Tanzania wants to evict Maasai for wildlife – but they’re fighting back

Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania – Joseph Oleshangay’s theory is that government officials in his country, Tanzania, see people from his community as less than human.

The 36-year-old human rights lawyer and member of the Indigenous Maasai group is one of several at the forefront of a long-running fight to stop the government in the political capital, Dodoma, from forcefully evicting Maasai from areas around national parks.

Officials say the evictions are to protect wildlife, but Maasai members have accused park rangers and security forces of intimidation and rights abuses, including killings, sexual assaults and livestock seizures.

Because the courts have not always ruled in favour of aggrieved Maasai, community members like Oleshangay have taken their complaints to the government’s big funders, from Germany to the European Union, urging them to withhold crucial funding and pressure the government to halt alleged violence.

“We go to the courts, we go to the media because we have few alternatives,” said Oleshangay, who works with Tanzania’s Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC). “But we also go to the people we think have a say. We tell them – we don’t have a problem with conservation, but when you give the government more money, it means you are financing the displacement of all these people. It has nothing to do with nature, it is all business.”

Lately, the activists have been on a hot streak.

In late April, the World Bank yielded to petitions of rights violations in a massive park in the country’s south and suspended new disbursements from a $150m grant, saying it was “deeply concerned” about rights abuse allegations related to the project.

Then, in June, the EU crossed Tanzania off another 18 million euro ($20m) conservation grant initially meant for the country and neighbouring Kenya. Ana Pisonero Hernandez, an EU spokeswoman, told media that Tanzania was removed after an internal review process.

“The decision to amend the call was made to ensure the project’s objectives in terms of human rights protection and environmental concerns are achieved given recent tensions in the region,” she said.