Chuck Wright
with Corey Wright
"A Maasai is good for a
tourist's photograph, useful to carry your bags to the camp, or even to guide
you to see the animals. But in the end the animals are far more valuable than
people." Moringe ole Parkipuny. Maasai
rights campaigner and Tanzania’s first Maasai MP (The Observer,
September 6, 2009).
 |
Respected Maasai women, like Koko,
provide leadership in the struggle
against oppression. |
On the couch of my Winnipeg home
lays a blue- and red- checked cloth known in Swahili as a kikoi – a
garment worn by Maasai people. Travelers encounter the East African plains
dotted by these decorated people along with the herds of cattle that accompany
them. Along with wildlife tours of Ngongoro Crater and the world-renowned
Serengeti, travelers often pay to see and experience an “authentic” Maasai
village. This cloth oft reminds me of a people I have come to respect and know
through the work of my family and Sauti Moja, though they have little more
status in East Africa than the spectacle of the animals that international
tourists flock to observe, photograph, and hunt.
There has been an on-going
tension in Tanzania between the customary land use of the Maasai people and
wildlife tourism since the time of the British colonial government – a conflict
of values between economic growth, expanding foreign investment, and the
survival of indigenous people. Until 1960, pastoralist communities, such as the
Maasai, co-existed with wildlife in the Serengeti plains; in 1959, Serengeti
National Park was established by the British colonial government, forcibly
relocating 1,000 Maasai residents and excluding them from their traditional
grazing grounds. Some residents were moved to the region of Loliondo, where
they are again facing conflict between land and tourism – specifically
recreational hunting.
More recently in 2009, during one
of the harshest droughts the region had ever seen, the Tanzanian government
evicted Maasai residents from eight villages in Loliondo, purportedly for
conservation purposes, though at the request of an international hunting
company. In the face of resistance from residents, homes were razed by government
troops and livestock was lost.
Continuing this colonial legacy of land dispossession, the Tanzanian
government officially announced in March 2013, its plan to establish a wildlife
corridor between Serengeti National Park and the Maasai Mara National Park in
Kenya; this corridor runs through the village land of Loliondo. Subsequently,
thousands of families face further dispossession of the land they've relied on
for over 200 years as many residents spurn the ruling party and pledge their
commitment to defending their inherent and legal rights to the land.
A large part of Tanzania’s
“development strategy” is based on boosting tourism, often at the expense of
peoples inhabiting prime areas for tourism. Critics point to the fact that the
purported wildlife conservation areas of Loliondo have been leased, since 1992,
to Otterlo Business Corporation – a safari hunting company owned by the defence
minister of the United Arab Emirates. Many advocates believe that economic
opportunism is actually at the root of the proposed evictions. While close
observers can point to eco-tourist models that benefit local communities as
well as to the importance of the local pastoralist economy, the government is
choosing instead to grant exclusive hunting rights to a foreign company for the
recreation of millionaires and Gulf sheikhs.
At the same time, the government
has launched a propaganda campaign claiming that the area has been invaded by
illegal immigrants from Kenya and degraded by an increasing human and livestock
population. However, the region’s history points to the co-existence of
pastoralism and wildlife for centuries. In fact, research indicates that the
land management practices of Maasai, who move seasonally between grazing areas
as well as hold cultural beliefs that prohibit the killing and eating of
wildlife, is ecologically sustainable. Rather than degrading the environment,
and contrary to popular opinion, there is strong evidence that the Maasai
people have contributed to the abundance of wildlife in northern Tanzania.
Above the couch in my Winnipeg
home, hangs a print of a strong, proud Maasai woman wearing traditional dress.
The women have been the most outspoken about the evictions as they will bear
the brunt of the impacts of these evictions; similarly, women are the leaders
of the Idle No More movement in Canada – a mounting resistance to the
exploitation of indigenous lands and resources. As I reflect on these common
struggles, I wonder how long it will take before the governments of Tanzania
and Canada alike will recognize the devastating effects of unfettered economic
opportunism and foreign resource exploitation has for people and the
environment. When will our elected
leaders begin to respect the rights and dignity of indigenous peoples and
recognize our shared responsibility to the land?
Join the international campaign
of Avaaz in demanding that the Tanzanian government respect the land rights of
the Maasai people.
Read more about the current land
conflict at:
Chuck Wright is
an educator and activist living in Winnipeg, MB. Corey Wright is a Sauti Moja's Africa Program
Advisor and a researcher studying the politics and
impacts of land policy in northern Tanzania.
