In early 2010 I visited Loliondo in Tanzania where I as a tourist wanted to ask some questions about the case of Boston-based Thomson Safaris establishing their private “Enashiva Nature Refuge” on Maasai grazing land and presenting it as a shining example of “community empowerment”. This led to an amazing overreaction that a clearly illustrated how Tanzanian authorities favour the interests of “investors” over those of the customary landowners when the Ngorongoro District Commissioner confiscated my passport and sent me to Arusha where I was declared a “prohibited immigrant” and thrown out of the country.
I’ve written about this HERE.
Towards the end of September 2011 my return was long overdue and I got a ticket for Nairobi. I had high expectations of, without getting into too much danger, talking with a wide selection of people who could share information about Thomson Safaris and also Otterlo Business Corporation, but these expectations were only partially fulfilled.
Nobody at Immigration in Arusha had explained to me for how long I was supposed to be a “prohibited immigrant” nor did my “Notice to Prohibited Immigrant” say anything about this. Though everyone I’d asked has seemed to think that my status would remain until otherwise declared.
I sailed through customs in Namanga without problems almost wishing that the District Commissioner could see me. I had not expected red lamps and shrill alarms to go off, but was still relieved.
I then lost some time in Arusha. The reason this time was “lost” was that it could have been spent in Loliondo with my friend Paul ole Leitura who was accompanying me, but had a date when he had to be back in Arusha for a job interview and time was passing since we were waiting for a vehicle that we’d been promised for going to Loliondo.
Though maybe not all time in Arusha was lost since I met friends including a too brief encounter with Moringe Parkipuny who was in town and had walked the dying over cultivated Loongiito hills and seen the skinny cows of people that had been tricked into “zero grazing”.
Finally we were picked up in Karatu and then carried through the very dry and dusty, but scenic, Lake Natron route avoiding having to pay the hefty Ngorongoro Conservation Area fee.
Upon arrival in Loliondo Town we went to the office of a local NGO. I’d been offered to follow some of the NGO staff on field work to several villages in Ngorongoro District, including those not affected by Thomson Safaris or the UAE hunting company OBC. Apart from excellent education on the overall situation in the district, to me this would signify important help with transportation that otherwise would be expensive and I went along – very reluctantly – with a plan to have me report to a new Immigration Officer who, I’d been told, was very serious and would not talk to the District Commissioner. The Immigration Officer was not at his office that’s dangerously close to that of the DC, but since he was new he was staying at the guest house to where we were heading.
At the guest house I was busy looking for buckets of water for washing, but I also thought it would be a good idea not to sign the guest book. It was not. The Immigration Officer appeared wondering why I hadn’t signed and wanting to know what I was doing in Loliondo. I explained that I’d be visiting my friend Paul’s village Ololosokwan and also having a look at the work of the local NGOs. This led to a long sermon about needing a special visa for donors, but finally, after having made clear that spending some time with my friend was the main purpose of the trip, we were told we would not need to pass by the Immigration Officer’s office. This changed however after the Immigration Officer had a long talk with one of the NGO staff and I was requested to come to the office the following morning.
Instead of sleeping I spent the night with Paul’s very slow Zain e-Go searching the web for a suitable Sweden-based organisation working with HIV/AIDS and I even asked one to – in case anyone from Tanzania should phone – confirm that I was a member of theirs. The reply that I was able to read a few days later was, “unfortunately we can’t help you and we suggest you contact the embassy”.
In the morning a person from the local NGO went to the Immigration Officer’s office to see if the coast was clear, but he didn’t even reach the office before running into a furious DC who had news about a gender festival in Dar es Salaam to where the NGO had taken women to protest about Loliondo issues like the Emirati hunting company OBC and the 2009 evictions that this company was involved in. The highest representative for the central government in the district felt he had been “treated like a dog” and his message was, “just let’s fight”.
The visit to the Immigration Officer’s office was definitely off. Both the DC and the Immigration Officer had gone to the guest house, supposedly to see me. In that case they were looking for the NGO’s potential donor and not the tourist who had asked questions about an unethical tourism “investor”, but I nearly panicked anyway. If they would come to the NGO office I was sure that the DC would recognise me, but others tried to assure me that he had seen many white people since I was interrogated and he would not remember me. It was slightly absurd to have to worry about this since the Article 18 of the Constitution of Tanzania, states that, every person,(a) has a freedom of opinion and expression of his ideas;(b) has a right to seek, receive and impart or disseminate information regardless of national frontiers;(c) has a right to freedom to communicate and a right of freedom from interference with his right of communication; Though this did not prevent the DC from having me thrown out of the country in 2010.
The DC never came to the NGO office, the NGO people were off on their field work and Paul and I got a vehicle and went to Ololosokwan on our own.
It should be noted that the Tanzanian government blame all problems in Loliondo on NGOs, while unethical “investors” like Thomson Safaris and Otterlo Business Corporation say that the NGOs make up lies about them to create problems and increase donor funding. On the other hand there are people in Loliondo who think that the NGOs could do a lot more about these “investors” if they weren’t so concerned about their nice jobs and not upsetting the DC too much. Anyway, I’d say most of the people in NGOs could find more comfortable jobs if they wanted to.
Since it was the dry season I’d expressed some complaints about the dust, but in Ololosokwan that catches the Lake Victoria climate, the inconvenience was mud. This also led to the land being a spitting image of the Garden of Eden, or maybe even of the Maasai Mara – which has its consequences. The village of Ololosokwan had recently received a dramatic letter from the District Executive Director’s office that acting on a request by the Land Commissioner demanded the handing in of the title deed for the whole of the village land. The “excuse” for this was supposed and unspecified conflicts with neighbours. Ololosokwan’s neighbours are the village of Soitsambu, the Republic of Kenya and the Serengeti National Park. I think my blog post about a planned “wildlife corridor” could give some idea of what the Tanzanian Government is after. It’s found HERE.
Another problem that had hit Ololosokwan during recent months was the poaching of a shockingly high number of elephants, and it was rumoured that people investigating this were around. I haven’t found more information about this issue than that everybody seems to think that the poachers come from the neighbouring country and are of a certain ethnicity.
I was surprised by extensive road work going on between Soitsambu and Klein’s Gate and the road through Ololosokwan village centre was already upgraded to excellent murram standard.
Another Ololosokwan sighting was Ward Executive Officer Amati on a motorbike. Fortunately he did not seem to recognise me.
While in Ololosokwan we made an excursion in a rented vehicle to Mondorosi that’s one of the villages affected by Thomson Safaris’ “Enashiva Nature Refuge”. We came across three women in the forest. At first they did not look too happy to see us and one of them started moving away quickly. I don’t know what Paul said, but then they didn’t have any problems expressing their views about Thomson. They told us that Thomson have brought problems and are disturbing grazing. People are harassed every day. Nobody likes them, not even those working for them – except the government that together with a few individuals do like them. The women don’t need and never wanted any change in land use. It’s their home and Thomson are disturbing them. They heard about the court case against Thomson but aren’t updated on how it’s going. “The land is ours”, they told us.
