Crocodiletooth
JF-Expert Member
- Oct 28, 2012
- 20,561
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Mimi naishi jirani na ngorongoro nafahamu A-Z.
Mimi naishi jirani na ngorongoro nafahamu A-Z.🤣🤣🤣 Unaongea usichokijua ndugu yangu.
NChi inauzwaDa! Tumefikia hapa kweli?
Awamu hii mbona ukatili unazidi kutamalaki!
Wa Tanzania tusiposimama pamoja kupinga unyama huu kesho ni sisi!
Hili jambo lipo na litatuumuza sana mpaka pale watu watakapotambua kuwa CCM siyo mama yao au baba yao ndipo tutaanza kutumia nguvu kudai upya uhuru kwa mara ya tatu.Miaka mitano ijayo tutalia sana make itakuwa ni miaka ya kuuza nchi vibaya mno baada ya hapo watatuletea Mgombea mpya na wataanza kutuambia CCM mpya inakuja.
Kujengewa nyumba hakuna tija pamoja na kupewa hatimiliki kuliko kunyimwa haki yako ya asili ya makazi yako ambayo ndiyo utambulisho wako popote duniani.Heri kufa maskini kuliko kuishi vizuri ukiwa mtumwa wa mwenye mamlaka au madaraka.Hili suala la Ngorongoro linafanywa kisiasa sana.
Hivi kati ya mtu kujengewa nyumba alafu anapewa hatimiliki ya kiwanja chake na kuishi porini kama mnyama kipi bora?
Hivi vyombo vya kimataifa navyo vina ajenda za hovyo tu!
Hizi ndo akili za kijingaKujengewa nyumba hakuna tija pamoja na kupewa hatimiliki kuliko kunyimwa haki yako ya asili ya makazi yako ambayo ndiyo utambulisho wako popote duniani.Heri kufa maskini kuliko kuishi vizuri ukiwa mtumwa wa mwenye mamlaka au madaraka.
Wakati mwingine zipo tujue Kuna agenda ya kitaifa, lazima tuitazame na kuijadili kitaifa na sio kisiasa. Tunakosea Sana, kiongozi kwenye agenda ya kitaifa anaweza kukosea approach, lakini malengo yakawa mazuri lakini ukosoaji usiwekwe kwenye sura ya kisiasa. Alifanya Lisu kwenye sakata la makanikia juu ya mikataba ya ACACIA na serikali wakati mzee Magu anahangaika kuikwamua nchi kwenye minyororo Lisu anasimama hadharani na kutoa mapungufu ya approach za Magu, Jambo ambalo lilikuwa linakwamisha juhudi, hata kama kulikuwa na makosa Lisu hakukosa njia ya kumfikia Magufuli akamweleza mapungufu ya approach yake. Lakini Lisu aliona mapungufu Yale Kama fursa ya yeye kujitanua kisiasa. Sasa sisi wananchi wa Siku hizi hatupo hivo. Humu jamiiforum sio wote ni wanasiasa ila sisi wengine tupo humu kupata habari zenye agenda ya kitaifa, na fursa mbalimbali za kusogeza mbele maisha yetu.
Tafadhari kumbuka kuwa hata Tanzania hapo mwanzo haikuwepo lakini wakoloni walikuja kuiwekea mipaka basi tunaomba mipaka ya watu iheshimiwe la sivyo wote tutauzwa na waroho wa utajiri za rasilimali.Mbona Ngorongoro haikukaa Rukwa,mbona haikukaa Songea,mbona haikukaa Bukoba Mungu alikuwa na sababu zake na ndiyo maana wafugaji wa Kimasai wakajaliwa kuishi huko,kuwatoa Wamasai kwa kisingizio cha uwekezaji ni kinyume na Haki za Binadamu.Kihistoria hata Ngorongoro walihamia kutoka Serengeti.
Hili suala mnalikuza tu kisiasa. Halina mantiki yeyote. Suala linalofanywa na Serikali lina faida zao mara 100 kuliko kuachwa kuishi maporini!
