PHOTO Credit: Maasai herders with their cattle inside the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Oakland Institute
US Vice-President Kamala Harris is currently visiting Tanzania. She met Tanzania’s President, Samia Suluhu Hassan, today. Reuters reports that Harris congratulated Hassan for restoring political rights. “Madam President, under your leadership Tanzania has taken important and meaningful steps and President Joe Biden and I applaud you,” Harris said.
But before her visit to Tanzania, Harris received letters from the Pastoralists Indigenous Non-Governmental Forum and the Oakland Institute about the human rights crisis faced by the Indigenous Maasai communities in Tanzania.
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To coincide with Harris’ visit, Human Rights Watch reported on how the Tanzanian government is cutting off vital health services in Ngorongoro district as part of a long, ongoing attempt to evict the Maasai from their traditional land. Human Rights Watch concludes that,
“The US is a key development and healthcare partner of Tanzania and Vice President Harris should center human rights in the US-Tanzania relationship. During her visit, she should urge Tanzanian officials to end abusive policies in Ngorongoro district and preserve the Maasai community’s right to health, among others, as a core foundation of shared economic prosperity.”
In December 2022, the Oakland Institute published field research that found that the proposed resettlement site for the Maasai who are facing eviction from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, is already inhabited by long-term residents. The land set aside for Nogorongoro residents does not have adequate water or grazing land.
In January 2023, TheGuardian reported on the closure of medical facilities in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. The government banned imports of building materials into the area, preventing the construction of new school bathrooms. “This is really becoming a war zone,” William Ole Seki, a Maasai elder toldThe Guardian.
Also in February 2023, Associated Pressreported that the government is seizing livestock from Maasai herders in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. The eviction of the Maasai is to pave the way for safari tourism, conservation, and trophy hunting.
“We are in a bowl of economic suicide,” Salangat Marko, a Maasai from Loliondo district toldAssociated Press. “A community depending on livestock without grazing land. I have cows with no grass and water. Herders intimidated and beaten ... where do we go and what do we feed our children?”
Here is the letter from the Pastoralists Indigenous Non-Governmental Forum followed by the Oakland Institute’s letter:
Dear Vice President Kamala Harris,
Please receive warm greetings from the Pastoralists Indigenous Non-Governmental Forum. As you plan your visit to Tanzania later this month, we would like to share with you two major issues that are causing irreparable harm to our community. Firstly, the demarcation of a new protected area in Loliondo that is permanently taking critical land from the Maasai people to protect foreign trophy hunting, and secondly, the involuntary relocation of Maasai people from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA).
Together these two efforts will force most of the Maasai from this region to abandon their way of life. An estimated 70,000 people have been evicted from 14 villages within Loliondo and another 10,000 people have left Ngorongoro. 90,000 Maasai in Ngorongoro are without access to basic services such as healthcare. Some 600,000 livestock have been killed by drought due to restricted access to water and grazing and ten thousand others have been auctioned by the Tanzania government.
Although some government officials and some conservation organizations say that this action is necessary, most researchers agree that there is no ecological, economic or political justification for these actions. This crisis was created by government agencies and not local communities. It is well documented that the Maasai people from this region are one of the most sustainable and resilient communities in all of Africa.
We request your assistance in advocating for a sustainable and equitable solution that meets the reasonable needs of the hundreds of thousands pastoralists of the region, whose livelihoods rely on access to grazing lands and water. This letter provides background information and possible actions the US government can take to address this important issue. We respectfully request you to intervene in this matter of great concern to the indigenous Maasai peoples of Loliondo before we are all displaced and become refugees.
(1) Evicting Maasai for a New Hunting Reserve in Loliondo
There has been an ongoing struggle between indigenous Maasai people of Tanzania and the Tanzanian Government since 1992. It revolves around repeated attempts by the Government to take Maasai village land and designate it as a game reserve for trophy hunting. The Royal Family from Dubai through a lease to the Ortello Business Corporation has had exclusive rights to hunt in this area since 1992. Critically, the disputed land is prime grazing land during the dry season, the main source of water and salt-licks for livestock, and contains many pastoralist ritual sites.
Having already given up our rightful claim to land in order to establish the Serengeti National Park in 1959, we reasonably expected that the government would abide by the agreement to defend our customary land use rights. On each of three occasions, in 2009, 2017 and 2022, Maasai people have been forcibly evicted from land previously legally accessible to them for grazing cattle and building their rudimentary homes (bomas) and civic infrastructure, such as primary schools, clinics and dispensaries.