Then along the road came the chairman of Enadooshoke sub-village who also was very unhappy about Thomson that had brought conflict, harassment and many other bad things. He lived close to Lesinko Nanyoi who was shot in 2008 in a confrontation with Thomson guards aided by the police and one of his cows had been killed by a Thomson vehicle. He said there were Laitayok and a few Purko that support the company and these are after money. With the chairman was an older man whose boma had been moved because of Thomson. They had complained to the District Council, but there was no action. They were being updated about the court case that did not yet have an outcome. They needed their land back and said the court had to speak about the ownership.
When talking with a group of five women in Mondorosi we were told that the land that Thomson have turned into a “park” used to be called Olenairoti. (edit 16/1: others say that the land used to be called Ishguro). They said the guards are beating their children and that nobody in Mondorosi wants Thomson, but in Olepolos there are some corrupted people that are working for the company. These women were not updated about the court case. Then we talked with four men who, like everyone else had not been informed that Thomson were coming, but noticed it when people were restricted from entering the area. The land was for grazing and social uses and when Tanzania Breweries were there [in the 80s] grazing was not restricted. To regain their land they had opened a court case and twice talked to the government. In the court case nothing was yet decided either way, but they had hopes for justice. Now they could only graze their animals “illegally” and they were not even allowed to cross. They warned us that there were some really bad people in Sukenya that could get us into trouble if we asked about Thomson there.
The people of Sukenya from the Laitayok section are supposedly Thomson supporters, but when I visited in 2010 the people I met were not happy at all with the company. We decided to visit, as tourists, the new “cultural boma” next to the road that was built by Enyuata Women’s Collaborative with the support of Thomson and talk with the women there. Visiting Thomson’s camp would not be a good idea since last year as an innocent person looking to have a drink I was turned away by guards with poison arrows and notebook for vehicle registration numbers.
The “cultural boma” consisted of a large number of small empty Maasai houses placed in a circle and some sticks probably put up for a curio market. The place was deserted, but we stayed for a while waiting for some women to turn up when catching sight of us, but instead a guy on a motorcycle arrived. He was working for Thomson in cultural and walking tourism. This man told Paul that besides Enyuata Thomson were supporting two other women’s groups, built a teacher’s house and have many other projects. He said the village of Sukenya is in agreement with Thomson and that the people of Sukenya are allowed to graze their animals. Paul was worried that this man would suspect that we weren’t regular tourists.
Later in Ololosokwan we met a Laitayok elder from Sukenya who said the root cause was the former MPs Parkipuny and Timan giving the land away to Tanzania Breweries. Though I’ve been informed that Parkipuny actually fought hard against the District Council that took this illegal decision. The elder told us the problem is the lack of grazing and watering, and the harassment. Sukenya leaders have an agreement with Thomson, but many other villages (?) are involved and the best land use is pastoralism. Later in Wasso I was informed that the Thomson befriended Sukenya leaders take their cattle to Oloipiri, but that people there are getting tired of this arrangement. The Laitayok elder had heard about the court case, but was not updated. He hadn’t done anything about the return of the land. This was up to the leaders. He was quiet since there is no help and things had to be accepted as they are. This man had little doubt that the government killed the Laitayok elder Shangai ole Putaa in 2007 because he opposed Thomson.
Another day we visited the village of Kirtalo. There had been some rain and the air was cool, which was good, but it also contributed to an atmosphere more reminiscent of the Siberian tundra than the rolling hills of Loliondo. A group of seven men gathered. They were all more or less drunk and the chairman, Olekimiriayi, draped in a flowery bedspread of furry fabric, was among them. What seemed like a lengthy discussion ensued. After a while Paul told me, “Just ask these guys one question: Have you been involved in conflict resolution with OBC? And the answer is: Yes”. After some more talk the men finally agreed to give me a statement. They said they had been involved in conflict resolution with OBC and that all problems were solved. The villages that accepted had formed a committee and there were 20 people in this committee discussing pastoralist issues. All harassment had stopped and there was no longer any disturbance of grazing and watering. OBC was planning to build an office and a dispensary for Kirtalo, and the whole community had accepted OBC.
The chairman of Kirtalo had earlier provided Paul with information about the conflict with OBC, but now this group of men had been arguing that Paul was only writing about OBC because he got money from white people who were useless and had never helped against OBC. They said it was better to stick with this strong guy - the Arab. I was just collecting opinions, but in this case we should have got into a discussion about how “the Arab” will protect people form the “wildlife corridor” when OBC paid for the Land Use Planning that came up with the idea. OBC had organized a “reconciliation ceremony” in Kirtalo, slaughtering bulls and bringing crates of beer.
A few days later at the market in Soitsambu we met Efrem Kaura, a teacher from Ololosokwan. This teacher said people were back and leading the same life as before the 2009 evictions in the area that the government wants to turn into a “wildlife corridor” or Game Controlled Area according to the Wildlife Conservation Act of 2009 - but they fear what could happen. This man was in the conflict resolution committee, but told OBC they did not agree with the company. If they want conflict resolution they should remain as hunters and not wanting to turn into a Game Controlled Area. He said it would be better if another company with respect for human rights came. The problems with OBC during the years had been disturbance of grazing and harassment. The company had the support of Abdulraham Kinana (former Minister for Defence and National Service) and of the government, but the community did not want them. The teacher said he wanted the government to announce that the land belongs to the Maasai of the area that depend on livestock.
For years &Beyond’s Klein’s Camp has been put forward as an example of ecotourism benefiting communities and respecting land rights. In spite of this, in July 2011 the village of Ololosokwan filed a court case against the company. We asked Klein’s assistant manager Tawanda Munengiwa about it and he said he was shocked that the village had filed a court case. He vehemently denied any interest in becoming landowners. The company made a leasing deal with the village 14 years ago and nothing had changed. They pay land fees into the village’s account and since four year they pay bed fees to the Wildlife Division that pay the village 40 percent. Earlier they paid also the bed fees directly to the village. Apart from this the company has made important donations to Ololosokwan Primary School and is paying for the doctor at the local clinic. Tawanda wanted to reserve his comment about OBC, but said that the company is well connected politically. &Beyond want to keep good relations with everyone, but “there are challenges”. He said that Unique Safaris [like OBC] want to operate on Klein’s concession and that &Beyond had been told not to stop them. They had not made a deal with Unique since they are just leasing the land and can’t make a deal, but the Wildlife Division do not respect this. He said it would be great if the village can stop it, but that they don’t want to take sides and are waiting to see if the land will be Game Controlled Area [in Wildlife Conservation Act of 2009] or village land. Tawanda explained that there had been a misunderstanding regarding &Beyond applying for a TIC (Tanzania Investment Centre) certificate in which the company registered the location where their activities were going to take place, but this had nothing to do with landownership or the village. I had not got enough information about this issue before meeting Tawanda.
