The Storytellers Podcast

Listening to the Rainmakers - a series of 8 podcasts

Episode 1: Setting Out

Storytellers Mara and John introduce themselves and the questions that drove their journey to meet some of the East African communities most affected by climate change – questions about the role of storytelling and indigenous traditional knowledge in climate adaptation. Travelling to northern Kenya with a team from the regional meteorological office, ICPAC, they hoped to learn more about how indigenous traditional knowledge, or ITK, is helping communities adapt to unpredictable climate conditions. They give their own first impressions of how extremes of climate are impacting people in Turkana, and call on journalist Joseph Ngor Deng to describe the challenges facing communities in neighbouring South Sudan.

Episode 2: We Can Fortell the Weather

Before setting out on their journey to Turkana, John and Mara interview Joseph Ngor Deng about his research and conversations with powerful traditional Rainmakers in South Sudan. He describes their close relationship to nature, their array of techniques for predicting the climate, and their highly respected role supporting local people and governments with decision-making. John then describes the storytellers’ first encounter with rainmaking practices using goats’ intestines in northern Kenya.

Episode 3: We Have Been Adapting for Decades

Mara tells of northern Kenyan communities’ perception that they have been feeling the impacts of climate change since the 1980s. The storytellers report on the many places they found indigenous knowledge holders working closely with scientific meteorologists or government officials, to help their communities adapt. But first, Joseph tells a story which proves just how important Rainmakers’ advice is to communities and government in South Sudan. 

Episode 4: Climate is Security

The team learn how droughts caused by climate change are putting traditionally friendly cross-border relationships between the peoples of the region at risk. John and Mara meet festivalgoers from Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan and Ethiopia at the Lokiriama Peace Accord Festival, held annually since 1973 to reinforce peace between the neighbouring countries. There they also explore how the arts are contributing to ongoing peace efforts.

Episode 5: God Has Moved Further Away

Mara and John share stories from Rainmakers, community members and officials of how the Turkana people’s traditional knowledge is no longer always strong enough to help them. Between rampant ecological change and rapid cultural change, some elders tell them that ‘God has moved further away’. Rainmaking is losing its power as the landscape changes and drought advances. Mara reflects on where the culture might go next if, as it seems, its stories no longer provide hope.

Episode 6: The Borders Make Us Fragile

John and Mara discover the legacy of colonial borders and how they are complicating an already fraught situation for pastoralists in the region. The dowry system, unpredictable rains, and national and conservation borders combine to make the challenges facing cattle herders nearly insurmountable.

Episode 7: We Need to Find New Way to Tell Stories

John tells of one of the rare occasions on which the storytellers observed sharing of stories and knowledge between the generations during their trip. Both reflect on how stories can open up rich conversations, and how both the Turkana young people and their elders are losing out as storytelling traditions fade. Mara speculates as to how new forums for mutual storytelling and learning could open up, and how ITK might play a part in children’s education in the region.

Episode 8: Bringing it Home

John and Mara reflect on what their journey has taught the team about the roles storytelling can play in climate adaptation in frontline communities. While the trip underlined the severity of the climate crisis, it also highlighted how storytelling and the arts are vital to sharing traditional knowledge, and fusing different forms of knowledge for adaptation. Both the storytellers, and meteorologist Calistus from ICPAC, share some of their intentions for putting these learnings into practice.