It is an incident that took place in the 19th century in Midwest Kenya. It happened after young warriors from a sub-tribe of the Kalenjin community went to war against the advice of their elders. Almost all of them died in the war. The war is still remembered and well documented. Because most of the men who died came from a crucial generation necessary for the survival and continuity of communities, this caused older men and women to scream, advising women to open doors and allow children to enter. and lie with them for the purpose of procreation. According to the community, the boys were still boys until they underwent the initiation whereby they were now allowed to have sex and go to war. But this time the rule had to be broken!
Within the same community, which is patrilineal, if there is only one child in a family, an early marriage is encouraged for him since there is fear that if he dies; there is no child left to guarantee the survival and continuity of the family through the production of new generations. The community has even had a woman without children or with daughters to marry so that the other lady can have children in her name. Women who marry will have at least authority over the married woman and it will be assumed that the children begotten belong to her.
What threatens the survival and continuity of the community are wars, disease and natural disasters. Some are genocidal in nature, a form of ethnic cleansing as happened during the Jewish Holocaust, the Tutsi-Hutu wars, and the wars in Kosovo. Jews facing difficult circumstances, through a collaborative effort, help some escape from German prisoner of war camps. And for the Tutsi-Hutu wars, each community had to fight for its survival. Although many Tutsis died, many have the luxury of escaping to safety and coming together as a community with their own future dreams.
And the Kosovo Albanians who were facing ethnic cleansing fought back. They organized an underground movement to fight, defended their rights and drew international attention to their plight.
Survival can also involve a small group of people of a particular ethnic race or national group struggling to survive. Philip Toney, lieutenant colonel in command of the 13th regiment of the 18th division of the British Army, when he and the allied forces found prisoners of war in Tamarkan near a major river called Kwai Rae and were supposed to build a bridge over the River. Kwai, being tortured and forced to work hard, asking the prisoners to cooperate with the Japanese captors, determined to reduce those who will die there. He risked his life every day defending his men and defending higher proportions, regular work hours, and a day off each week. He worked with the black market to obtain medicine, food and other supplies, even though detection would have meant certain death. However, his efforts paid off, he suffered considerably. During the ten months that the bridge works were carried out, only nine prisoners died. The survival of a group of people of an ethnic or racial group also contributes to the ideal of survival and continuity of the community.