Wewe ni mjinga,mpaka leo Wasukuma wapo kwenye maeneo yao ambako kuna migodi.Wamasai wanatolewa Ngorongoro wanapelekwa Tanga ardhi yao ya asili wanapewa Waarabu wavamizi wa Tanganyika.Wasukuma wamehamishwa sana kupisha migodi,na mchango toka sekta ya madini ukakua,wamasai wapishe tupate hela, wamasai siyo spesho
Vya bure ni sumu utakujakuolewa bure na Waarabu.Hizi ndo akili za kijinga
Resettlement scheme ni Jambo la kawaida. Alafu mtoto unapompeleka Shule ni kwa faida yake mwenyewe na Kama ipo ya mzazi ni kwa uchache Sana, akiwa mtoro mbona unatumia nguvu kumlazimisha aende Shule? Si unajua kuwa Jambo linafaida Ila kwa wakati huo mwanao hajui, Ila itafika wakati atakitambua Hilo.Yaani umeandika matakataka mengi yasiyo na sababu yoyote, wala maana yoyote, wamasai wanahamishwa ngorongoro bila ridhaa yao, (tumeshuhudia na kusikia) waliopinga kwa nguvu walichukuliwa hatua kali kama kupigwa au kuwekwa mahabusu,kuna ambao walipotea, hoja hapa si wamasai kuhamishwa tu ila je wametendewa haki wakati wa kuwahamisha? Je huko walikohamishwa kunapewa nani? Afanyie nini? Kwa ridhaa ya nani?
Itakua hujui chochote kuhusu bukyanhulu,watu walifukiwa na magreda,hao wamasai watoke huko,nchi hii ardhi ni Mali ya serikaliWewe ni mjinga,mpaka leo Wasukuma wapo kwenye maeneo yao ambako kuna migodi.Wamasai wanatolewa Ngorongoro wanapelekwa Tanga ardhi yao ya asili wanapewa Waarabu wavamizi wa Tanganyika.
Bado ni kuhamishwa tuWasukuma wanaamishwa toka wilaya moja kwenda nyingine na si mkoa mmoja kwenda mwingine.
Hili suala la Ngorongoro linafanywa kisiasa sana.
Hivi kati ya mtu kujengewa nyumba alafu anapewa hatimiliki ya kiwanja chake na kuishi porini kama mnyama kipi bora?
Hivi vyombo vya kimataifa navyo vina ajenda za hovyo tu!
Sishangai kila akiingia Raisi wa imani fulani basi wamasai wanaishi karibu na mbuga wanapata mtiti. Wanawashobokea waarabu waoNimekutana na chapisho la DW kuhusu kuhamisha wamasai Ngorongoro ambapo Serikali ya Samia inasema ni kwa ajili ya uhifadhi ila ukweli ni kwa ajili ya kuwapatia wawekezajia ambapo tiyali eneo moja wapo walipo furushwa wamsai wamepewa Wachina na eneo jingine ni Waarabu na kuna pia mpango wa kuwaondoa wamasai zaidi katika vijiji 100.
Niliwahi sema hapa na narudia tena Longido, Simanjiro zinangoja uchaguzi uishe wakabidhiwe waarabu. Muda ukifika nitakuja niapandishe hizi post zangu.
Kule KIA tiyali wamepewa waarabu wa Oman kwa miaka 99. Longido pia anapewa Mwarabu, na Simanjiro pia kuna mvutano kati ya Warabu na Wazungu ila Warabu wanaelekea watapewa Simanjiro.
Kuna fund pia zimezuiwa
Tusichoshane.
---
Life is becoming ever more difficult for Tanzania's ethnic Maasai, as a representative for the group's women told DW. She did not want her name to appear in print over concerns for her safety. Numerous representatives of the ethnic herding people have been arrested over the past several years whenever they have criticized the policies of the Tanzanian government.
"Two pregnant women recently died," said the representative. She reported that there had been heavy rain and roads were impassable. "Nearly every week there is a pregnant woman dying in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and in Loliondo," she said. Other DW sources have confirmed the statement. The Maasai say the government of Tanzania is to blame.
Medical flights that used to transport patients to hospital emergency rooms were shut down by the government a couple of years ago, for instance, purportedly over licensing problems. Still, there are suggestions that this is simply part of a larger plan to shutter all health and education services in areas populated by the Maasai in order to get them to leave the savannah in northern Tanzania for good.
A government spokesperson abruptly ended an interview with DW when confronted with the growing health services problem.
Expanding nature preserves but at what price?
President Samia Suluhu Hassan has big plans. She intends to expand the amount of Tanzanian lands under conservation protection from 30% to 50% of the country's total territory.
