The Indigenous World 2022: Tanzania

Written on 01 April 2022. Posted in Tanzania

Tanzania is estimated to have a total of between 125 and 130 ethnic groups, falling mainly into the four categories of Bantu, Cushite, Nilo-Hamite and San. While there may be more ethnic groups that identify themselves as Indigenous Peoples, four groups have been organizing themselves and their struggles around this concept and movement. The four groups are: the hunter-gatherer Akie and Hadzabe, and the pastoralist Barabaig and Maasai. Although accurate figures are hard to arrive at since ethnic groups are not included in the population census, population estimates^[1] put the Maasai in Tanzania at 430,000, the Datoga group to which the Barabaig belongs at 87,978, the Hadzabe at 1,000^[2] and the Akie at 5,268. While the livelihoods of these groups are diverse, they all share a strong attachment to the land, distinct identities, vulnerability and marginalization. They also experience similar problems in relation to land tenure insecurity, poverty and inadequate political representation.

Tanzania voted in favour of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007 but does not recognize the existence of any Indigenous Peoples in the country and there is no specific national policy or legislation on Indigenous Peoples per se. On the contrary, a number of policies, strategies and programmes that do not reflect the interests of the Indigenous Peoples in terms of access to land and natural resources, basic social services and justice are continuously being developed, resulting in a deteriorating and increasingly hostile political environment for both pastoralists and hunter-gatherers.

This article is part of the 36th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. The photo above is of Indigenous Women standing up and taking the lead in the land rights struggle of their community in Jharkhand, India. This photo was taken by Signe Leth, and is the cover of the Indigenous World 2022 where the article is featured. Find The Indigenous World 2022 in full here

New President

The former President of the United Republic of Tanzania, John Pombe Magufuli, died on 17 March 2021. This opened a new era for the citizens of Tanzania given that his six-year reign had been characterized by repression and serious human rights abuses. John Magufuli was also one of the most prominent coronavirus sceptics. Following his death, there is an opportunity for Tanzania to reverse its downward human rights trajectory and ensure accountability for past human rights violations committed. There are slow signs of reduced fear within civil society, of reduced threats towards civilians and of an opening up of civic space.

On 19 March 2021, in Dar es Salaam, the Vice President, Samia Suluhu Hassan, was sworn in as the 6^th President of Tanzania in accordance with article 37 (5) of the Tanzanian constitution.

Situation in Ngorongoro

On 12 April 2021, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA), the state corporation responsible for protecting and managing the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), issued a 30-day eviction notice to 45 Indigenous pastoralists living in the NCA. However, on the 20 April 2021, this eviction was temporarily put on hold. This was triggered by the protests of pastoralists living in the NCA, who held a press conference in Arusha on 19 April 2021. The resulting news items attracted a public outcry, forcing the NCAA to withdraw from its original stance and issue a letter saying that the eviction was halted until further notice.^[3]

The eviction notice is part of a bigger plan on the part of NCAA and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism (MNRT) to evict a total of 73,000 pastoralists from the NCA.

Prior to the eviction notice that would have affected 45 Indigenous pastoralists, the President of Tanzania, Samia Suluhu Hassan, spoke at a ceremony implying that she was dissatisfied with NCA’s current state of affairs. She mentioned that certain steps should be taken to preserve the area’s ecology and wildlife. She did not explicitly set out her steps for preservation. Nevertheless, the Indigenous human rights defenders and the Indigenous pastoralist communities in NCA do not believe that NCAA’s and MNRT’s current strategies are what the President was referring to in her speech on 6 April 2021.

The NCAA is known to hold the view that the Indigenous pastoralist communities living in NCA are illegal immigrants. The NCAA has been spreading baseless rumours that Indigenous Peoples and their pastoralist way of life are endangering the ecological balance of the NCA. This is further disseminated by the mainstream media’s biased coverage of the issue.

The threat of eviction of Indigenous Peoples from the NCA re-appeared once more some five months later. On 17 October 2021, speaking to the public in Sheik Amri Abeid Memorial Stadium in Arusha, the President of the United Republic of Tanzania raised a serious issue and threat to the peoples of Ngorongoro. Among other things, she stated that Ngorongoro was a place of national importance for tourism and revenue for the country. She categorically stated that the government could not allow the wishes of a few people to prevail and allow Ngorongoro to perish. By that she meant that Ngorongoro should not be for the Maasai peoples alone but for the whole nation. She clearly stated that the government was ready to ensure that it could offer alternative land to the people outside the NCA. She therefore urged Ilaigwanak^[4] to convince the Maasai to vacate the area and help resolve the conflict peacefully. This was followed by much discussion of the rights of the Maasai people in Ngorongoro and different media reports.