On May 25, 2022, the community submitted to the Prime Minister a report and request for dialogue after suggestions of new evictions from ancestral Maasai land, previously registered to pastoralist villages. On June 7, 2022, a paramilitary group of around 700 people, mostly police, park rangers, military and other Government funded armed security forces arrived at Loliondo, instigating social unrest and public panic. This operation ended with over one hundred Maasai arrested with trumped-up charges that have subsequently been dismissed by local Courts. Many others were wounded by live bullets fired against civilians by paramilitaries deployed by the Tanzania government.
Despite all attempts to stop the process, by the end of June 2022, the Tanzanian state forcefully and against the will of the community re-demarcated 1,500 km² of ancestral land, prohibiting use by Maasai people and their cattle, with harsh punishments, including beatings, jail and cattle seizure, for those that disobeyed. Over 400 military rangers from a special unit remain in Loliondo, confiscating cattle daily and cracking down on activists and human rights defenders.
(2) Evicting Maasai People from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area
The Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) is a multiple land use Area covering 8,392 square kilometers, with 98,000 Maasai pastoralists. Both the community of NCA and Loliondo were evicted from the Serengeti by the British colonial government in 1959. Subsequently, they were assured of continued occupation and that they would not be moved again out of the NCA which was part of their vast land in the Serengeti-Ngorongoro-Mara ecosystem.
In the past five years some government agencies and officials have suggested without evidence that the Maasai population should be moved out of Ngorongoro because of population growth. In 2022 the government began a strategy they call “voluntary” relocation. There is no scientific evidence to support these claims.
Since then, the government has undertaken many actions that impede pastoralism and most negatively impact women and youth. The Tanzanian Government has:
Stopped providing funding to support essential services like health dispensaries and schools. Suspended operation of the Makao Mapya dispensary and removed doctors from Endulen, dramatically reducing essential public health services in what was the only hospital with capacity to admit patients.
Evicted 3450 people from their homes. Closed four nursery schools, nine permanent water sources, including nine dams, and six health mobile clinics.
Provided poisoned saltlicks to Maasai pastoralists resulting in the deaths of an estimated 10,365 cows, 9,541 goats, 16,574 sheep, and 394 donkeys.
Implemented a policy resulting in the daily starvation of livestock from 28 villages. The government levies fines equivalent to US$ 45 for each cow. This significant penalty has led to hunger, especially for women and children, a sharp decline of the number of children attending school, significant rural to urban migration, and environmental destruction as communities turn to cut trees to feed their livestock.
Continued to support existing military efforts to intimidate political and traditional leaders from speaking out against human rights violations.
Violated the rights of Maasai indigenous peoples to free, prior, and informed consent. We were not consulted, nor did we consent to the on-going police evictions or acquisition of our grazing lands to create a hunting reserve.
Reallocated funds previously sought and obtained to other districts as an effort to dismantle service provision in Ngorongoro.
Suspended operation of Flying Medical Service, a charitable organization which has been providing highly needed health care to communities throughout Maasailand from the 1960’s to 2022 when they were grounded as part of the same effort to paralyze life saving services, such as vaccines in Ngorongoro District.
What You Can Do To Help
Vice President Harris, Maasai women and children are the most affected in this conflict. We know the American people to be sympathetic to global injustice and that you personally have expressed empathy and commitment to gender equity in education and other civic spaces, to respecting the rights of indigenous peoples, lifting up the voices of marginalized women and youth and taking action on behalf of the disaffected.
Given the prevailing situation we request that you encourage the Tanzanian government to:
Observe national and international law, especially regarding human rights that recognize our rights to own and protect our lands. The government should respect international instruments, obligations and good governance principles, especially to respect pastoralism as a viable way of life;
Immediately stop the ongoing seizure, auction and forfeitures of Maasai livestock and to restore Maasai grazing rights;
Halt the plan to take further Maasai areas to expand protected areas in Tanzania that has significantly impacted the Maasai community more than the rest of over hundred tribes joined together. The government should instead provide essential services to NCA residents and immediately restore grazing rights to pastoralist in Ngorongoro and Loliondo;
Establish a commission or inquiry, supported by the US Government, to examine disputed lands, displaced people and to assist in the restoration of peace and compensation for rights infringements and losses by starting meaningful dialogue between the Tanzanian Government and Maasai pastoralists; and
Immediately cease the military special task force stationed in Loliondo that intimidates and harasses anyone advocating for basic rights and seeking justice.