What I’ve been able to find out about the necessity of the court case against &Beyond is that there should be no ambiguity over who owns the land when the leasing contract is up for renewal in 2014. Some say the letter about the title deed and the corridor plans are more urgent issues and this court case could have waited, while others say that the land leased by &Beyond must be sorted well in time before the re-negotiation of the contract, since there’s a serious issue with the title deed being in the name of Tanzania Cattle Products that sold the land to &Beyond that handed it back to the village and got a lease agreement after president Mkapa spoke up publicly against the deal with Tanzania Cattle Products. The Ololosokwan people that I have talked with say that the court case was not at all a shock for &Beyond that were informed from the beginning that this was necessary. The villagers do not want to lease out such a big piece of land (a huge 24,700 acres) in the future, but &Beyond want this arrangement to continue, so there is a conflict. There is also a disagreement about if the lease agreement allows grazing on the land or not, with the manager of Klein’s arguing against any livestock at all on the concession while the villagers claim the agreement is to just avoid the area closest to the lodge. The fact that &Beyond have several times stated that they are not interested in ownership of land makes it possible to think of renewal of the contract when the time is up. There is however a big worry that &Beyond, like most tour operators, would prefer not to deal with Maasai landlords and the handling of the TIC certificate does not inspire trust. Ward Councillor Yannick Ndoinyo told me, “We will negotiate the new lease agreement based on our current needs and our priority is to maximize benefits from this venture: grazing, fees, employment, etc. Land ownership is not a factor to negotiate.”
We also made a visit, as interested tourists, to Unique Safaris’ Buffalo Luxury Camp. There’s almost no information at all about this camp, but it appears to be a nasty little case of a tourism operator wanting to be the owner of Maasai land. The manager showed us around the luxurious tents and the shop with pictures of the local women craftsmakers. There was livestock everywhere and calves hanging around in the bar area. In Swahili the manager explained that the government was going to help them get rid of the livestock. After this visit I’ve got a bit more of the picture. Safaris East Africa were given 148 acres in the 1980s – I don’t know why or how – but took 697. The village took the case to court and two brothers – Ally and Husseini – appeared claiming to represent their father Jubilate Munis whom the land had been given to. In 2007 they were chased away, but the ward councillor at the time fought hard to ensure the brothers would get the 148 acres claiming that they were his friends and that’s how the issue was resolved. Ally is reportedly married to one of the daughters of ex-president Mwinyi. Now they conduct their game drives on the land leased to &Beyond with the illegal permission by the government. For construction they collected gravel, sand and stones from the village, which they still haven’t paid for and they have a water pipe on village land without permission. Even worse, they have been known to charge fines from any person with cows crossing into their land. On their Buffalo Luxury Camp website Unique Safaris express support for the “wildlife corridor” even though they get all the terminology wrong.
While on our way to Soitsambu we were driving behind a Frankfurt Zoological Society vehicle with Thomson’s “Enashiva” manager, Daniel Yamat, at the wheel. He had resigned and was now working for FZS. The reason that people have heard for this is that he didn’t get enough appreciation (money) from Thomson. Though it sounds strange that the company would not make an effort to keep such a person happy after all the dirty work that he has done.
Paul had to return to Arusha and he did not think it was a good idea for me to stay on my own, but I could not leave. Unfortunately most of my last days in Loliondo, which were spent in Wasso, were a complete waste of time since I was too careful to even contact people that I had communicated with via email. I waited and waited for opportunities that then did not materialize. I did have a frightening episode hiding in the hotel room when the District Commissioner was around to open an Oxfam steering meeting. Though later I was told that he just opened the meeting shouting for 45 minutes about Oxfam being a political organisation and basically the same thing as the opposition party Chadema – and then he left. At least I did manage to visit Orkiu.
A partnership between Orkiu and Thomson Safaris was sought by the Enguserosambu Ward Councillor, Kaigil Mashati, via a letter sent in September 2010 that I would be very surprised if it wasn’t dictated by the District Commissioner or even by Thomson themselves. Since I met Mashati in early 2010 and know that he was very much aware of Thomson’s activities, this has for me meant an unpleasantly close look at the anatomy of corruption. First the councillor was arguing that he was just looking for help from an American organisation for Orkiu Primary School and that the organisation happened to work with Thomson, but then Thomson published the letter where he blatantly lies about a village council meeting and is clearly seeking a “partnership” with the landgrabbers. And of course, it’s extremely unlikely that Mashati didn’t know that Focus on Tanzanian Communities (FoTZC) is Thomson’s own “philanthropic” and propaganda branch.
FoTZC used to be called Friends of Tanzanian Schools, but after establishing a private nature refuge on Maasai grazing land there was a name change and a focus on “empowering women”. Initially, and maybe still, Thomson was arguing that all their problems were because of the founder and coordinator of Pastoral Women’s Council, Maanda Ngoitiko, who besides that her work is to protect pastoralists’ land rights, was born next to the disputed land. In fact, the reason I got caught in this land conflict was a comment on a travel forum by a business associate of Thomson saying that the cause of the conflict was a “Kenyan Maasai woman telling people to squat on the land”. This was long before I knew anything about Maanda or about Tanzanian authorities’ unpalatable habit of accusing “troublemakers” of being from the nearest neighbouring country, but I sensed the spirit of Thomson Safaris. I suppose they have picked up many other convenient stories at the DC’s office. Sadly I’m left wondering how active Maanda is in this fight at the moment. (edit 16/1: Maanda’s silence probably was because she was involved in trying to negotiate a resolution with Thomson through lawyers in the US, but this failed since Thomson were not serious about negotiating.)
An email from a FoTZC board member to the councillor is being circulated. I suppose it was shared by Mashati himself since it says that he shouldn’t worry and that FoTZC isn’t Judi’s organisation [Judi Wineland co-owner of Thomson Safaris]. It also says that the board member, as requested, has talked with the Regional Commissioner about “politics in Loliondo”. Mashati was interested in becoming council chairman, but he did not succeed even with the help of Thomson.
Mashati was almost a bigger threat than the DC himself since he would probably recognise me and had reportedly developed the habit of running to the DC for anything.
After a slightly hair-raising trip by motorcycle taxi up into the hills next to Loliondo Town I met Robert Kamakia from Ngonet who had finally agreed to accompany me. We went for a walk through the hilly forests of Orkiu that were quite lush even at the height of the dry season. Our destination was an orpul - a meat eating camp. A meat-eater at the orpul had some things to say about Thomson. Orkiu is generally thought of as right next to Loliondo Town, but the land of this new village is quite big and this man was living near the “Enashiva Nature Refuge” that had moved closer, to a hill near his home, and was a serious problem since he needed to take his animals there even though Thomson do not allow it and chase away livestock. He didn’t like the so-called “partnership” brought by Mashati and thought of it as cheating a baby with a sweet. This man wanted people to know that it’s not Thomson’s land. It belongs to the community.
