Our land our nature

by Luca Catalano Gonzaga
Part of Land and ocean grabbing
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In the district of Ngorongoro, Masai communities face a constant threat of eviction from their ancestral land in favor of the expansion of protected areas, dedicated to safari tourism and the super-elite big game. Although their traditional lifestyle was based on raising cattle, today the Masai also need to practice agriculture. They lead the cattle from one pasture to another, to give the grass a chance to grow back; once, these movements were guaranteed by a system of collective land ownership, which gave everyone the opportunity to share access to water and pastures. Now, they are also losing the only permitted alternative, livestock farming, as the land dedicated to grazing is becoming increasingly scarce while communities, which demographically are growing, are grouped in increasingly limited areas. The Masai thus find themselves confined to the most arid and sterile areas of the country. The interference of the authorities is aimed at changing their system of community access to land with the excuse of giving more space to the protection of fauna, but in reality the goal is to intensify elite tourism. Today the natives are reduced to misery. Handmade huts are the only refuge of this ancient and proud people who traditionally follow a life of their own, with their own rules, and which have a strong bond with their ancestral land. An ecological question has therefore become a humanitarian question. Is it fair that more and more tourists visit the National Parks, while the natives are pushed to the margins in conditions of extreme poverty? (text by Luca Catalano Gonzaga).

