The Maasai

How it began 

The Maasai (“people speaking the Maa language”) are semi-nomadic pastoralists, with a deep affection for their cattle. Some families share their homes with calves at night and cattle are also crucial for food, income and community life.

Having thrived for generations in what outsiders would consider a "hostile" environment, Maasai's wealth is based on their social values. A system of communal land tenure, in which everyone in an area shares access to water and pasture, allowed the Maasai to move with their herds across “Maasailand” and successfully adapt to variable rain patterns. However, colonization by the British and Germans, and the creation of game reserves and other Protected Areas, have evicted many Maasai communities and restricted their access to their land. 

And this land grab continues.

Evictions

The Maasai in Tanzania today are battling against the government's renewed attempts to evict them from their land. More than 170,000 Maasai are at risk, or have already been evicted, to make way for trophy hunting, tourism and wildlife conservation in Loliondo and in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA).

It is history repeating itself, but the Maasai are resisting. They have protested, organized and called upon courts and international allies like Survival for help. Their fight isn’t easy: Tanzanian authorities have responded with raids, shootings, the violent repression of protests, arbitrary arrests and the confiscation of cattle.

The government has denied that the Maasai are Indigenous people and it has prevented visits by independent investigators, members of the European Parliament and journalists. The authorities have cut health services, including for children and pregnant women, and other public services like schooling and access to drinking water. This is part of  their efforts to force Maasai to agree to so-called “voluntary relocations”. 

Complicity

The Tanzanian government is supported by big conservation organizations like the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), Western governments and donor agencies, as well as international institutions like UNESCO.

They all claim that there are “too many” Maasai and cattle and that they are responsible for the destruction of the environment. The racist idea of overpopulation and overgrazing by Indigenous peoples has been deeply rooted in Western thinking since colonial times. It provides a justification for “relocations” and comes with resources and money to make them possible.

Studies attest to Indigenous peoples’ having the best skills in managing their lands and protecting the natural world. Research shows that pastoralism does not destroy the environment, but instead shapes and protects it. However, the Tanzanian government and Western conservationists partner up to restrict the Maasai’s land rights in the name of conserving wildlife. At the same time, they transform their lands into tourist attractions, which Maasai have described to Survival as a source of pollution, water scarcity and stress for their animals.

Frankfurt Zoological Society

Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) is a key conservation organization working on the Maasai’s ancestral land. Maasai have called FZS their “enemy number one”. Its involvement started with its long time director Bernhard Grzimek. Grzimek wasn’t just a eugenicist and member of the Nazi party in Hitler’s Germany, he was also a key advocate for removing the Maasai from their land. FZS still embraces his ideas, or as it says:  “Serengeti is not pasture land”. Learn more in this video.

UNESCO

UNESCO has played a central role in legitimizing the land theft of Maasai territories. It has stressed that “further growth of the Maasai population and the number of cattle should remain within the capacity of the property”.

Maasai have criticized UNESCO for designating Ngorongoro Conservation Area as a World Heritage Site without their Free, Prior and Informed Consent and for honoring a place with abuses and human rights violations as a WHS.

Maasai representatives have, for years, been submitting reports of evictions, human rights violations, and harassment to various UN bodies, including UNESCO, and calling for a mission to investigate. When such a mission eventually took place in February 2024, they were not officially informed and the UNESCO mission only spoke to government-appointed stakeholders. The mission did not meet with legitimate representatives of the Maasai in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

In the context of these human rights violations, Maasai representatives have requested that Ngorongoro be delisted as a World Heritage Site. Find out more in Survival’s report about World Heritage Sites and Indigenous peoples rights.

© FIAN Deutschland

Maasai delegation in front of an image of the German conservationist (and ex-Nazi) Bernhard Grzimek at Frankfurt Zoo. They call on Germany and the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) not to finance colonial conservation, 2023.

Way forward

Survival amplified the voices of the Maasai so their eyewitness testimonies have been heard, exposed the reckless evictions in the international media, protested outside the offices of the conservation giant FZS and successfully lobbied for a ground-breaking resolution in the European parliament in support of the Maasai. In the summer of 2024, thanks to the pressure of Maasai representatives, Survival and other Maasai supporters, the European Commission canceled several million euros for fortress conservation in Tanzania due to concerns about the situation of the Maasai. 

It’s clear: The Maasai need their land in order to survive and live well – and they have a right to it. Help us campaign against the complicity of Western conservationists and donors in the evictions of the Maasai. This will also put pressure on the government. For the Maasai, for nature, for all humanity.