Sveva Gallmann, 2006 Women of Discovery Field Award

""Dreaming is great--but act on your dreams. They will be tomorrow's reality."" — Sveva Gallmann

Anthropologist, oral historian, educator, project coordinator

Born: 1980-01-01

Hometown: Near Nairobi, Kenya

Education: MA Medical Anthropology, New College, Oxford, England

Achievements

Discoveries: The Samburu spiritual healer Mzee Lemarkat and a Pokot herbalist Mama Langeta. Through them, I have uncovered many secrets of life.

Expeditions: Researching how native plants are used for healing by working with indigenous peoples in the Rift Valley region; expeditions with camels through East Africa exploring the secrets of life through spiritual and herbal healing.

Biography

Sveva Gallmann, a Kenyan ethnobotanist, has been honored for her field research on how native plants are used for healing. A native speaker of several Kenyan tribal languages, Ms. Gallmann currently coordinates the 4th Generation Project, an African heritage initiative that reinforces relationships among younger and elder tribe members and helps keep alive traditional wisdom through oral history. Ms. Gallmann lives in the Laikipia district of northern Kenya among the Pokot, a pastoral tribe of practitioners in the ancient use of herbs. Ms. Gallmann's interest in preserving knowledge of healing traditions has inspired her to develop a project to safeguard the knowledge of medicinal plants through oral history. The Four Generations Project is an exciting and typically ambitious brainchild of Sveva Gallmann's. Aimed at staunching the gradual loss of traditional tribal knowledge and encouraging a reconnection with and respect for the natural environment, the project inspires youth to actively seek out and share the wisdom of their elders. Sveva Gallmann graduated in Human Sciences at New College, Oxford, in 2002, winning the Wilmer Crowther award for best overall achievement in the Honour School. She has now returned to Ol ari Nyiro to help her mother in their shared pledge to protect and preserve the conservancy for the future. She divides her time between Kenya and the UK and has recently been busy initiating the Great Rift Valley Festival, reflecting her passion for music. With experience in a wide range of projects around the world, from a year as a volunteer in a leprosarium in India to dolphin rehabilitation in the Red Sea, she has also spoken at the State of the World Forum in Belfast and the Conference of Spiritual and Religious Leaders in Geneva. Sveva's most recent initiative, the Four Generations Project, monitors and records significant rituals, songs and oral traditions of the local tribes, encouraging the children to re-discover their heritage and attempting to slow the gradual loss of this phenomenal breadth of knowledge and wisdom.

Fun Facts

Favorite Item to have in the field: Head lamp, dictaphone, cameras, sparklers, colored pens.

Heroes: Elie Cross