Thomson Safaris’ landgrab of Indigenous Maasai land in Tanzania

A new report by the Oakland Institute.

Thomson Safaris is a US-based company that offers luxury safari tourism in Tanzania. For US$13,390 you can join the two-week-long “Ultimate Tanzania Safari,” featuring visits to the Eastern Serengeti Nature Refuge, the Serengeti National Park, the Ngorongoro Crater, and Tarangire National Park.

On the company’s website Judi Wineland the co-founder of Thomson Safaris says,

“Our relationships with the Maasai people are unlike anybody else’s. After 40 years of being with our friends, it resonates with us just how symbiotic our relationship is.”

But a new report by the Oakland Institute reveals the dark side of Thomson Safaris. The Oakland Institute writes that,

Boston-based Thomson Safaris is exploiting the Tanzanian government’s brutal repression of land defenders to legitimize control over Maasai land in the Loliondo Division of the Ngorongoro District. In June 2022, the government carried out land demarcation to create a Game Reserve in Loliondo, which saw security forces fire live ammunition on the Maasai, severely wounding dozens and displacing thousands. In the immediate aftermath of these events, Thomson Safaris carried out a resurvey of a long-contested land claim they have in the same area. Communities say they were excluded from the resurvey process and alleged in a November 2023 court filing that they have since suffered abuse by the company’s agents enforcing the new boundaries.

On 8 June 2022, the Tanzanian government started an illegal land demarcation to create a game reserve on Maasai village land for the United Arab Emirate-based trophy hunting company, Otterlo Business Corporation.

The demarcation was violent. Police and soldiers fired live bullets. More than 30 Maasai men and women were injured. An 85-year-old man remains missing after being taken into police custody. Thousands of people fled to Kenya for safety. Dozens of local political leaders and villagers were arrested. Others were forced into hiding.

“Capitalizing on Chaos”

The Oakland Institute’s report is titled “Capitalizing on Chaos: Thomson Safaris Tightens Its Stranglehold Over Indigenous Lands in Tanzania.”

The research in Loliondo was carried out by a team of researchers who remain anonymous to ensure their safety. They spoke to Maasai pastoralists impacted by Thomson Safaris’ landgrab.

In response to an inquiry by the Oakland Institute, lawyers representing Thomson Safaris called the claims about the resurvey and its impact on the Maasai “baseless”. However, the lawyers failed to provide any evidence that there was full community participation in the resurvey.

The Oakland Institute’s report reveals how Thomson Safaris took advantage of the increasing state violence against the Maasai to consolidate its claim to the Sukenya farm. Following the resurvey of Sukenya farm, vegetation has been cleared and new roads constructed for the use of Thomson Safaris.

A Maasai elder told the Oakland Institute’s research team,

“It is ridiculous because if you do a survey of a land, then the whole community must be involved, there must be a village council involved. But none of those structures have been involved. . . . That shows that they were using the opportunity that people are not settled because of land conflict in Loliondo. That is actually the opportunity they used to demarcate and put beacons.”

Since 2006, local communities have been trying to reclaim 10,000 acres of land that was originally transferred without any compensation and without the Maasai’s free, prior and informed consent.

In 1984, the Tanzanian government gave the title deeds to the land to the state-owned company Tanzania Breweries Ltd. to grow barley. The company only used about 800 acres for barley. The villagers continued to graze their animals in the area, water their cattle, and build their traditional homesteads (called bomas).

In 2006, Tanzania Conservation Limited, a company run by the owners of Thomson Safaris, bought a 96-year lease to the land from Tanzania Breweries Ltd. Thomson Safaris renamed the Sukenya farm as the Enashiva Nature Refuge. It has since been rebranded as the Eastern Serengeti Nature Refuge.

The Maasai were evicted from the land and their bomas were destroyed.

For more than a decade, Maasai communities have pursued legal action in the High Court of Tanzania and the Court of Appeal for the return of their land, but without success.

Impacts on livelihoods and violence

The enforcement of the new boundaries has serious impacts on the Maasai’s livelihood. They have to walk hours for medical services and to get to schools. They have lost access to prime grazing land. This is particularly serious because of the drought that has affected the region from 2020 to 2023.

In February 2022, the affected Village Councils wrote to the Minister of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development “requesting to reject for the coming proposal to be made by Thomson Safaris/Tanzania Conservation Limited concerning the change on the use of the disputed land [the Sukenya farm] from pastoralism and farming to conservation and tourism.”

They have not received a reply.

The Maasai are concerned that this land use change would further damage their livelihoods by denying them the right to graze and water their cattle in the area.

The Maasai report violence allegedly committed by Thomson Safaris’ guides against the pastoralists and their children. One villager told the Oakland Institute that,

“On July 8, 2022, around the land in dispute [the Sukenya farm] my boy was taking care of the livestock when he was caught by a Thomson Safaris’ guide and beaten for no reason. He suffered injuries on his body. This is very unfair and a violation of human rights. Our rights have been violated by an intruder in our ancestors’ land – we need international support!”

Another parent told a similar story that happened the following day. In November 2023, the Maasai submitted a court filing in which they allege that the company’s agents have abused them.

“Tourist money to Thomson Safaris is causing innocent Maasai children to suffer,” a Maasai elder told the Oakland Institute.

Meanwhile tourism is booming in Tanzania. The government aims to attract five million tourists, bringing in US$6 billion per year. To achieve this target, the government is “ruthlessly trampling on Indigenous rights to expand operations of luxury safari expeditions,” the Oakland Institute writes.

Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director of the Oakland Institute, says,

“Over the past two years, the Tanzanian government has repeatedly shown it will aid and abet foreign corporations operating luxury safaris at the expense of the Maasai communities who have stewarded these lands for generations. While labeling itself as a sustainable tourism operator, the American firm is getting away with capitalizing on this repression.”

---