  • Ol Doinyo Lengai Mountain, Ngorongoro District, Tanzania. The Ol Doinyo Lengai is a vulcano close to the Rift Valley. Its’ name means “Mountain of God” in the Maasai people’s language. It has been over time the destination of pilgrimage for the Maasai sheperds who pray for the most precious things to them: rain, their herds and their children’s health.
  • Embaas Village, Ngorongoro District, Tanzania. Moment of prayer along the main street of the village. The religion of the Maasai has been greatly influenced by Christianity, but still retains many of its original and traditional characteristics. The Maasai are monotheists: their faith recognizes only one God, creator of the world. They do not believe in life after death, even though they have their own form of ancestor worship.
  • Embaas Village, Ngorongoro District, Tanzania. The Maasai religion falls into the category of monotheistic denominations and has a centuries-old longevity, prior to the spread of Christianity and Islam in the region. The Maasai are one of the very few tribes that have preserved most of their traditions and lifestyles, and in religious practice.
  • Ngorongoro District, Tanzania. Water collection center which supplies several neighboring Maasai villages.
  • Ngorongoro District, Tanzania. A woman drinks from a water collection point. The semi-nomadic Maasai shepherds are prevented, within the protected areas, from accessing water sources and land, which is used for both grazing and subsistence cultivation.
  • Ngorongoro District, Tanzania. Long wait to fill a tank of water. All the surrounding villages make use of it but not everyone is lucky enough to be near it, some houses are miles away to walk with buckets, cans and cans on their heads.
  • Ngorongoro District, Tanzania. Water collection center for Maasai shepherds and their livestock.
  • Arkatani Village, Ngorongoro District, Tanzania. Return of a young Maasai shepherd to his village.
  • Arkatani Village, Ngorongoro District, Tanzania. Young Maasai shepherd as he opens a passage to let his flock out of the pen for grazing.
  • Arkatani Village, Ngorongoro District, Tanzania. Naseku, 12 years old , as he takes a mutilated baby goat inside a pen.
  • Embaas Village, Ngorongoro District, Tanzania. Although their traditional lifestyle was based on raising cattle, today the Maasai are forced to practice agriculture as well.
  • Loliondo District, Tanzania. Young Maasai in a moment of leisure.
  • Embaas Village, Ngorongoro District, Tanzania. Soccer game between two Maasai villages.
  • Arkatani Village, Ngorongoro District, Tanzania. Simon Sengo, 78, tribal chief. The Maasai, ancestral guardians of the area, live in the boma, a series of houses arranged in a semicircle. They bear the responsibility of a past that portrays them as indomitable warriors.
  • Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania. The Masai are increasingly evicted from their ancestral lands to encourage safari tourism.
  • Malanja Village, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania. The Government is about to launch an unprecedented relocation plan that will affect over 80 thousand people, the vast majority of Maasai shepherds, present for generations in the Ngorongoro park. A plan motivated by environmental protection and the development of tourism.
  • Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is a protected area home to a conservation project where the Maasai and their livestock live alongside wild animals.
  • Malanja Village, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania. In recent years, the authorities have imposed severe restrictions on the grazing activities allowed to the Maasai, resulting in widespread hunger and poverty, aggravating the situation of the already poor community.
  • Mtoni Village, Loliondo District, Tanzania. Livestock farming is becoming increasingly scarce due to the lack of land dedicated to grazing. An indomitable, free tribe, which in recent times is increasingly overwhelmed by serious difficulties of survival, caused by one of the most serious environmental problems of our time: desertification, that is, the impoverishment of the soil.
  • Naiti Village, Ngorongoro District, Tanzania. Livestock farming is considered the primary source of livelihood for the Maasai. They lead the cattle from one pasture to another, to give the grass a chance to grow back; once, these movements were guaranteed by a system of collective land ownership, which gave everyone the opportunity to share access to water and pastures. Today, however, the Maasai have been progressively forced to adopt a permanent lifestyle, and many have found work in the cities.
  • Ngorongoro District, Tanzania. Some goats protect themselves from the heat. Today the Maasai are forced to graze their flocks in increasingly arid and less fertile areas.
  • Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania. Early dawn.
  • Misigixo Village, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania. The village shrouded in fog during the early hours of dawn.
  • Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania. The conservation area of Ngorongoro, renown throughout the world, is one of the main attractions of Africa and has rightly been declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco.
  • Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania. In recent decades, the number of tourists who have visited Ngorongoro has increased significantly: in 1984 it was about 55,000 people, while in 2018 it was 650,000. Revenue from tourism was approximately $ 55 million.
  • Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti Plain, Tanzania Ngorongoro Crater is the largest intact volcanic caldera in the world and is home to around 30,000 animals. The edge of the crater is over 2,200 meters high, from this observation point it is possible to distinguish the tiny shapes of the animals that move on the bottom of the crater.
  • Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti Plain, Tanzania The nature of the Serengeti National Park attracts tourists from all over the world every year. The semi-nomadic Maasai population is at the expense of the African country’s conservation policies.
  • Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti Plain, Tanzania. Souvenir photo in the refreshment area of the crater.
  • Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti Plain, Tanzania. The conservation area of Ngorongoro is a protected natural area of Tanzania, extending in the area of the Ngorongoro caldera, situated in the Serengeti plains.There is a high concentration of fauna in the crater: it is estimated that it is inhabited by over 30,000 large animals.
  • Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti Plain, Tanzania. A tourist and professional sets waiting to photograph a lion. Among the various services offered to tourists is that of being able to follow and photograph a lion for 3 days, at a cost of around € 15,000.
  • Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is one of the most famous places in the world for safaris, declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1978 and International Biosphere Reserve in 1981. It is also the place where the protection and conservation of African fauna was born in the mid 1950s, after several years of white hunters poaching.
  • Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti Plain, Tanzania. Elephants being herbivores, feed mainly on the foliage of trees or bushes.
  • Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti Plain, Tanzania. Migratory wildebeest in search of food. Wildebeest migration is a very fluid and dynamic process, subject to rainy seasons.
  • Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti Plain, Tanzania. A herd of hippos in a pool in the crater. Hippos usually spend daylight hours in water or muddy wallows, moving at night to grazing sites.
  • Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti Plain, Tanzania Tourists photographing a hippo in the refreshment area, inside the crater. Tourism is a leading industry contributing approximately 7.1% to Tanzania’s GDP.
  • Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti Plain, Tanzania. Migrating wildebeests during their annual search for grass and water. They travel more than 800 miles from parched fields to green ones.
  • Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti Plain, Tanzania. Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania is famous for its wildlife and for being the home of Maasai communities. To promote tourism, the government wants to expand the protected area, evicting more than 80,000 people, mostly Maasai.
  • Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti Plain, Tanzania. An elephant passing right by a group of tourists viewing from an open air land rover.
  • Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti Plain, Tanzania. Tourists parked in the crater’s refreshment area. Over the past two decades, the country has experienced exponential growth in the tourism sector. In this context, wildlife has gradually become a significant economic resource, a source of increasing income for the Government, to which, by law, it belongs.
  • Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti Plain, Tanzania. Preparation of the dining table in the refreshment area of the crater.
  • Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti Plain, Tanzania Refreshment place for tourists inside the crater. The living conditions of the Maasai population who inhabits the boundless plains of the Serengeti, one of the most spectacular natural parks on the continent, are worsening in a worrying way, victims of the government’s conservationist policies, implemented through forced evictions, behind which foreign interests are hidden, especially in the luxury tourism business.
  • Embaas Village, Ngorongoro District, Tanzania. Zeinah, 17, as he rests in the shade of a tree near his home.

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