Yet her plan for Tanzania is having devastating consequences. Conservation laws stipulate that no people can inhabit such areas, nor can houses, schools or hospitals be built upon them. There is one exception though — for tourism infrastructure. Existing government infrastructure currently occupying the area will simply be allowed to crumble said Joseph Oleshangay, a Maasai chief in Ngorongoro and a lawyer who has represented the Maasai people in numerous legal battles.
"On April 12, 2021, the government issued a public statement declaring its intention to demolish nine government schools, six healthcare centers, nine villages and four churches," stated the complaint filed by Oleshangay. it was successful: A court ordered the government to halt its plans. But it was to no avail, said the lawyer. "Meanwhile, we have healthcare stations without a single paracetamol for any of our children," he said.
Other sources in the area confirmed the statement, but they, too, prefer to remain anonymous.
Luxury tourism displacing cattle herders
By expanding its preserved lands, Tanzania hopes to attract billions in foreign investment as well as more tourists. Last year, more than a million people visited Tanzania's protected nature parks.
China, for instance, invested more than $9 million (€8.3 million) in a geopark in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, named after the Ngorongoro Crater. The area was fenced in to protect tourist camps, luxury hotels and picnic areas with panoramic viewing platforms. The Maasai, whose ancestors used to live on the land, are now denied entry.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) have also invested more than $7 billion in Tanzania. Among their investments, a hunting ground in Loliondo. Luxury lodges and an airstrip for private planes are being built to welcome wealthy sheiks flying in to hunt big game. This area, too, is being fenced in, even though it is a traditional grazing area for Maasai cattle herds during the dry season.
Tanzania's parliament is currently debating another proposal, which DW has seen, for the creation of still more protected areas.
The plan will require the removal of at least 100 further Maasai villages. That would mean a total of more than 300,000 people would be displaced say non-governmental organizations (NGO) and the affected. "If the plans are carried out, the Maasai will lose 80-90% of their traditional lands," according to Roman Herre of the German NGO FIAN, which supports the rights of the Maasai. "This would essentially amount to the total destruction of their way of life."
A new settlement far from home
In order to make way for major investors, Tanzania's government has established a settlement for the Maasai further east, in Msomera, which is located in the Handeni district. The settlement, some 600 kilometers (373 miles) from where the Maasai currently live, will feature block houses for the semi-nomadic people to dwell.
Wilson Sakulo, the commissioner responsible for the project, emphasizes that the Maasai are "voluntarily" leaving their current homelands and says it is important that they not be dissuaded by "all of the misinformation" surrounding the program.
Luxury tourist resorts have been encroaching on ancestral Maasai landsImage: watchtheworld/IMAGO
Hundreds of millions in funding frozen over human rights concerns
So far, numerous international partners have given support to Tanzania's protected areas expansion plans, including the German federal government in Berlin. For decades, Tanzania has been one of Germany's most important partners when it comes to nature conservation in Africa. In all, the German KfW Development Bank has invested nearly €30 million in Tanzanian conservation programs. A small portion of that, around €220,000, was frozen last year over concerns the Maasai could be displaced.
In April, the World Bank also suspended €150 million in tourism expansion funding to Tanzania over human rights concerns. And in June, the European Commission withdrew a project bid worth some €10 million.
Despite having reservations last year, the KfW committed another €9 million in German conservation investments in early 2024. The Development Bank clarified to DW that part of that money would go toward building a new healthcare station and schools in Maasai communities located near the protected area.
The nearby communities the bank was referring to are those into which Maasai not wanting to relocate to Msomera are being moved — meaning Berlin is indirectly financing the Tanzanian government's policy of displacing the Maasai in favor of luxury tourism and foreign investment.
This article was originally written in German.
Wala hakuna nia njema ya uhifadhi wala nini! Madini yamegundulika mbugani wanataka kuchimba haraka hasa wachina na waarabu!Nimekutana na chapisho la DW kuhusu kuhamisha wamasai Ngorongoro ambapo Serikali ya Samia inasema ni kwa ajili ya uhifadhi ila ukweli ni kwa ajili ya kuwapatia wawekezajia ambapo tiyali eneo moja wapo walipo furushwa wamsai wamepewa Wachina na eneo jingine ni Waarabu na kuna pia mpango wa kuwaondoa wamasai zaidi katika vijiji 100.