We went on another rather long walk over high plains peppered with big holes while discussing who should be hiding in them, until almost reaching the place where Mashati lives. There we met a man who told us that unfortunately, the councillor was working together with the sub-village chairman and that the “Enashiva” vehicle had been outside Mashati’s home the whole day. This man mentioned how Thomson, through the District Council, had funded a teachers’ house at the primary school and then showed up at a handing over ceremony. The company wants the villagers to form some kind of organisation. I have not quite understood this, but it has to do with that they want to conduct tourist activities in Enguserosambu forest, where they with Mashati’s permission had already taken some guests. Thomson have donated fuel saving stoves to Mashati and to two influential women, and they want more women to buy this kind of stove at a reduced price. Though, apart for being too expensive, the man in Orkiu said the stoves are useless for Maasai houses where a stove serves the three purposes of light, cooking and heating while you can only cook with these stoves. Later I was told that women had been taken to Arusha to collect stoves and solar panels, but that the solar panels did not work.
It got dark and we went for a long night time walk down to Loliondo Town meeting small groups of inebriated old men on the way home from town.
I had to return to Arusha and the first six hours of the ten-hour bus trip were spent in a cloud of dust, and then I had to pay 50 dollars to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority.
In Arusha a delegation from Ololosokwan had gathered to travel to Dar es Salaam to protest the letter they had got.
I don’t know what to do except to ask those reading this blog to please not travel with operators like Thomson Safaris that participate in the Tanzanian government’s war against pastoralists.
Susanna Nordlund
sannasus@hotmail.com
Unfortunately I’ve had to leave out some possibly important developments from this report since almost everyone in Loliondo is too busy to fact check or share information and I have already waited far too long to publish this blog post. One worrying development is reports about a secret meeting between OBC, government and sadly also ward councillors to come up with a strategy to move people from the “corridor” “without force”.
Sunday, 15 January 2012
Monday, 11 July 2011
The Corridor
Maasai pastoralists in Loliondo are under the threat of having a massive 1,500-km2 piece of dry season grazing land taken away from them by the Tanzanian government. This will have a decidedly negative impact on their livelihoods and has to be stopped.
I’ve been trying to find out the background, and this is a summary of what I’ve found so far. I may have to make some amendments if I receive information that I’ve been waiting for a bit too long now.
Loliondo Game Controlled Area covers all of Loliondo and Sale Divisions of Ngorongoro District. The GCA was established in colonial times and regulates hunting while it has no influence at all on other land uses. It overlaps completely with Village Lands and the same happens in many other places in Tanzania. Though with the Wildlife Conservation Act of 2009 that came into force in June 2010 this has radically changed. With the new Act both agriculture and grazing are prohibited in GCAs making them into practically the same thing as Game Reserves. It is now illegal for village land and GCAs to overlap and according to the new Wildlife Conservation Act the minister for Natural Resources and Tourism has to “ensure that no land falling under the village land is included in the game controlled areas,” and to do this within one year of the Act coming into force.
This should have been the moment of scrapping Loliondo Game Controlled Area, but instead the government decides to once again attack Ngorongoro people, this time with a Land Use Plan that for the pastoralists basically extends Serengeti National Park with 1,500 km2 of dry season grazing land that at the same time happens to be the core hunting area of the company Otterlo Business Corporation Limited (OBC) from the United Arab Emirates.
The whole of Loliondo Game Controlled Area is also a hunting block, which is a concession leased out for tourism hunting. In 1992 this lease was granted to OBC by the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, or more exactly it was granted to Brigadier Mohammed Abdulrahim Al-Ali from the UAE who then went on to register the company since hunting concessions are granted to companies and not to individuals. The concession was granted for 10 years instead of the 5 year prescribed by the law, the Tanzania Wildlife Corporation – TAWICO, the organization that had been coordinating the tourist hunting business in Tanzania - had already got the concession for five years, from 1991 to 1996 – and the whole deal was done above the heads of Loliondo villagers. Brigadier Al-Ali got an agreement with the Ngorongoro District Council for “wildlife conservation, management and rural development” of Loliondo GCA. The MP for Ngorongoro the late Richard Koillah, DC Lt. Leban Makunenge, and other government officials failed at tricking the villagers into signing the agreement - so they just signed it themselves.
The DC signed for the Central Government, the District Executive Director signed for the District Council and The MP signed for the villages Ololosokwan, Soitsambu, Oloipiri, Oloirien-Magaiduru, Loosoito-Maaloni and Arash.
Even the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism admitted that there had been “excesses” – like taking live animals to fly them out of the country - during a hunt by the Brigadier (Deputy Minister for Defence) and the Minister for Defence of UAE, Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum (current Ruler of Dubai and Prime Minister and Vice President of UAE), shortly before taking possession of the hunting block.
The press, especially the journalist Stan Matabalo who received death threats and sadly passed away under disputed circumstances on 26 September 1993, soon caught up on what was happening and the allocation of the Loliondo hunting block turned into a national scandal under the name Loliondogate. The first MP for Ngorongoro, Moringe Parkipuny, contributed much of the information and survived an assassination attempt close to Loliondo Police Station in 1993. The reasons for the scandal was that the people whose land it was had not been consulted, especially since the villages had recently even been given title deeds; the strange way of allocating the block; the reported hunting excesses, and the fact that the Brigadier was a personal friend of president Ali Hassan Mwinyi.
In April 1993 the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism was removed from his ministry, but president Mwinyi and OBC stayed on.
In 1995 Benjamin Mkapa came into office as President of Tanzania appointing a presidential commission of enquiry into corruption in the country. In 1996 the Warioba Report named OBC as one of the most corrupt companies in Tanzania.
The Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Dr. Juma Ngasongwa resigned, but OBC stayed.
In April 2000 a 13-men delegation led by Sandet ole Reya was sent to Dar es Salaam to take their protest against OBC directly to president Mkapa. They did not manage to meet the president, but the minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Zakia Mweghji went to Loliondo and called a press conference saying that the Maasai’s accusations of OBC plundering natural resources were unfounded.
Some of the allegations against OBC were: using fire to re-direct herd movements, baiting, hunting from vehicles, using automatic guns and flying out live animals
During the years local pastoralists have clashed with OBC when the company has had complaints over their land use, like too many cattle in the wrong area – while the police work for the hunting company and even have a post close to the OBC camp. Many have felt humiliated by a foreign company acting as the owners of the land. There have been incidents of violence and permanent buildings have been constructed in Soitsambu without any agreement or lease from the village. OBC have also built an airstrip without any village permission.
