Cape Town – Northern Tanzania’s Maasai elders are facing eviction from ancestral lands, as the new government looks to make way for elite tourism and trophy hunting.
In an urgent plea, the elders have set up a petition to rally the broader global community to get behind them and put a stop to this proposed plan by the Tanzanian government.
Who are the Maasai people?
One of the famous tribes of Africa, the nomadic and pastoralist Maasai people, are a Nilotic ethnic group inhabiting large parts of northern, central and southern Kenya and across the border in northern Tanzania as well.
According to the official Maasai association, the Maasai occupy a total land area of 160 000 square kilometres with a population of approximately 1.5 million people.
The Maasai are among the better known tribes in East Africa thanks to their traditional origins from areas surrounding Masai Mara Game Reserve and Amboseli, near the Tanzania border.
The Maasai speak a language known as Maa and their Nilotic origins link them to the Kalenjin tribe of Kenya which is famous for producing some of the best long-distance runners in the world.
The Maasai culture includes a unique way of dressing, diet and way of life.
The tribe have traditionally relied on readily available materials and indigenous technology to construct their unusual housing. The traditional Maasai house was designed for people on the move and thus their houses were impermanent in nature. The houses are either circular or loaf-shaped, and are made by women. Their villages are enveloped in a circular “enkang” (fence) built by the men and this protects their cattle at night from wild animals, according to the website masai mara travel.
The website further explains that Maasai society is firmly patriarchal in nature, with elder Maasai men, sometimes joined by retired elders, making decisions on most major matters.
For Maasai people living a traditional way of life, death is not usually marked by a formal funeral ceremony, and the dead are left out in the fields for scavengers.
Burial has in the past been reserved for great chiefs, since it is believed by the Maasai that burial is harmful to the soil.
In the wake of the possible removal of the Maasai elders from ancestral land, the elders have created a petition on Avaaz, a US -based non-profit organisation that promotes global activism on issues such as climate change, human rights, animal rights, corruption, poverty and conflict.
In the petition, the elders said: “Any day now, tens of thousands of our community could be evicted from our ancestral lands to make way for tourism and trophy hunting. Last time Avaaz raised the alarm, the president shelved the plan. So we urgently need you to stand with us again.”
According to the petition, the last time the elders faced these threats, more than 2 million people rallied behind their call to remain on their ancestral land.
The elders said that with the help of ordinary people they created such a storm that the president at the time, the late John Pombe Joseph Magufuli, promised never to evict them from their land.
The elders say now that Tanzania has a new head of state, the plans are being revived.
The elders have said that current President Samia Suluhu Hassan may not listen to them, but they know that she’ll respond to media and public pressure regarding this contentious matter.
According to Siyabonga Africa.com, government policies focusing on the preservation of their national parks and reserves, with the exclusion of the culturally rich Maasai tribe, have now made the traditional Maasai way of life increasingly difficult to maintain and preserve for coming generations to experience and learn about.
According to the Maasai association, as a result of global warming, droughts are becoming severe in East Africa, forcing the Maasai people to seek out alternative livelihoods. Herds are smaller than ever before, and most people are relying on relief food as Africa continues to bear the brunt of the ongoing climate crisis.
Cultural observers say that Maasai tribal leadership, the council of elders, is losing its power year after year as a result of emerging Western forms of leadership and governance.
The elders said that some members of the community have said they’d rather die than leave their homes, but added that this is a choice no one should have to make.
IOL