Niliwahi sema hapa na narudia tena Longido, Simanjiro zinangoja uchaguzi uishe wakabidhiwe waarabu. Muda ukifika nitakuja niapandishe hizi post zangu.
Kule KIA tiyali wamepewa waarabu wa Oman kwa miaka 99. Longido pia anapewa Mwarabu, na Simanjiro pia kuna mvutano kati ya Warabu na Wazungu ila Warabu wanaelekea watapewa Simanjiro.
Kuna fund pia zimezuiwa
Tusichoshane.
---
Life is becoming ever more difficult for Tanzania's ethnic Maasai, as a representative for the group's women told DW. She did not want her name to appear in print over concerns for her safety. Numerous representatives of the ethnic herding people have been arrested over the past several years whenever they have criticized the policies of the Tanzanian government.
"Two pregnant women recently died," said the representative. She reported that there had been heavy rain and roads were impassable. "Nearly every week there is a pregnant woman dying in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and in Loliondo," she said. Other DW sources have confirmed the statement. The Maasai say the government of Tanzania is to blame.
Medical flights that used to transport patients to hospital emergency rooms were shut down by the government a couple of years ago, for instance, purportedly over licensing problems. Still, there are suggestions that this is simply part of a larger plan to shutter all health and education services in areas populated by the Maasai in order to get them to leave the savannah in northern Tanzania for good.
A government spokesperson abruptly ended an interview with DW when confronted with the growing health services problem.
Expanding nature preserves but at what price?
President Samia Suluhu Hassan has big plans. She intends to expand the amount of Tanzanian lands under conservation protection from 30% to 50% of the country's total territory.
Yet her plan for Tanzania is having devastating consequences. Conservation laws stipulate that no people can inhabit such areas, nor can houses, schools or hospitals be built upon them. There is one exception though — for tourism infrastructure. Existing government infrastructure currently occupying the area will simply be allowed to crumble said Joseph Oleshangay, a Maasai chief in Ngorongoro and a lawyer who has represented the Maasai people in numerous legal battles.
"On April 12, 2021, the government issued a public statement declaring its intention to demolish nine government schools, six healthcare centers, nine villages and four churches," stated the complaint filed by Oleshangay. it was successful: A court ordered the government to halt its plans. But it was to no avail, said the lawyer. "Meanwhile, we have healthcare stations without a single paracetamol for any of our children," he said.
Other sources in the area confirmed the statement, but they, too, prefer to remain anonymous.
Luxury tourism displacing cattle herders
By expanding its preserved lands, Tanzania hopes to attract billions in foreign investment as well as more tourists. Last year, more than a million people visited Tanzania's protected nature parks.
China, for instance, invested more than $9 million (€8.3 million) in a geopark in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, named after the Ngorongoro Crater. The area was fenced in to protect tourist camps, luxury hotels and picnic areas with panoramic viewing platforms. The Maasai, whose ancestors used to live on the land, are now denied entry.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) have also invested more than $7 billion in Tanzania. Among their investments, a hunting ground in Loliondo. Luxury lodges and an airstrip for private planes are being built to welcome wealthy sheiks flying in to hunt big game. This area, too, is being fenced in, even though it is a traditional grazing area for Maasai cattle herds during the dry season.
Tanzania's parliament is currently debating another proposal, which DW has seen, for the creation of still more protected areas.
The plan will require the removal of at least 100 further Maasai villages. That would mean a total of more than 300,000 people would be displaced say non-governmental organizations (NGO) and the affected. "If the plans are carried out, the Maasai will lose 80-90% of their traditional lands," according to Roman Herre of the German NGO FIAN, which supports the rights of the Maasai. "This would essentially amount to the total destruction of their way of life."
A new settlement far from home
In order to make way for major investors, Tanzania's government has established a settlement for the Maasai further east, in Msomera, which is located in the Handeni district. The settlement, some 600 kilometers (373 miles) from where the Maasai currently live, will feature block houses for the semi-nomadic people to dwell.
Wilson Sakulo, the commissioner responsible for the project, emphasizes that the Maasai are "voluntarily" leaving their current homelands and says it is important that they not be dissuaded by "all of the misinformation" surrounding the program.
