Facing arrests, Maasai people defy worsening living conditions and possible evictions in conservation area
Thousands of cattle-owning Maasai people are vowing to stay in their ancestral lands in Tanzania despite a campaign of harassment and restrictions by government officials who have threatened to evict them from a wildlife conservation area.
In 1958, many of the Maasai agreed to vacate the neighbouring Serengeti area – a major tourist attraction with vast wildlife herds – and move to Ngorongoro, where many Maasai were already living. The area was designated multiple-use land, but now the government says it needs to review that designation – possibly paving the way for the eviction of as many as 80,000 Maasai pastoralists.
Official harassment of the Maasai has been common for years. In 2017, about 200 of their homesteads were burned down in a violent eviction campaign involving wildlife rangers and police in Loliondo. Thousands lost their homes or livestock. Others faced threats and fines. The government, however, has claimed that their livestock population has grown rapidly and now exceeds a million animals. It has complained that the Maasai are using the conservation area as grazing land.
“People from the rest of the world come here to build luxurious hotels,” Mr. Olonyokie said. “But we are denied basic social services.”
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