Loliondo case in the East Africa Court of Justice

Although there have not been any physical attacks on Indigenous Peoples in the villages of Loliondo in Ngorongoro District, the situation remains tense since the government has continued to put pressure on the community representatives. On 9 September 2021, the Village Chairpersons were summoned by the District Executive Director for Ngorongoro and told that it was wrong for the village authorities to take the government to court as they formed part of the government. He insisted that it was like a child taking a parent to court, and he insisted that they withdraw East African Court of Justice Reference Case No 10 of 2017 and instead dialogue with the government. He told them to go to their respective village authorities and bring back an agreement that they had agreed to withdraw the case. He told them that all the villages should come with a letter agreeing that they no longer needed to be part of the case. The villages refused to withdraw the case, informing him that about it affected all community members and that he should go to convince the community. They also insisted that the case be handled by their lawyers and that the lawyers should be involved in everything to do with the case.

In terms of progress in the case, there has not been much activity. Both parties have made their final submissions, however, and are waiting for the final judgement in the first quarter of 2022.

Prospect of ending the conflict between Kimotorok village and Mkungunero Game Reserve

Kimotorok village is located in Simanjiro District of Manyara Region. The village borders Tarangire National Park (TNP) and Mkungunero Game Reserve (MGR), and it has five sub-villages.

Residents of the village are predominantly Maasai pastoralists, and Barabaig pastoralists are in a minority. Kimotorok village is deeply engrossed in a land-induced conflict with Mkungunero Game Reserve. The conflict started around the year 2000 when the boundaries of Tarangire National Park and Mkungunero Game Reserve were extended on the village’s land without consultation, thereby illegally seizing 6,400 km² of village land.

Kimotorok is a legally-registered village which, in accordance with the Village Land Act No. 5 of 1999, is entrusted to control and manage its village land. No land in Kimotorok can be taken, annexed or transferred for any reason without the free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) of the villagers through their village council, which has to pass a resolution which the village general assembly then needs to approve. The minutes of these two bodies must be obtained or sought before anyone can say they have acquired the village land through open and legal procedures. Any other way is tantamount to land grabbing.

On 4 July 2021, armed wardens from Mkungunero Game Reserve captured 135 cattle belonging to the Maasai and drove them deeper into the preserved area. They did this deliberately so that the Maasai people would have to bribe them or pay huge fines. Around 30 motorbikes belonging to Maasai pastoralists were also destroyed in the process.

On 9 October 2021, the Minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Developments visited the area in conflict. He said that nearly 4,400 km² would be returned to Kimotorok village. The remaining 2000 km² would have to wait until there was a resolution between the villages and Mkungunero Game Reserve. He further stated that all evictions and possible harassments had to end.^[5]

Kilimanjaro National Park in row with the Maasai pastoralists of Enduimet

Several villages in Enduimet Division of Longido District, West of Kilimanjaro in the district of Hai and Siha, are locked in a land-induced conflict with Kilimanjaro National Park.

Kitenden, Irkaswa, Lerangwa and Kamwanga villages, located on the slopes of the highest free-standing mountain on Earth, are predominantly inhabited by Maasai pastoralists squeezed onto small parcels of marginal land. On 16 March 1973, the Maasai pastoralists had an area of 5,500 acres officially gazetted through Government Notice No. 59 whereby the area legally became a grazing reserve for the Maasai. In 2016, however, the Tanzanian National Parks Authority, a government agency responsible for managing and protecting the national parks, invaded the area. It arbitrarily planted boundary beacons, thereby including the area within Kilimanjaro National Park. By so doing, the Maasai lost a huge territory, the entire 5,500 acres, on which they and their livestock were almost entirely dependent.

Since then, the pastoralists have been struggling to keep using the annexed land for grazing. Many of them have ended up in serious problems with the national park administration. In November 2021, the park authorities seized thousands of livestock from the contested area and sold off some of the animals at throw-away prices. Other animals were released after the owners paid heavy fines.^[6]

Essimingor Forest Reserve and threats to 14 villages

Essimingor Forest in Monduli District, Arusha Region was established in 1954 through Government Gazette No. 187 of 1954. On 4 June 2021, while submitting the Ministry Budget for 2021/2022, the Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism announced in the National Assembly at Dodoma that Essimingor Forest was to be upgraded to a Nature Forest and expanded to a Forest Reserve. This was done without the knowledge of the people living in the forest. The upgrading of the forest to a Nature Forest means that it will be a state-owned forest managed by the Tanzania Forest Service Agency  (TFS). This implies restrictions on the extraction of woody or animal species and that no human activities are generally allowed. It furthermore means that the forest will be restricted to research, education and nature-based tourism.

