When Maasaiphobia Became Policy

Two related issues in northern Tanzania are currently making headlines. The first is a plan by the government of Tanzania to relocate the Maasai pastoralists from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area or ‘NCA’. The second is the intention by the same government to grab 1,500 square kilometres from the same people, in the Loliondo division—a few miles away from the NCA. Both plans are legitimized in the name of wildlife conservation. The authorities claim that growth in human and cattle populations threatens the ecology of the area and that of the greater Serengeti-Maasai Mara Ecosystem. Those parading this narrative appeal to national and international audiences to embrace the ‘goodwill’ of the state to protect critical water sources, animal residues and wildebeest migratory routes. The intention of the current contribution is to debunk this official narrative by unmasking the economic interests, as well as the colonial and racist logic behind the unjustifiable evictions of the Maasai from their ancestral lands.