The Land is our Life

Sinandei Makko, one of the founders of African Initiatives’ partner the Ujaama Community Resource Trust, talks about the importance of land to pastoralist communities in Tanzania, and why everyone else wants a slice.

“The Maasai pastoralists are a nomadic community living in northern Tanzania and Kenya. Pastoralism is a way of life based primarily on raising livestock including cattle, sheep, goat and camel on arid and semi-arid lands.  For pastoralists, the three most important things, the three pillars of society, are land, livestock and family. But pastoralism is not necessarily considered important by many policy makers.

The eco system is fragile in northern Tanzania. There is unpredictable rainfall and in order to co-exist with wildlife pastoralist land requires integrated and sensitive resource management. The practice of livestock herding keeps all members of each household in these communities busy throughout their lives. Pastoralists live a nomadic lifestyle as they are constantly on the move, searching for water and pastures and managing the land carefully to allow the regeneration of endangered plants. Their lifestyle is ‘holistic’ which takes into consideration socio-economic and natural resource conservation of environment and wildlife.

 

Most of the land the pastoralists use is labeled “a strategic national economic zone” because the good scenery and rich wildlife promote tourism. This influences Tanzanian politics and economy and creates huge land use conflict which has resulted in land grabbing, local community eviction and the displacement of pastoralist families from their ancestors’ land.

 

Land grabbing is caused by a lack of understanding and recognition of pastoralism which result in unsympathetic policies and ultimately – social injustice. National Policies such as wildlife and conservation continue to separate human and wildlife conservation, like the Wildlife Act of 2009. Keeping these two things separate does not make sense. Pastoralist people live with wildlife and their land continues to be the habitat of wildlife. Pastoralism can co-exist with wildlife.  

UCRT educates pastoralist communities on the importance of securing land rights and developing land use plans which map the different ways the land is used by communities; whether for grazing, water, habitation or buildings such as schools. We secure titles for grassland and work to broaden dialogue by strengthening community voices in the country amongst policy and decision makers.

When you think about pastoralism, the land affects everything. We want this basic fact to inform livestock and wildlife policy reforms impacting on all parts of the pastoralist way of life – health care, education, women’s rights, governance, conflicts and livestock production.

We are just as important as wildlife. And we can work together.”