Luxury tourist resorts have been encroaching on ancestral Maasai landsImage: watchtheworld/IMAGO
Hundreds of millions in funding frozen over human rights concerns
So far, numerous international partners have given support to Tanzania's protected areas expansion plans, including the German federal government in Berlin. For decades, Tanzania has been one of Germany's most important partners when it comes to nature conservation in Africa. In all, the German KfW Development Bank has invested nearly €30 million in Tanzanian conservation programs. A small portion of that, around €220,000, was frozen last year over concerns the Maasai could be displaced.
In April, the World Bank also suspended €150 million in tourism expansion funding to Tanzania over human rights concerns. And in June, the European Commission withdrew a project bid worth some €10 million.
Despite having reservations last year, the KfW committed another €9 million in German conservation investments in early 2024. The Development Bank clarified to DW that part of that money would go toward building a new healthcare station and schools in Maasai communities located near the protected area.
The nearby communities the bank was referring to are those into which Maasai not wanting to relocate to Msomera are being moved — meaning Berlin is indirectly financing the Tanzanian government's policy of displacing the Maasai in favor of luxury tourism and foreign investment.
This article was originally written in German.
Basi hao matajiri wamwage Pesa ili na Wamasai nao wafaidike.Nimekutana na chapisho la DW kuhusu kuhamisha wamasai Ngorongoro ambapo Serikali ya Samia inasema ni kwa ajili ya uhifadhi ila ukweli ni kwa ajili ya kuwapatia wawekezajia ambapo tiyali eneo moja wapo walipo furushwa wamsai wamepewa Wachina na eneo jingine ni Waarabu na kuna pia mpango wa kuwaondoa wamasai zaidi katika vijiji 100.
Niliwahi sema hapa na narudia tena Longido, Simanjiro zinangoja uchaguzi uishe wakabidhiwe waarabu. Muda ukifika nitakuja niapandishe hizi post zangu.
Kule KIA tiyali wamepewa waarabu wa Oman kwa miaka 99. Longido pia anapewa Mwarabu, na Simanjiro pia kuna mvutano kati ya Warabu na Wazungu ila Warabu wanaelekea watapewa Simanjiro.
Kuna fund pia zimezuiwa
Tusichoshane.
---
Life is becoming ever more difficult for Tanzania's ethnic Maasai, as a representative for the group's women told DW. She did not want her name to appear in print over concerns for her safety. Numerous representatives of the ethnic herding people have been arrested over the past several years whenever they have criticized the policies of the Tanzanian government.
"Two pregnant women recently died," said the representative. She reported that there had been heavy rain and roads were impassable. "Nearly every week there is a pregnant woman dying in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and in Loliondo," she said. Other DW sources have confirmed the statement. The Maasai say the government of Tanzania is to blame.
Medical flights that used to transport patients to hospital emergency rooms were shut down by the government a couple of years ago, for instance, purportedly over licensing problems. Still, there are suggestions that this is simply part of a larger plan to shutter all health and education services in areas populated by the Maasai in order to get them to leave the savannah in northern Tanzania for good.
A government spokesperson abruptly ended an interview with DW when confronted with the growing health services problem.
Expanding nature preserves but at what price?
President Samia Suluhu Hassan has big plans. She intends to expand the amount of Tanzanian lands under conservation protection from 30% to 50% of the country's total territory.
Yet her plan for Tanzania is having devastating consequences. Conservation laws stipulate that no people can inhabit such areas, nor can houses, schools or hospitals be built upon them. There is one exception though — for tourism infrastructure. Existing government infrastructure currently occupying the area will simply be allowed to crumble said Joseph Oleshangay, a Maasai chief in Ngorongoro and a lawyer who has represented the Maasai people in numerous legal battles.
"On April 12, 2021, the government issued a public statement declaring its intention to demolish nine government schools, six healthcare centers, nine villages and four churches," stated the complaint filed by Oleshangay. it was successful: A court ordered the government to halt its plans. But it was to no avail, said the lawyer. "Meanwhile, we have healthcare stations without a single paracetamol for any of our children," he said.
Other sources in the area confirmed the statement, but they, too, prefer to remain anonymous.
Luxury tourism displacing cattle herders
By expanding its preserved lands, Tanzania hopes to attract billions in foreign investment as well as more tourists. Last year, more than a million people visited Tanzania's protected nature parks.