Photographic operators that have lease agreements with the villages sometimes come into conflict with OBC. Initially in the early 90s these agreements were strongly supported by the Wildlife Division, but since OBC came into the picture the rhetoric has more and more been to call these agreements illegal. The operator that is most often described as in conflict with OBC is &Beyond with its Klein’s Camp in Ololosokwan. Unlike OBC it’s not imposed by the government as part of the never-ending agenda of alienating prime wildlife real estate from pastoralists. Though recent information suggests that &Beyond could be leaving its good behaviour. I hope this is solved and that the company will not copy some of its tourism colleagues in Loliondo.
OBC’s current executive manager and the last Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism have both complained about an anti-Arab component in the opposition to OBC, but it should be noted that the government is also working together with other companies, like the very American Thomson Safaris that claim ownership of 12,617 acres in Loliondo Division. In early 2010 I, as a tourist, asked some questions about this private nature refuge and was thrown out of the country. I’ve written about this here. http://termitemoundview.blogspot.com/2010/03/sukenya-farm-conflict-what-thomson.html
OBC have been working on making friends as well - with success in some cases. They have built primary schools, a secondary school, renovated water systems and built a dispensary. The dispensary was a strategic move to help a friendly politician. The OBC executive manager since 2007 – Isaack Mollel - has appeared widely in the press and even in a “documentary” on state television. He has declared annual payments to the central government of US$560,000, to Ngorongoro District Council of US$109,000, and to the villages of US$150,000. OBC have also provided scholarships, like for the son of the late MP Richard Koillah’s education in India.
In articles praising OBC – including in a 12-page OBC advertisement in Mtanzania from May 2010 - the three new wards and guesthouse at Wasso District Designated Hospital are mentioned as built by OBC, but these were actually undertakings by the UAE ambassador to Tanzania and a donation from the UAE. Maybe it’s seen as the same thing.
In 2005 Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete came into office as President of Tanzania. It was soon clear that the rights of pastoralists were not high on his agenda. All over the country environmental protection, especially the protection of watersheds, was used to justify human rights abuses against pastoralists.
In the afternoon of 8 august 2007 Molonget Konerei and some other herders were out looking for lost sheep. At sundown they were passing OBC’s yard in Soitsambu when behind them came one or more vehicles. The herders ran off in panic in different directions and when they got home they discovered that Konorei was missing. They returned to the site where they found a puddle of blood at the roadside. Koronoi’s dead body was at Wasso Hospital. Local authorities concluded that it was an ordinary road accident. OBC staff said they had been out pursuing poachers when they hit Konerei killing him instantly. Some of the herders said they had heard gunshots, and Konorei’s family wanted a new post mortem.
In 2009 Loliondo suffered one of the worst droughts in recent history. High concentrations of cattle were gathering in the dry season grazing area next to the National Park. This is what is supposed to happen under such conditions. This area is also the core hunting area of OBC and their July hunting was drawing closer. In May the villages had received letters ordering them to vacate the area. This order had come after a commission sent by the Regional Commissioner, Isidori Shirima, together with the Ngorongoro Security Committee had found a strategy of how to end the “invasion” problem of OBC’s hunting block.
In May and June the Tanzanian press reported how OBC had donated 100 tonnes of grain to the residents of Ngorongoro District and how they were assisting in anti-poaching operations.
On 4 July 2009 Tanzania’s special police force - the Field Force Unit – in an operation managed by Regional and District authorities and using OBC vehicles, began evicting people and livestock from OBC’s core hunting area, starting on village land belonging to Soitsambu and moving south over the days ending in Piyaya and Malambo in Sale Division. At least 150 bomas were burnt to the ground, including grain stores and even some young livestock that were burnt to death. Some 60,000 heads of cattle were pushed into an extreme drought area and calves were left behind in the stampede. This significantly worsened the alarming rates of cattle deaths of this drought. Many cases of beatings, humiliations and sexual assault have been reported. Several children were lost in the chaos and terror and one of them – 7-year-old Nashipai Gume from Arash – has not been found.
Judging from published pictures Muhammed bin Rashid al Maktoum of Dubai and crown prince Hamdan bin Mohammed al Maktoum enjoyed their 2009 Loliondo hunting trip.
In parliament the MP for Ngorongoro, Kaika Telele, demanded explanations on the evictions. The Prime Minister denied any knowledge and the next day the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Shamsa Mwangunga, replied that the Regional Commissioner told her that the pastoralists moved out voluntary after consultation and that they themselves decided to set blaze to their homes. She also informed the parliament that she on a visit to Loliondo had found that there was no conflict between the OBC and the pastoralists - and she went on to listing the many development projects that the company was involved in.
In the press, the evictions were called “Operation Save Loliondo”. The District Commissioner for Ngorongoro, Elias Wawa Lali explained how the operation had been necessary to save the environment of the wildlife corridor from destruction by the Maasai pastoralists, that the Field Force Unit had been forced to burn down houses of people that for months refused to heed warnings, but that there had been no human rights abuses, which were lies made up by NGOs. No evidence of this destruction that would have included cutting down trees and putting water catchments, especially for the Grumeti River, in danger has been presented.
Residents of Loliondo marched to Dar es Salaam demanding to see the president who was attending other issues. In Arusha three very Tanzanian women from Loliondo, including a CCM councillor, were suspected of being Kenyan and interrogated by Immigration Officers.
On 14 September 2009 the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism issued a press release stating that Maasai from Kenya started invading the hunting block in March. The eviction of pastoralists was meant to protect the wildlife and tourism hunting business. She denied human rights violations and blamed the conflict on business rivalry.
On 28 September Ngodidio Roitiken lost his eye when he was hit by a tear gas canister in a clash between herders and the police at Mambarashani in Soitsambu. Ngodidio has been charged with “trespassing, environmental destruction and threatening the police”. In this case the Republic is the complainant and as far as I know the police action has not been investigated.
In November the MP for Ngorongoro through a private statement sought explanations to 14 points concerning the evictions, human rights abuses and the OBC situation in general. The Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism provided the usual “explanations” that had been found by a ministerial commission of enquiry. The MP for Simanjiro spoke up against the many lies in the “explanations” and eventually it was decided that a Standing Committee on Land, Natural Resources and Environment chaired the MP for Kongwa, Job Ndugai would investigate the conflict and report back in February 2010.
On 23 November 2009, Isaack Mollel, the executive director of OBC, is quoted in the newspaper Habari Leo saying that the company has donated TSh.156 million to Arusha Region for land use planning in Loliondo Game Controlled Area.
In December 2009 the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism appointed the Board of Conservators for Ngorongoro Conservation Area. The MP for Ngorongoro is usually on this board, but this time he was left out. Instead the MP for Kongwa, Job Ndugai was appointed.