The upgrading and expansion of Essimingor Forest to a natural forest reserve was not a participatory decision and the people who use the forest for various uses were not aware of the change in the forest’s status, which they had up until then been using without any disturbance. The impact of the expansion and upgrading is enormous. The forest is used by the people of Makuyuni, Esilalei, Lepurko and Selela Wards, and the pastoralist communities of these areas have used the forest for various activities, including worship, traditional medicine, pasture, water and settlement.

By establishing the Forest Reserve, the government has expanded the size of the forest from 4,649 to 6,070 hectares, and many established villages have been included. This has been done without obtaining the free, prior and informed consent of the Indigenous Peoples of the area/villages. There seem to be different issues that are not clear with regard to the legal status and processes that were followed prior to designating the forest as a Nature Forest.

The Forest Reserve forms part of the largest mountain range of the Essimingor Mountains. The reserve comprises tall luxurious sub-montane forests and deciduous to semi-deciduous lowland forests. The reserve has exceptional conservation values that include biological diversity, endangered and threatened flora and fauna.

The upgrading of the forest threatens the existence of eight villages in the Makuyuni, Esilalei, Lepurko and Selela Wards, which border the Essimingor Forest Reserve. These villages are Lossimingor, Makuyuni, Esilalei, Baraka, Mungere, Mbaashi, Silalei and Losirwa. All these villages, with the exception of Makuyuni, are legally-registered villages with Registration Certificates. On top of that, all villages have obtained Certificates of Village Land and have carried out thorough Village Land-Use Plans.

Isawima Wildlife Management Area conflict

Isawima Wildlife Management Area (WMA) was established in 2000 by several legally-registered villages as a community-based wildlife management area with the aim of earning an income from the tourism industry that could benefit the community. The area is considered one of the sources of the Malagarasi River, a tributary of the Tanganyika River in Kigoma Region.

On 24 January 2021, through the Regional Commissioner, the government announced that it had decided to hand Isawima WMA to the Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority (TAWA). The Commissioner stated that the decision was due to the mismanagement of the WMA by the local community and the failure of the villagers to manage the area. Pastoralists were ordered to move out of the area. The pastoralists in Isawima protested on the grounds that their villages, which are their ancestral land, had unlawfully been included in the WMA. TAWA then executed the Kaliua District Commissioner’s announcement to evict the pastoralists from the Isawima WMA.

On 16 June 2021, in Songambele sub-village, Kombe village, in Kaliua District of Tabora Region, a girl named Nyanzobe Mwandu, aged four, was burnt to death inside her family house by game wardens from Isawima WMA.^[7] The house where the child was sleeping was allegedly torched by the wildlife wardens of Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority (TAWA), in collaboration with police from Igagala Namba 5 police station. Speaking to local radio station CG FM, Tabora Regional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner Safia Jongo, confirmed the incident. She said that a thorough search had been conducted in broad daylight before demolishing and torching the houses and that even the house owner had said she had fled with all her children. “So who burnt the child, when, and why?” she asked. She even added that it was possible that bad people had burnt the child to weaken the operation.^[8]

A few months prior to the eviction, the military conducted seven days of armed training in the villages within Isawima WMA. This was, according to pastoralists, an act of intimidation as they kept telling the villagers that they were preparing to evict them.

Incidents related to human rights violations

On 11 January 2021, the pastoralist Pawa Kandago, aged 22, from Mapogoro village in Mbarali District, Mbeya Region, committed suicide. Prior to this, the state had captured and auctioned his more than 50 head of cattle near Ruaha National Park.^[9] His death is said to be directly related to the capture of all his family’s livestock following the ultimatum by Mbeya Regional Commissioner Albert Chalamila, for all pastoralists to vacate the region because of what he termed environmental destruction. This is allegedly an initiative to preserve wildlife protected areas. “I will make sure that this order is observed to the brim to save our protected areas and commercial farms owned by investors,” said Chalamila.^[10]

The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP)

Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous Peoples’ organizations engaged with the EACOP throughout 2021. This engagement was regarding implementation of the EACOP Framework for Vulnerable Ethnic Groups and Indigenous Peoples. Traditional leaders from the Maasai, Akie and Barabaig communities in Kiteto, Simanjiro, Kilindi and Hanang districts and the CSOs PINGO’s Forum, Parakuiyo Pastoralists Indigenous Community Development Organization (PAICODEO) and Ujamaa Community Resource Team (UCRT) have all been involved in the development and review of this framework. This engagement ended in a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the community and EACOP whereby EACOP expressed its commitment to foster respect for the human rights, dignity and culture of Vulnerable Ethnic Groups and Indigenous Peoples. The process is an ongoing one aimed at engaging with Indigenous Peoples to bring about a conclusive MOU and clearly shows EACOP’s commitment to ensuring that Indigenous Peoples are not affected by the implementation of the pipeline project.

