Reference no: EM13160994

Land loss has been the most important factor responsible for the ongoing economic and social impoverishment of the Maasai people. The Maasai believe that restoring their land and livestock economy is the only sustainable solution to elevate poverty and allow them to practice their livelihoods (Kweka 6). The Maasai have begun to organize to demand their rights to the land that they have inhabited for years (Narimatsu). They call the Tanzanian government for full recognition as an autonomous nation and stop being treated as second class citizens in the land of their ancestors (Olol-Dapash Meitamei). The Maasai communities do not have the political and economic force to compete with multinational corporations and their strong lobbies, nor can they pressurize the World Bank to change its policies in Tanzania. Though, since the early 1990s, the Maasai have begun establishing Maasai non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to resist the alienation of traditional grazing land as well as political marginalization and discrimination. By 1993, Maasai NGOs were part of a broader network of the Tanzanian indigenous peoples’ movement (Igoe 400). In 1994, Maasai and Barabaig NGO leaders established a forum known as Pastoralist and Indigenous Non-Governmental Organizations Forum (PINGOs) to establish a “coalition of likeminded pastoralist and hunter/gatherer community based organisations” (Igoe 415). In addition, various international organizations such as the Survival International, Oxfam, the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, Maasai International Challenge Africa, and the United Nations have been working towards empowering the Maasai.

Despite years of protesting by international human rights institutions and local activists urging the government of Tanzania to recognize and respect the rights of the Maasai to livelihood and self-determination, “cases of systematic land alienation and forced evictions continue to be meted” on the Maasai (Ahni). The Maasai “not only have they been denied indigenous rights , but they have not been compensated adequately for the land they have given up” (Narimatsu). The Tanzanian government refuses to recognize the land rights of the Maasai and claims that the Maasai are not actually indigenous but are nomads from Kenya (Ramsey). Consequently, competition with the wildlife and tourists for scarce resources help the high level of poverty among the Maasai to persist.