The tabling of the Ndugai Report was scheduled for 9 February 2010. On the 8th the legislators from the ruling CCM party met in Dodoma. Job Ndugai dismissed all 14 complaints raised buy the Ngorongoro MP as baseless. Telele protested and demanded that the report be tabled in parliament the next day, the MP for Longido walked out of the meeting in protest and the MP for Kiteto who had been instrumental in the demarcation of the villages in 1990 asserted that the land was village land. The Prime Minister vowed that under no circumstances would the Ndugai report be read in the National Assembly.
Apart from the usual talk about Kenyans, environmental destruction, evil NGOs and jealous tour operators, I’ve been told that the Ndugai report recommended the closing down of Klein’s airstrip and the removal of &Beyond’s TALA licence.
In April 2010 there were mass protests by women in Loliondo turning in or burning their CCM cards. Their demands were to have the Ndugai report tabled in parliament and for the government to stop any plans for cutting away village land to create a wildlife corridor next to Serengeti National Park. Following this event three CSO representatives were detained for 45 hours, the government claiming that they must have organized the women.
There were indications that there would be consultations with village governments and civil society organisations – but on 22 May 2010 massive national, regional and district government representation cracked down on Loliondo with John Chiligati, the at that time Minister for Lands, Housing and Settlement Development as the principal speaker, and senior officials for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism attending. It was an extreme top-down meeting where questions were aggressively evaded. The impending boundary demarcation and land use planning were announced, including the need for making a wildlife corridor of OBC’s core hunting area.
On 31 October 2010 Jakaya Kikwete was re-elected as President of the United Republic of Tanzania.
In December 2010 a constitutional suit was filed in the High Court of Tanzania by several CSOs – LHRC, PINGOs, Ngonet and UCRT - against the Government to petition the July 2009 evictions. The defendants are the Attorney General, the Ngorongoro District Commissioner – Elias Wawa Lali, the District Police Commander- Liston Mponjoli, the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism – Shamsa Mwangunga - and the managing director of Otterlo Business Corporation Ltd – Isaack Mollel.
The new Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism. Ezekiel Maige, was determined to solve the Loliondo land conflicts. Upon his visit to Loliondo towards the end of 2010, unlike his predecessor, he admitted that there was no environmental destruction in the “core hunting area” and he formed a committee led by the District Commissioner and as members the seven councillors from the wards bordering Serengeti National Park plus the District Natural Resources Officer and the District Community Development Officer. The ward councillors had made it clear that the dry season grazing could not be lost to a “wildlife corridor”. The executive manager of OBC for the first time met the councillors assuring them that it was the government and not the company that wanted a wildlife corridor.
Some people came forward with the compromise idea of forming a Wildlife Management Area of the proposed “corridor”. WMAs were introduced as a form of wildlife conservation that local people would control and benefit from, but because of the form of the current regulations in practise WMAs are just another form of loss of land and natural resources, and a proposed WMA in Loliondo has earlier been rejected.
In February 2011 a Land Use Plan prepared by “experts” without any involvement by Loliondo villagers was released. A 1,500 km2 Game Controlled Area as in Wildlife Conservation Act of 2009 was on the map cut away from village land bordering Serengeti National Park, the land that is also known as OBC’s core hunting area. This is a frontal attack on Loliondo pastoralists and will lead to increased poverty and conflict. Showing seriousness and unity all ward councillors spoke out clearly against this in press conferences. Though I’m no longer sure of this unity since later some of them, more exactly the Council Chairman, have heaped praises on OBC in interviews.
The latest I’ve heard is that OBC is “lobbying” village leaders and offering meat eating “reconciliation” ceremonies with Loliondo communities.
Susanna Nordlund
sannasus@hotmail.com
My information for this blog post comes from an unpublished report by a dear friend, the TNRF website, online articles, personal email comments from various people in the know and in Loliondo, and a discussion with an OBC friend.
I’ve been trying to find out the background, and this is a summary of what I’ve found so far. I may have to make some amendments if I receive information that I’ve been waiting for a bit too long now.
Loliondo Game Controlled Area covers all of Loliondo and Sale Divisions of Ngorongoro District. The GCA was established in colonial times and regulates hunting while it has no influence at all on other land uses. It overlaps completely with Village Lands and the same happens in many other places in Tanzania. Though with the Wildlife Conservation Act of 2009 that came into force in June 2010 this has radically changed. With the new Act both agriculture and grazing are prohibited in GCAs making them into practically the same thing as Game Reserves. It is now illegal for village land and GCAs to overlap and according to the new Wildlife Conservation Act the minister for Natural Resources and Tourism has to “ensure that no land falling under the village land is included in the game controlled areas,” and to do this within one year of the Act coming into force.
This should have been the moment of scrapping Loliondo Game Controlled Area, but instead the government decides to once again attack Ngorongoro people, this time with a Land Use Plan that for the pastoralists basically extends Serengeti National Park with 1,500 km2 of dry season grazing land that at the same time happens to be the core hunting area of the company Otterlo Business Corporation Limited (OBC) from the United Arab Emirates.
The whole of Loliondo Game Controlled Area is also a hunting block, which is a concession leased out for tourism hunting. In 1992 this lease was granted to OBC by the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, or more exactly it was granted to Brigadier Mohammed Abdulrahim Al-Ali from the UAE who then went on to register the company since hunting concessions are granted to companies and not to individuals. The concession was granted for 10 years instead of the 5 year prescribed by the law, the Tanzania Wildlife Corporation – TAWICO, the organization that had been coordinating the tourist hunting business in Tanzania - had already got the concession for five years, from 1991 to 1996 – and the whole deal was done above the heads of Loliondo villagers. Brigadier Al-Ali got an agreement with the Ngorongoro District Council for “wildlife conservation, management and rural development” of Loliondo GCA. The MP for Ngorongoro the late Richard Koillah, DC Lt. Leban Makunenge, and other government officials failed at tricking the villagers into signing the agreement - so they just signed it themselves.
The DC signed for the Central Government, the District Executive Director signed for the District Council and The MP signed for the villages Ololosokwan, Soitsambu, Oloipiri, Oloirien-Magaiduru, Loosoito-Maaloni and Arash.
Even the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism admitted that there had been “excesses” – like taking live animals to fly them out of the country - during a hunt by the Brigadier (Deputy Minister for Defence) and the Minister for Defence of UAE, Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum (current Ruler of Dubai and Prime Minister and Vice President of UAE), shortly before taking possession of the hunting block.
The press, especially the journalist Stan Matabalo who received death threats and sadly passed away under disputed circumstances on 26 September 1993, soon caught up on what was happening and the allocation of the Loliondo hunting block turned into a national scandal under the name Loliondogate. The first MP for Ngorongoro, Moringe Parkipuny, contributed much of the information and survived an assassination attempt close to Loliondo Police Station in 1993. The reasons for the scandal was that the people whose land it was had not been consulted, especially since the villages had recently even been given title deeds; the strange way of allocating the block; the reported hunting excesses, and the fact that the Brigadier was a personal friend of president Ali Hassan Mwinyi.