China, for instance, invested more than $9 million (€8.3 million) in a geopark in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, named after the Ngorongoro Crater. The area was fenced in to protect tourist camps, luxury hotels and picnic areas with panoramic viewing platforms. The Maasai, whose ancestors used to live on the land, are now denied entry.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) have also invested more than $7 billion in Tanzania. Among their investments, a hunting ground in Loliondo. Luxury lodges and an airstrip for private planes are being built to welcome wealthy sheiks flying in to hunt big game. This area, too, is being fenced in, even though it is a traditional grazing area for Maasai cattle herds during the dry season.
Tanzania's parliament is currently debating another proposal, which DW has seen, for the creation of still more protected areas.
The plan will require the removal of at least 100 further Maasai villages. That would mean a total of more than 300,000 people would be displaced say non-governmental organizations (NGO) and the affected. "If the plans are carried out, the Maasai will lose 80-90% of their traditional lands," according to Roman Herre of the German NGO FIAN, which supports the rights of the Maasai. "This would essentially amount to the total destruction of their way of life."
A new settlement far from home
In order to make way for major investors, Tanzania's government has established a settlement for the Maasai further east, in Msomera, which is located in the Handeni district. The settlement, some 600 kilometers (373 miles) from where the Maasai currently live, will feature block houses for the semi-nomadic people to dwell.
Wilson Sakulo, the commissioner responsible for the project, emphasizes that the Maasai are "voluntarily" leaving their current homelands and says it is important that they not be dissuaded by "all of the misinformation" surrounding the program.
Luxury tourist resorts have been encroaching on ancestral Maasai landsImage: watchtheworld/IMAGO
Hundreds of millions in funding frozen over human rights concerns
So far, numerous international partners have given support to Tanzania's protected areas expansion plans, including the German federal government in Berlin. For decades, Tanzania has been one of Germany's most important partners when it comes to nature conservation in Africa. In all, the German KfW Development Bank has invested nearly €30 million in Tanzanian conservation programs. A small portion of that, around €220,000, was frozen last year over concerns the Maasai could be displaced.
In April, the World Bank also suspended €150 million in tourism expansion funding to Tanzania over human rights concerns. And in June, the European Commission withdrew a project bid worth some €10 million.
Despite having reservations last year, the KfW committed another €9 million in German conservation investments in early 2024. The Development Bank clarified to DW that part of that money would go toward building a new healthcare station and schools in Maasai communities located near the protected area.
The nearby communities the bank was referring to are those into which Maasai not wanting to relocate to Msomera are being moved — meaning Berlin is indirectly financing the Tanzanian government's policy of displacing the Maasai in favor of luxury tourism and foreign investment.
This article was originally written in German.
Hao mabeberu, lazima waponde. Wangekuwa wamepewa mabwenyenye wa US, UK, Ger na Frc usingesikia hayo malalamiko. Ila akipewa uwekezaji mchina, mwarabu au Mrusi utawasikia wakibweka. Wakati wizi wa raslimali katika migodi yetu ukifanyika Kwa mikataba ya kimangungo mbona hawakutoa doc yote?Nimekutana na chapisho la DW kuhusu kuhamisha wamasai Ngorongoro ambapo Serikali ya Samia inasema ni kwa ajili ya uhifadhi ila ukweli ni kwa ajili ya kuwapatia wawekezajia ambapo tiyali eneo moja wapo walipo furushwa wamsai wamepewa Wachina na eneo jingine ni Waarabu na kuna pia mpango wa kuwaondoa wamasai zaidi katika vijiji 100.
Niliwahi sema hapa na narudia tena Longido, Simanjiro zinangoja uchaguzi uishe wakabidhiwe waarabu. Muda ukifika nitakuja niapandishe hizi post zangu.
Kule KIA tiyali wamepewa waarabu wa Oman kwa miaka 99. Longido pia anapewa Mwarabu, na Simanjiro pia kuna mvutano kati ya Warabu na Wazungu ila Warabu wanaelekea watapewa Simanjiro.
Kuna fund pia zimezuiwa
Tusichoshane.
---
Life is becoming ever more difficult for Tanzania's ethnic Maasai, as a representative for the group's women told DW. She did not want her name to appear in print over concerns for her safety. Numerous representatives of the ethnic herding people have been arrested over the past several years whenever they have criticized the policies of the Tanzanian government.
"Two pregnant women recently died," said the representative. She reported that there had been heavy rain and roads were impassable. "Nearly every week there is a pregnant woman dying in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and in Loliondo," she said. Other DW sources have confirmed the statement. The Maasai say the government of Tanzania is to blame.
