Shepherd's Eye In The Sky
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 28 January 2026
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Africa's 250 million nomadic herders, or pastoralists, are the invisible keystone of the continent's food system. They provide 50% of Africa's meat and 75% of its milk, moving livestock across vast rangelands in response to seasons, weather and grazing patterns that have sustained communities for millennia. Yet pastoralists are routinely dismissed as backwards, a relic in the way of progress and modernisation. Climate change, land grabs, and conflict force them off ancestral routes. Their knowledge is often ignored. But in the UN International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, a different story emerges - one where these herders aren't obstacles to climate solutions but pioneers of them.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:05.0 | Hello, my name is Joshua. |
| 0:12.0 | Hello, my name is Joshua. |
| 0:18.0 | I live here in North andania, in eastern Africa. |
| 0:22.1 | And this is my home. |
| 0:24.9 | So as you can see, we have some ocean ships. |
| 0:28.3 | We have also some cattle here. |
| 0:31.5 | In Tanzania and across swathes of the African continent, |
| 0:35.2 | from the Sahel to the Rift Valley and Horn of Africa, |
| 0:38.3 | there's a hugely diverse community of people whose cultural identity, history and way of life |
| 0:44.0 | is intertwined with the movement of cattle. Joshua Liza is one of them. |
| 0:49.9 | My whole life has been with cattle. I was born in a small hut within the village, a small hut made of cow dangs. |
| 1:00.3 | I was fed milk, blood, meads. |
| 1:05.6 | And from my upbringing, all I know was cattle. |
| 1:11.6 | Joshua is a masai pastoralist or nomadic herder. |
| 1:15.6 | And just like the generations before him, dealing with tough conditions is all part of his rhythm of life. |
| 1:22.5 | This is the dry season. |
| 1:25.0 | So we usually have our animal moving from one area to another given the seasons. From |
| 1:31.9 | Magas to January, generally our cattle are here in the highlands. And from February, we move |
| 1:38.3 | them down to the lowlands during the rainy season. As you can see, our animal today are a little bit skinny because of the dry season. |
| 1:47.8 | They have no much to eat. |
| 1:51.5 | For Joshua in Tanzania and the millions of pastoralists across the dry lands of Africa, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.