In April 1993 the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism was removed from his ministry, but president Mwinyi and OBC stayed on.
In 1995 Benjamin Mkapa came into office as President of Tanzania appointing a presidential commission of enquiry into corruption in the country. In 1996 the Warioba Report named OBC as one of the most corrupt companies in Tanzania.
The Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Dr. Juma Ngasongwa resigned, but OBC stayed.
In April 2000 a 13-men delegation led by Sandet ole Reya was sent to Dar es Salaam to take their protest against OBC directly to president Mkapa. They did not manage to meet the president, but the minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Zakia Mweghji went to Loliondo and called a press conference saying that the Maasai’s accusations of OBC plundering natural resources were unfounded.
Some of the allegations against OBC were: using fire to re-direct herd movements, baiting, hunting from vehicles, using automatic guns and flying out live animals
During the years local pastoralists have clashed with OBC when the company has had complaints over their land use, like too many cattle in the wrong area – while the police work for the hunting company and even have a post close to the OBC camp. Many have felt humiliated by a foreign company acting as the owners of the land. There have been incidents of violence and permanent buildings have been constructed in Soitsambu without any agreement or lease from the village. OBC have also built an airstrip without any village permission.
Photographic operators that have lease agreements with the villages sometimes come into conflict with OBC. Initially in the early 90s these agreements were strongly supported by the Wildlife Division, but since OBC came into the picture the rhetoric has more and more been to call these agreements illegal. The operator that is most often described as in conflict with OBC is &Beyond with its Klein’s Camp in Ololosokwan. Unlike OBC it’s not imposed by the government as part of the never-ending agenda of alienating prime wildlife real estate from pastoralists. Though recent information suggests that &Beyond could be leaving its good behaviour. I hope this is solved and that the company will not copy some of its tourism colleagues in Loliondo.
OBC’s current executive manager and the last Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism have both complained about an anti-Arab component in the opposition to OBC, but it should be noted that the government is also working together with other companies, like the very American Thomson Safaris that claim ownership of 12,617 acres in Loliondo Division. In early 2010 I, as a tourist, asked some questions about this private nature refuge and was thrown out of the country. I’ve written about this here. http://termitemoundview.blogspot.com/2010/03/sukenya-farm-conflict-what-thomson.html
OBC have been working on making friends as well - with success in some cases. They have built primary schools, a secondary school, renovated water systems and built a dispensary. The dispensary was a strategic move to help a friendly politician. The OBC executive manager since 2007 – Isaack Mollel - has appeared widely in the press and even in a “documentary” on state television. He has declared annual payments to the central government of US$560,000, to Ngorongoro District Council of US$109,000, and to the villages of US$150,000. OBC have also provided scholarships, like for the son of the late MP Richard Koillah’s education in India.
In articles praising OBC – including in a 12-page OBC advertisement in Mtanzania from May 2010 - the three new wards and guesthouse at Wasso District Designated Hospital are mentioned as built by OBC, but these were actually undertakings by the UAE ambassador to Tanzania and a donation from the UAE. Maybe it’s seen as the same thing.
In 2005 Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete came into office as President of Tanzania. It was soon clear that the rights of pastoralists were not high on his agenda. All over the country environmental protection, especially the protection of watersheds, was used to justify human rights abuses against pastoralists.
In the afternoon of 8 august 2007 Molonget Konerei and some other herders were out looking for lost sheep. At sundown they were passing OBC’s yard in Soitsambu when behind them came one or more vehicles. The herders ran off in panic in different directions and when they got home they discovered that Konorei was missing. They returned to the site where they found a puddle of blood at the roadside. Koronoi’s dead body was at Wasso Hospital. Local authorities concluded that it was an ordinary road accident. OBC staff said they had been out pursuing poachers when they hit Konerei killing him instantly. Some of the herders said they had heard gunshots, and Konorei’s family wanted a new post mortem.
In 2009 Loliondo suffered one of the worst droughts in recent history. High concentrations of cattle were gathering in the dry season grazing area next to the National Park. This is what is supposed to happen under such conditions. This area is also the core hunting area of OBC and their July hunting was drawing closer. In May the villages had received letters ordering them to vacate the area. This order had come after a commission sent by the Regional Commissioner, Isidori Shirima, together with the Ngorongoro Security Committee had found a strategy of how to end the “invasion” problem of OBC’s hunting block.
In May and June the Tanzanian press reported how OBC had donated 100 tonnes of grain to the residents of Ngorongoro District and how they were assisting in anti-poaching operations.
On 4 July 2009 Tanzania’s special police force - the Field Force Unit – in an operation managed by Regional and District authorities and using OBC vehicles, began evicting people and livestock from OBC’s core hunting area, starting on village land belonging to Soitsambu and moving south over the days ending in Piyaya and Malambo in Sale Division. At least 150 bomas were burnt to the ground, including grain stores and even some young livestock that were burnt to death. Some 60,000 heads of cattle were pushed into an extreme drought area and calves were left behind in the stampede. This significantly worsened the alarming rates of cattle deaths of this drought. Many cases of beatings, humiliations and sexual assault have been reported. Several children were lost in the chaos and terror and one of them – 7-year-old Nashipai Gume from Arash – has not been found.
Judging from published pictures Muhammed bin Rashid al Maktoum of Dubai and crown prince Hamdan bin Mohammed al Maktoum enjoyed their 2009 Loliondo hunting trip.
In parliament the MP for Ngorongoro, Kaika Telele, demanded explanations on the evictions. The Prime Minister denied any knowledge and the next day the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Shamsa Mwangunga, replied that the Regional Commissioner told her that the pastoralists moved out voluntary after consultation and that they themselves decided to set blaze to their homes. She also informed the parliament that she on a visit to Loliondo had found that there was no conflict between the OBC and the pastoralists - and she went on to listing the many development projects that the company was involved in.
In the press, the evictions were called “Operation Save Loliondo”. The District Commissioner for Ngorongoro, Elias Wawa Lali explained how the operation had been necessary to save the environment of the wildlife corridor from destruction by the Maasai pastoralists, that the Field Force Unit had been forced to burn down houses of people that for months refused to heed warnings, but that there had been no human rights abuses, which were lies made up by NGOs. No evidence of this destruction that would have included cutting down trees and putting water catchments, especially for the Grumeti River, in danger has been presented.
Residents of Loliondo marched to Dar es Salaam demanding to see the president who was attending other issues. In Arusha three very Tanzanian women from Loliondo, including a CCM councillor, were suspected of being Kenyan and interrogated by Immigration Officers.
