Johannesburg — More than one thousand community members in Northern Tanzania gathered to protest against the government's plan to evict people of Loliondo from their ancestral land. According to International Land Coalition-Africa (ILC Africa), more than 73,000 Indigenous peoples from Loliondo, and about 90,000 in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, face eviction to make way for elite tourism and trophy hunting.
The government plans to lease Ngorongoro Conservation Area, home to over one million wildebeest and the endangered black rhino, to hunting company Otterlo Business Corporation, which apparently belongs to the royal family in the United Arab Emirates.
This is the second attempt to remove people from these areas - almost a decade ago similar plans were halted by the former premier Mizengo Peter Pinda as a result of international pressure, and in September 2018 the East African Court of Justice granted an injunction in favour of the community. On September 25, 2018, the court had ruled in favour of four Maasai villages fighting for their rights. The case was filed after the government attempted to violently evict people from their villages resulting in the burning of homes leaving thousands homeless and several residents arrested.
Losing this land will mean the extinction of our community
The Tanzanian government was prohibited from evicting the Maasai communities from their land. It also prohibited the destruction of Maasai homesteads and the confiscation of livestock on said land. Leaders of the villages say the renewed attempts to remove them from their land is the violation of the 2018 injunction. The injunction remains valid until the full case can be heard and the hearing date for the case has yet to be set.
Fresh eviction plans have angered activists and lobby groups, including the ILC Africa, which condemns the plan and asks the Tanzanian government to stop the planned eviction.
The community says over 70% of their homelands was taken for conservation and investment reasons since the conflict in Loliondo began. They are appealing to human rights organizations, media and other citizens who value Indigenous human rights to help them keep their land. "We have nowhere else to go. Losing this land will mean the extinction of our community."
The global alliance of over 300 civil society and intergovernmental organizations on land governance started an online petition which gathered over 850 signatures in solidarity with people facing evictions.
"The Maasai people have developed a symbiotic relationship that has allowed local ecology, domesticated livestock, and people to coexist in a resource-scarce environment. The creation of the wildlife corridor and the displacement of the communities would exacerbate hunger and poverty, given the pastoral livelihoods depend on the region's grazing areas and water sources," says Anurada Mittal, Executive Director of the Oakland Institute.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
The Indigenous People's Rights International agrees saying: "displacing the 70,000 Maasai pastoralists with their 200,000 livestock will make them homeless and lose their cultural identity and rights".
"For 30 years, since the conflict in Loliondo began we have suffered three major evictions - in 2009, 2013 and 2017, legitimized by the government's conservation agenda, which have led to great violence, abuses, harassment towards the communities and long-term economic and cultural loss. If this land is grabbed, over 50,000 people will be left without a home," said a local Maasai activist and community representative who did not want to be named.
The local community, village chairpersons and traditional leaders in Ngorongoro District demand that the government set up an independent commission of inquiry to address the current and historical human rights injustices in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and the involvement and role of the Tanzania Government,The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in those violations.
