http://www.arushatimes.co.tz/front%20page_1.html


Issue No. 0860
May 30 - June 5, 2015
Front page 1

Maasai peg hopes in 1958 Serengeti Park agreement

By Staff Reporter

Nearly 60 years after the formation of Serengeti National Park, the official contract which was signed between the Colonial British rulers and the Maasai who formerly resided in the reserve has landed in Tanzania.

Dating back to 1958 the charter document, contents of which are still to be revealed in public, is reported to have some sensitive, previously concealed legal matters that stand to affect the future of the country’s second largest and most popular National Park .

Speaking at Ololosokwan Village, the former area Chairman, Mzee Yohanne Ole Saini revealed that for many years they have been searching for the agreement signed between 12 former Maasai elders and the British Government in 1958, regarding the Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Loliondo areas.

“Maasai are patient people. We have educated our children to highest levels and now through them the people of Loliondo have managed to find the contract in the United Kingdom and it has just been brought back into the country,” he said.

The Minister for Natural resources and Tourism, Mr Lazaro Nyalandu was present when Mzee Saini revealed the finding of the previously hidden secret but made no comment over the new development.

Before becoming a gazetted park, Serengeti, famous for its annual wildebeests migrations, used to be the residence of the Maasai Pastoralists who were evicted from the so-called ‘endless plains,’ to pave way for the formation of the country’s first ever National Park. The Maasai were later relocated east to the Loliondo Game Controlled Area and South to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority.

But following series of conflicts with investors in Loliondo, the Maasai invested much efforts to secure the original document sealing a contract between them and the then British colonial rulers over the agreed land-use plans for both Serengeti and Loliondo and the rights that the Maasai pastoralists are entitled.

The British versus Maasai Serengeti Charter is currently kept safe in some unknown place in Arusha awaiting the day when the local residents will display it to the public and make fresh land claims likely to send shockwaves across the country.

Measuring 14,800 square kilometres, Serengeti National Park lying within the Serengeti-Mara covers Mara, Arusha and Simiyu regions and attracting 350,000 tourists annually, is Tanzania’s second popular destination after the Ngorongoro Crater which gets 600,000 visitors per year.

Serengeti National Park is famous for its annual migration of nearly 2.5 million white brindled wildebeest and Zebras as well as ferocious Nile crocodiles inhabiting the River Mara which cuts across the Reserve.

It is not known how much the Park stands to be affected once the 1958 Serengeti Charter reveals new developments for the benefit of the Maasai in Loliondo.

Kathi:

That post didn't engender any response ??

To be honest I'm a little bit mystified about the agreement.

What is your prognosis, or prediction, about how this will impact the game, the PH's, the licensed legitimate hunters ?

How very convenient to dig up and claim rights based on a colonial charter dating back to 1958 when all other colonial laws were binned after independence! - Go figure.

quote:

Originally posted by wetibbe:
Kathi:

That post didn't engender any response ??

To be honest I'm a little bit mystified about the agreement.

What is your prognosis, or prediction, about how this will impact the game, the PH's, the licensed legitimate hunters ?

As far as I am aware, this has nothing to do with trophy hunting as I don't believe it takes place in the Serengeti or Ngorongoro and obviously there is none in the Mara. This is not even about Tanzania or Kenya as sovereign states as the agreement was made with the tribe. Maasai don't see themselves as citizens of countries which were entirely arbitrary and very recent entities drawn in by colonial pencils on maps that had no practical meaning. This is about the Maasai as a tribe, whichever country they may now be deemed to be inhabiting, and land across which they can move their cattle and ever-exploding population. Africa's own brand of tribal realpolitik and greed will dictate the outcome of this one, as usual.

Milo:

Thanks for your input. I lived in several African countries for years.

Ethiopia was a particularly hard case with the raging out of control rebels in the Danakil and the Eritrean rebel up North.

I got a good introduction to the primitive segment of that society, believe me when I say very intimately into their mentality and life style.

I'm not all that knowledgably about the life style/aspirations of the Massai. Not good at predicting this matter. The Brits have evolved and changed dramatically over the decades. But over the decades they have done the right thing all over the world since relinquishing the British Empire.

Not sure about the Serengeti, but the Masai have spread themselves completely throughout Tanzania.

The results speak for themselves with forest/woodland degradation. There has also been much poisoning of predators, not always by Masai.

You can read reports on same by the Brits dating back to the '50's for some areas.

Just a few personal observations based upon my travels in both Kenya and Tanzania and interaction with the Masai (or Maasai) Tribe on both sides of the river as well as here in the USA.

The Masai are a very well educated people. They are smart and politically aware. They are pastoralists who lead a semi-nomadic life herding their cattle in the Serengeti, Masai Mara and Ngorongoro Crater National Parks. There is NO HUNTING inside these parks - other than the Lions the Masai boys still kill as a right-of-passage into manhood. Every Masai I have ever met can converse in the english language, as well as Swahili and at least another tribal language. They freely cross back and forth across the Kenya/Tanzania border without papers or government interference.

I have been in their nomadic camps, been invited to drink the milk/blood concoction and crawled inside their mud huts. I have seen the effects of Lion attacks on their cattle and donkeys.

I like and have a great deal of respect for them and wish them well. It is amazing they have been able to maintain their lifestyle into the 21st century and a testament to their commitment. I hope the 1958 agreement will allow them to continue without government interference.

BTW, I do not see the Masai as a threat to sport hunting and would doubt seriously if any Masai ever poisoned a Lion as they have other needs and means for disposing of them, using their spears.

quote:

Originally posted by fujotupu:
How very convenient to dig up and claim rights based on a colonial charter dating back to 1958 when all other colonial laws were binned after independence! - Go figure.

How true!

quote:

would doubt seriously if any Masai ever poisoned a Lion as they have other needs and means for disposing of them, using their spears.

If we were to roll back the clock to the 60's, I would second you on that statement.

quote:

They are pastoralists who lead a semi-nomadic life herding their cattle in the Serengeti, Masai Mara and Ngorongoro Crater National Parks.

They do so in defiance of the law (Except in the NCAA). why? Because:
- Their population has increased and the land that they used to inhabit has shrunk.
- Their herds have grown and the land they used to graze in has shrunk
- They have added agriculture to their land uses which has reduced the land available for grazing
- due to the above the land they graze has degraded and so they encroach into the protected areas

Their fundamental problem of insufficient grazing land is entirely created by them and only they hold the answer to fix that. Holding on to their cultural beliefs won't make things better.

quote:

I hope the 1958 agreement will allow them to continue without government interference.

Not at the expense of the entire country and the other 120+ tribes.

All of this is such a crock of disingenuous jibberish:

See the Massai here;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maasai_people


When I was living in Ethiopia I often saw native spear chucker' out alone in the wilderness standing with only a spear. I stayed a very safe distance away.

They lived in very primitive stone and grass huts, barely on subsistence, The women stunk to high heaven as they didn't bathe, rather smeared their bodies with butter. These may have been related to the Massai.

The current dilemmas described above sound to me like so much disingenuous hokum, i/e., jerk around, screw around, bamboozle.

This wrestling contest over land utilization has been going on since time immemorial. I will avoid pinpointing specific historical events but I will say that it's a fact of historical reality seen over and over again and again since the 15 th century.

Sad but true that these confrontations will continue to escalate in the decades and centuries as population explosion continue to increase.