Medical flights that used to transport patients to hospital emergency rooms were shut down by the government a couple of years ago, for instance, purportedly over licensing problems. Still, there are suggestions that this is simply part of a larger plan to shutter all health and education services in areas populated by the Maasai in order to get them to leave the savannah in northern Tanzania for good.
A government spokesperson abruptly ended an interview with DW when confronted with the growing health services problem.
Expanding nature preserves but at what price?
President Samia Suluhu Hassan has big plans. She intends to expand the amount of Tanzanian lands under conservation protection from 30% to 50% of the country's total territory.
Yet her plan for Tanzania is having devastating consequences. Conservation laws stipulate that no people can inhabit such areas, nor can houses, schools or hospitals be built upon them. There is one exception though — for tourism infrastructure. Existing government infrastructure currently occupying the area will simply be allowed to crumble said Joseph Oleshangay, a Maasai chief in Ngorongoro and a lawyer who has represented the Maasai people in numerous legal battles.
"On April 12, 2021, the government issued a public statement declaring its intention to demolish nine government schools, six healthcare centers, nine villages and four churches," stated the complaint filed by Oleshangay. it was successful: A court ordered the government to halt its plans. But it was to no avail, said the lawyer. "Meanwhile, we have healthcare stations without a single paracetamol for any of our children," he said.
Other sources in the area confirmed the statement, but they, too, prefer to remain anonymous.
Luxury tourism displacing cattle herders
By expanding its preserved lands, Tanzania hopes to attract billions in foreign investment as well as more tourists. Last year, more than a million people visited Tanzania's protected nature parks.
China, for instance, invested more than $9 million (€8.3 million) in a geopark in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, named after the Ngorongoro Crater. The area was fenced in to protect tourist camps, luxury hotels and picnic areas with panoramic viewing platforms. The Maasai, whose ancestors used to live on the land, are now denied entry.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) have also invested more than $7 billion in Tanzania. Among their investments, a hunting ground in Loliondo. Luxury lodges and an airstrip for private planes are being built to welcome wealthy sheiks flying in to hunt big game. This area, too, is being fenced in, even though it is a traditional grazing area for Maasai cattle herds during the dry season.
Tanzania's parliament is currently debating another proposal, which DW has seen, for the creation of still more protected areas.
The plan will require the removal of at least 100 further Maasai villages. That would mean a total of more than 300,000 people would be displaced say non-governmental organizations (NGO) and the affected. "If the plans are carried out, the Maasai will lose 80-90% of their traditional lands," according to Roman Herre of the German NGO FIAN, which supports the rights of the Maasai. "This would essentially amount to the total destruction of their way of life."
A new settlement far from home
In order to make way for major investors, Tanzania's government has established a settlement for the Maasai further east, in Msomera, which is located in the Handeni district. The settlement, some 600 kilometers (373 miles) from where the Maasai currently live, will feature block houses for the semi-nomadic people to dwell.
Wilson Sakulo, the commissioner responsible for the project, emphasizes that the Maasai are "voluntarily" leaving their current homelands and says it is important that they not be dissuaded by "all of the misinformation" surrounding the program.
Luxury tourist resorts have been encroaching on ancestral Maasai landsImage: watchtheworld/IMAGO
Hundreds of millions in funding frozen over human rights concerns
So far, numerous international partners have given support to Tanzania's protected areas expansion plans, including the German federal government in Berlin. For decades, Tanzania has been one of Germany's most important partners when it comes to nature conservation in Africa. In all, the German KfW Development Bank has invested nearly €30 million in Tanzanian conservation programs. A small portion of that, around €220,000, was frozen last year over concerns the Maasai could be displaced.
In April, the World Bank also suspended €150 million in tourism expansion funding to Tanzania over human rights concerns. And in June, the European Commission withdrew a project bid worth some €10 million.
Despite having reservations last year, the KfW committed another €9 million in German conservation investments in early 2024. The Development Bank clarified to DW that part of that money would go toward building a new healthcare station and schools in Maasai communities located near the protected area.
The nearby communities the bank was referring to are those into which Maasai not wanting to relocate to Msomera are being moved — meaning Berlin is indirectly financing the Tanzanian government's policy of displacing the Maasai in favor of luxury tourism and foreign investment.
This article was originally written in German.