | June Edition

Evans Kim

To Belong Is to Be Claimed by the Land—But What Happens When the Land Forgets You?

Not by title deeds or maps.
 But by memory. By ritual. By name.

Land, for many African cultures, is not a commodity—it’s an ancestor. A keeper of lineage. A sacred archive of who we are, and who we come from.

But in a time of global displacement, economic injustice, and mass political disillusionment, land has become both symbol and battleground. And in Kenya today, where Gen Z is rising against broken systems, the question of land is no longer abstract.

It is personal.
 It is historical.
 And it is political.

What If Belonging Is a Birthright—and It’s Been Denied?

Nguyen Thu Hoai

🧾 According to the Kenya National Land Commission, less than 20% of land in Kenya is formally documented, yet over 70% of land conflicts stem from historic injustices tied to colonial and post-independence grabs.

📊 At the same time, youth unemployment stands at a staggering 67% among 18–34-year-olds (KNBS, 2023).

We are a nation where the soil is rich—but memory is selective.
 Where wealth is inherited—but justice isn’t.
 Where youth chant in the streets—yet own nothing beneath their feet.

Gen Z Isn’t Just Protesting. They’re Re-rooting.

Michael Njoroge - Traffic

This is more than a rejection of bills by the senate that do not guarantee achieving a promising future for our generation and the next. 

 It is a spiritual rebellion against a country that feels owned by the few and leased to the many.

Today’s youth are asking:

  • Why are the same families still signing land deals decades after independence?

  • Why are ancestral lands being sold off as “idle” while youth can’t afford to bury their own?

  • Why do we plant trees for show and cut forests in secret?

They are not just angry. They are anchored.
 In memory. In the pain of the forgotten. In the hunger for home.

When You’re Displaced From Land, You’re Displaced From Power

Denise Alex

Across Kenya, many cannot trace where they come from—either because land was taken, lost, grabbed, or parceled off. Diaspora Kenyans return only to find “ancestral land” bulldozed for resorts, highways, or private titles.

Meanwhile:

  • Indigenous communities (like the Ogiek and Sengwer) are still fighting for land they have lived on for generations.

  • Women, who grow the food and hold the stories, are still excluded from inheritance systems in many counties.

  • Urban youth are locked out of land by skyrocketing prices, corruption, and speculative development.

Land is where legacy begins—or is denied.
 And Kenya’s youth are beginning to see that you cannot build justice on unjust land.

The Diaspora Is Returning. But Not Just for Business.

Wambui

All over the continent, Africans in the diaspora are making their way back—not just to invest, but to heal.

  • In Accra, a Ghanaian-American woman plants a food forest on her grandfather’s farm: “The soil knows me, even if I don’t know the language.”

  • In Lamu, descendants of Swahili sailors trace their roots not through GPS, but through coral ruins, mango trees, and old wells.

  • In Murang’a, a tech founder returns to rebuild his grandmother’s home, not for profit—but for peace.

These are not real estate transactions.
 These are rituals of remembrance.

So, Kenya—What Do You Remember?

Sweder Braet

Do you remember the grandmothers who walked miles to till the land?

The age groups that grazed the wealth of generations?
 The youth who plant trees on borrowed soil?
 The aunties who kept oral maps in lullabies?

Because the Earth does.
 The Earth remembers every footprint. Every offering. Every uprooting.

And now, Kenya’s youth are remembering too.

Final Reflection

You may not own land.
 You may not know your “clan” or “plot number.”
 But somewhere, the Earth remembers you.

And in that memory is a quiet, radical truth:
 Land is not just where we live.
 It’s where we are loved by history.
 And that history is calling us back—with fists, with roots, with fire.

Bundo Kim

#HerDithyJune #RootsAndRoutes #WhereTheEarthRemembers #GenZUprising #KenyaBelongsToUs #LandJustice #DiasporaHealing #AfricanLandBack #YouthWithRoots #SoilStories #KenyaNiYetu #YoungPeople #Voice #JusticeForKenyans

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