We write this letter in confidence and hope that you will act swiftly to help us neutralize the violent situation and restore land to the indigenous Maasai peoples of Loliondo and Ngorongoro.
Vice-President Kamala Harris Office of the Vice-President 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20500
Re: Request for Action Regarding the Human Rights Crisis Faced by the Indigenous Maasai Communities in Tanzania
Dear Madam Vice-President,
In light of your upcoming visit to Tanzania later this month, I am writing to share urgent information about the human rights crisis faced by the Maasai communities in Loliondo and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), as they are evicted from their homes and lands for safari tourism and trophy hunting.
Over the past nine years, we have worked with the Maasai communities to document the gross human rights violations committed against them by the Tanzanian government in the name of conservation and tourism revenues. Earlier this week, your office received a letter from the Maasai leaders and land defenders, detailing the shocking scale of the government’s war on their lives and livelihoods.
On June 8, 2022, the Tanzanian state forcefully and against the will of the community re-demarcated 1,500 km² of ancestral land in Loliondo. During the demarcation, security forces opened fire on protesting communities, leaving dozens wounded by live ammunition and causing thousands of women and children to flee to Kenya in fear. Since last year, 70,000 people have been evicted from 14 villages within Loliondo; 10,000 people have been forced to leave homes in the NCA, while 90,000 are without access to basic services including healthcare and education. To further tighten the stranglehold on already impoverished communities, their access to water and grazing land has been restricted, resulting in the death of over half a million livestock — vital to their livelihoods. Thousands of cattle have also been seized and auctioned by the government. Community members and civil society leaders have been criminalized, imprisoned formonths on false charges, and more. Given the blatant disregard of national and international laws by the government and its refusal to recognize and respect the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent of the Maasai and the scale of this catastrophe, the community is forced to turn to Tanzania’s donors and international partners to seek relief.
There has been extensive condemnation of the violence and forced evictions of the Maasai by numerous organizations and coalitions, including the UN agencies. On June 13, 2022, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights strongly condemned the violent evictions and urged the government to halt its plan and open an independent investigation. On June 14, the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues expressed “its profound concern” over the ongoing evictions” and called “on the government of Tanzania to comply with the provisions recognized in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and other relevant international human rights instruments, and ensure the right of the Maasai to participate in decision-making, considering that their land in Loliondo for safari tourism, trophy hunting and “conservation” will affect their lives and territory.”
On June 15, 2022, nine United Nations Special Rapporteurs called on the Tanzanian government to “immediately halt plans for relocation of the people living in Loliondo and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and begin consultations with the Maasai Indigenous Peoples, including direct contact with the Ngorongoro Pastoral Council, to jointly define current challenges to environmental conservation and best avenues to resolve them, while maintaining a human rights-based approach to conservation.”
The Tanzanian government has ignored these calls and continued to push evictions and livelihood restrictions that directly cause widespread suffering. During your upcoming visit to Tanzania, the government will likely recycle several myths they continue to promote in state media without merit. Below, we have debunked several of these falsehoods and detailed the actual situation on the ground.
Our community partners are very much looking forward to your visit with the hope that you will use the opportunity to hold the government accountable. We echo the calls from communities who plead with you to help end the violent situation and restore land to the Indigenous Maasai peoples of Loliondo and Ngorongoro. It is imperative that the Free, Prior, and Informed Consent of the Maasai communities over land use decisions is respected and that livelihood restrictions are immediately lifted.
We remain available to provide any additional information and thank you in advance for your engagement. Below I have also included several links to recent media coverage and reports for more context.
Sincerely,
Anuradha Mittal Executive Director The Oakland Institute
Government Claim: The rising population of the Maasai in the NCA has negatively impacted the ecological health of the area and their removal is the only solution to protect the environment.
Truth: The narrative that growing Indigenous population is responsible for supposed ecological decline within the NCA ignores the finely honed symbiotic relationship that the Maasai have developed over centuries which has allowed local ecology, domesticated livestock, and people to coexist in a resource scarce environment. This local knowledge has been largely credited as allowing the large mammal population and ecological diversity to grow under the stewardship of the Maasai. The successful coexistence of Maasai pastoralists with the wildlife within the NCA is well established: “It has been shown that pastoral land and resource use has not had any deleterious effect on the NCA ecosystem. That pastoralism is compatible with wildlife conservation is today widely acknowledged(link is external). It is, therefore, obvious that there is no scientific basis for continued restriction of Maasai livestock in certain parts of the NCA, which are also crucial to their climate-driven pastoral land and resource use.”