The situation of Hadzabe hunter-gatherers

Indigenous Hadzabe hunter-gatherers from Mongo wa mono village and the Yaeda Valley continued to face different challenges throughout the year, such as encroachment onto their Natural Forest by Indigenous pastoralists (the Barbaig and Iraq communities). This has created some conflicts but no reports of actual fighting occurring. Increased fishing activities have also been reported by the Hadzabe as a new challenge that has increased human population around their ancestral land at Lake Eyasi and which affects the forests in the area and threatens the existence of the wild animals on which the Hadzabe people depend.

The Hadzabe have also reported a lack of basic infrastructure on their land as being a challenge, especially a lack of health facilities, roads and transport to meet their basic needs.

The situation of Indigenous women

Indigenous women continued to face challenges in Tanzania in 2021. Increased drought and natural resource conflicts have been a major burden for them and their and children. In Ngorongoro, many women are impoverished and forced to do manual work in the neighbouring district of Karatu. This is the same for women in Longido where the rain has not been sufficient to feed the livestock and provide enough milk for the families. The many conflicts over different Indigenous Peoples’ lands bordering protected areas in 2021 have resulted in insecurity for women and children.

Edward Porokwa is a lawyer and an Advocate of the High Court of Tanzania. He is currently the Executive Director of Pastoralists Indigenous NGOs Forum (PINGO’s Forum), an umbrella organization for pastoralists and hunter-gatherers in Tanzania. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Law (LLB Hon) from the University of Dar es Salaam and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from ESAMI-Maastricht School of Management. He has 15 years’ experience of working with Indigenous Peoples’ organizations in the areas of human rights advocacy, policy analysis, constitutional issues and climate change.

This article is part of the 36th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. The photo above is of Indigenous Women standing up and taking the lead in the land rights struggle of their community in Jharkhand, India. This photo was taken by Signe Leth, and is the cover of the Indigenous World 2022 where the article is featured. Find The Indigenous World 2022 in full here

Notes and references 

[1] National Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Finance, Dar es Salaam and Office of Chief Government Statistician, President’s Office, Finance, Economy and Development Planning, Zanzibar. “2012 Population and Housing Census:

Population Distribution by Administrative Areas.” Tanzania, March 2013. https://www.google.co.tz/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjMtN7Xz_PuAhWisXEKHeIMAfgQFjACegQIARAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftanzania.countrystat.org%2Ffileadmin%2Fuser_upload%2Fcountrystat_fenix%2Fcongo%2Fdocs%2FCensus%2520General%2520Report-2012PHC.pdf&usg=AOvVaw1E9NTiC9WCMu5kGjMGlnEP

[2] Other sources estimate the Hadzabe at between 1,000 – 1,500 people. See, for instance, Madsen, Andrew. The Hadzabe of Tanzania: Land and Human Rights for a Hunter-Gatherer Community. Copenhagen: IWGIA, 2000. https://www.iwgia.org/en/documents-and-publications/documents/publications-pdfs/english-publications/98-iwgia-report-the-hadzabe-of-tanzania-land-and-human-rights-for-a-hunter-gatherer-community-eng/file.html

^[3]  WATETEZI TV. “MAMLAKA YA HIFADHI NGORONGORO YABADILI GIA ANGANI, yasitisha mpango wa kuwaondoa wakazi wa eneo hilo.” YouTube, April 20, 2021. https://youtu.be/sDJqgJe5G4A   

^[4] Maasai Traditional Leaders.

^[5] Mwananchi, Dar es Salaam, October 9, 2021. https://www.mwananchi.co.tz/

^[6] Stephano Nabel, pers. comm, November 18, 2021.

^[7] Mjema G. Maswali yaibuka. Mwananchi, Dar es Salaam, June 21, 2021. https://www.mwananchi.co.tz/

^[8] Ikunji, Halima. “Taharuki yauka mtoto kuchomwa moto kwenye hifadhi Tabora.” IPPmedia, June 19, 2021.

 https://www.ippmedia.com/sw/habari/taharuki-yazuka-mtoto-kuchomwa-moto-kwenye-hifadhi-tabora

^[9]JamiiForums. “Mbeya: RC atoa siku 6 kwa wafugaji kutoa mifugo ktk hifadhi.” January 10, 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRxmS63nJAw

^[10] Xinhua. “Tanzanian livestock keepers ordered to vacate protected areas.” Xinhuanet. January 13, 2021. http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/africa/2021-01/13/c_139662473.htm