The government has categorically failed to demonstrate that further restricting grazing and removing Indigenous pastoralists will positively impact the NCA ecosystem. The evictions and restrictions constraining tens of thousands of livelihoods are not about ensuring conservation but about expanding tourism revenues within the World Heritage Site. Tourism within the NCA has exploded in recent years with the number of annual tourists increasing from 20,000 in 1979 to 644,155 in 2018 making it one of the most intensively visited conservation areas in Africa. The MLUM plan explicitly mentions the financial stakes conceding that: “maintaining the status quo or leaving the NCA to Indigenous pastoralists the government would lose 50 percent of expected revenue by 2038.” Dr. Christopher Timbuka, Deputy Conservation Commissioner of the NCA explicitly stated(link is external) that the strategy of relocating NCA residents is geared towards the realization of the government’s goal of attracting 1.2 million tourists annually to Tanzania and an income of Sh260 billion [~US$111.5 million] by 2025 from the sector.
Government Claim: Relocation plans to move Maasai from NCA developed after consultation with pastoralist communities.
Truth: The NCA General Management plan, Multiple Land Use Management (MLUM) and Proposed Resettlement for Villages within the NCA plans were all developed without incorporating the clearly statedpriorities of Maasai NCA residents. During development of these land use and relocation plans, Maasai community members were sidelined and their suggestions have been continually ignored by the government. There was no free, prior, and informed consent for massive evictions from the NCA, and over
Government Claim: Maasai who volunteer to leave the NCA and move to Msomera village will benefit from houses, ample land, and improved health, water and education services.
Truth: Field research conducted in April and October 2022 reveals that Msomera lacks adequate water and grazing land, while land being given to NCA migrants is already legally occupied by other pastoralists, increasing the risk of conflict over scare resources. Despite government promises, education, health and water infrastructure have not been significantly improved. There is not enough grazing land to support cattle of migrants, which threatens the traditional livelihood practices of Maasai relocated to the area.
Government Claim: Maasai are volunteering by the thousands to leave the NCA for the relocation site being prepared in Msomera village, Handeni district.
Truth: The Tanzanian government has cut vital services for the Maasai in the NCA in an effort to force them out of their ancestral land. In October 2022, health services were drastically reduced by the government. The Endulen Church hospital — the only hospital for nearly 60,000 pastoralists — was downgraded to a clinic. Ambulance and emergency services were discontinued and all government nurses, therapists, radiation specialists were relocated to other areas. Care for mothers and newborns and ultrasound services have also been discontinued. Only two doctors are left in Endulen.
Resources for education have also been cut. On March 31, 2022, the local government ordered that TSh195,500,000 [~US$84,000] in COVID-19 relief funds, initially marked for public schools within the NCA, to be transferred to the Handeni district. Additionally, NGOs are reportedly less willing to fund development projects in the NCA, given the government’s push for people to leave the area.
These cuts in services come on the top of an ongoing hunger crisis created by previous government decisions of heavily constraining grazing areas and banning home gardens in the NCA. The privatization of land, conservation laws, and game parks have pushed the Maasai off their traditional lands and reduced the available space for grazing cattle. Previous restrictions on cattle grazing have decimated the health of livestock within the NCA and frustrated Maasai pastoralists. Forced by these cuts, some Maasai have been left with no choice but to “volunteer” for resettlement.
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Trophy hunting is the icing on the cake of colonial powers raping Africa for hundreds of years. Colonialism turns the citizens of a nation against one and other, and nations against one and other. That is the game. The Maasai are not victims of their government, they are victims of the global north, leaving no choices but to make victims of someone. Now let's go out and shoot some elephants to further prove our superiority.
Never expect a Capitalist government representative to respect the livelihood of Indigenous peoples, especially from a nation which is so morally bankrupt as to waste US$4.5 Billion on a practice shot to the Moon, while "lesser" peoples starve.
Trophy hunting is the icing on the cake of colonial powers raping Africa for hundreds of years. Colonialism turns the citizens of a nation against one and other, and nations against one and other. That is the game. The Maasai are not victims of their government, they are victims of the global north, leaving no choices but to make victims of someone. Now let's go out and shoot some elephants to further prove our superiority.
Never expect a Capitalist government representative to respect the livelihood of Indigenous peoples, especially from a nation which is so morally bankrupt as to waste US$4.5 Billion on a practice shot to the Moon, while "lesser" peoples starve.