On 14 September 2009 the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism issued a press release stating that Maasai from Kenya started invading the hunting block in March. The eviction of pastoralists was meant to protect the wildlife and tourism hunting business. She denied human rights violations and blamed the conflict on business rivalry.
On 28 September Ngodidio Roitiken lost his eye when he was hit by a tear gas canister in a clash between herders and the police at Mambarashani in Soitsambu. Ngodidio has been charged with “trespassing, environmental destruction and threatening the police”. In this case the Republic is the complainant and as far as I know the police action has not been investigated.
In November the MP for Ngorongoro through a private statement sought explanations to 14 points concerning the evictions, human rights abuses and the OBC situation in general. The Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism provided the usual “explanations” that had been found by a ministerial commission of enquiry. The MP for Simanjiro spoke up against the many lies in the “explanations” and eventually it was decided that a Standing Committee on Land, Natural Resources and Environment chaired the MP for Kongwa, Job Ndugai would investigate the conflict and report back in February 2010.
On 23 November 2009, Isaack Mollel, the executive director of OBC, is quoted in the newspaper Habari Leo saying that the company has donated TSh.156 million to Arusha Region for land use planning in Loliondo Game Controlled Area.
In December 2009 the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism appointed the Board of Conservators for Ngorongoro Conservation Area. The MP for Ngorongoro is usually on this board, but this time he was left out. Instead the MP for Kongwa, Job Ndugai was appointed.
The tabling of the Ndugai Report was scheduled for 9 February 2010. On the 8th the legislators from the ruling CCM party met in Dodoma. Job Ndugai dismissed all 14 complaints raised buy the Ngorongoro MP as baseless. Telele protested and demanded that the report be tabled in parliament the next day, the MP for Longido walked out of the meeting in protest and the MP for Kiteto who had been instrumental in the demarcation of the villages in 1990 asserted that the land was village land. The Prime Minister vowed that under no circumstances would the Ndugai report be read in the National Assembly.
Apart from the usual talk about Kenyans, environmental destruction, evil NGOs and jealous tour operators, I’ve been told that the Ndugai report recommended the closing down of Klein’s airstrip and the removal of &Beyond’s TALA licence.
In April 2010 there were mass protests by women in Loliondo turning in or burning their CCM cards. Their demands were to have the Ndugai report tabled in parliament and for the government to stop any plans for cutting away village land to create a wildlife corridor next to Serengeti National Park. Following this event three CSO representatives were detained for 45 hours, the government claiming that they must have organized the women.
There were indications that there would be consultations with village governments and civil society organisations – but on 22 May 2010 massive national, regional and district government representation cracked down on Loliondo with John Chiligati, the at that time Minister for Lands, Housing and Settlement Development as the principal speaker, and senior officials for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism attending. It was an extreme top-down meeting where questions were aggressively evaded. The impending boundary demarcation and land use planning were announced, including the need for making a wildlife corridor of OBC’s core hunting area.
On 31 October 2010 Jakaya Kikwete was re-elected as President of the United Republic of Tanzania.
In December 2010 a constitutional suit was filed in the High Court of Tanzania by several CSOs – LHRC, PINGOs, Ngonet and UCRT - against the Government to petition the July 2009 evictions. The defendants are the Attorney General, the Ngorongoro District Commissioner – Elias Wawa Lali, the District Police Commander- Liston Mponjoli, the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism – Shamsa Mwangunga - and the managing director of Otterlo Business Corporation Ltd – Isaack Mollel.
The new Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism. Ezekiel Maige, was determined to solve the Loliondo land conflicts. Upon his visit to Loliondo towards the end of 2010, unlike his predecessor, he admitted that there was no environmental destruction in the “core hunting area” and he formed a committee led by the District Commissioner and as members the seven councillors from the wards bordering Serengeti National Park plus the District Natural Resources Officer and the District Community Development Officer. The ward councillors had made it clear that the dry season grazing could not be lost to a “wildlife corridor”. The executive manager of OBC for the first time met the councillors assuring them that it was the government and not the company that wanted a wildlife corridor.
Some people came forward with the compromise idea of forming a Wildlife Management Area of the proposed “corridor”. WMAs were introduced as a form of wildlife conservation that local people would control and benefit from, but because of the form of the current regulations in practise WMAs are just another form of loss of land and natural resources, and a proposed WMA in Loliondo has earlier been rejected.
In February 2011 a Land Use Plan prepared by “experts” without any involvement by Loliondo villagers was released. A 1,500 km2 Game Controlled Area as in Wildlife Conservation Act of 2009 was on the map cut away from village land bordering Serengeti National Park, the land that is also known as OBC’s core hunting area. This is a frontal attack on Loliondo pastoralists and will lead to increased poverty and conflict. Showing seriousness and unity all ward councillors spoke out clearly against this in press conferences. Though I’m no longer sure of this unity since later some of them, more exactly the Council Chairman, have heaped praises on OBC in interviews.
The latest I’ve heard is that OBC is “lobbying” village leaders and offering meat eating “reconciliation” ceremonies with Loliondo communities.
Susanna Nordlund
sannasus@hotmail.com
My information for this blog post comes from an unpublished report by a dear friend, the TNRF website, online articles, personal email comments from various people in the know and in Loliondo, and a discussion with an OBC friend.
Update
September 2011
On 27
August the village
of Ololosokwan received a
letter from the District Council demanding that the title deed to the whole of the village land be
handed back before 27 September. Engaresero – where the government is looking
to establish a WMA and expand Ngorongoro Conservation Area - received the same
kind of letter.
(edit: the letters were sent on request by the Land Commissioner)
(edit: the letters were sent on request by the Land Commissioner)
Sunday, 6 February 2011
Some Updates on Thomson Safaris and Otterlo Business Corporation in Loliondo
Unfortunately I have not yet been able to return to Loliondo, but I think it’s time, one year after my visit, to write an update using the information that has reached me here in Sweden. For a – necessary - background of the issue at hand here’s my first blog post:
http://termitemoundview.blogspot.com/2010/03/sukenya-farm-conflict-what-thomson.html
The November 2010 issue of the magazine Condé Nast Traveler – associated by me, without any closer studies (like actually reading it), with luxury travel and embarrassing awards - published an article by Joshua Hammer called “Last Days of the Masai?” which deals with land conflicts in Ngorongoro District and particularly such threats to the Maasai pastoralists as are Otterlo Business Corporation Ltd, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority and even Thomson Safaris.
As always it’s frustrating that it doesn’t seem like a wide selection of people from around the disputed land that Thomson call their own “Enashiva Nature Refuge” were interviewed, but I suppose the reporter also talked to those who did not want to feature in the article. Even though many aspects are missing and I feel the article is a bit soft on the safari company claiming pastoralist land as its private nature refuge, I find it beautifully written and think it is being read despite its length. Here it is: http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler/articles/503114?pageNumber=1&all=yes
According to the article, what the owners of Thomson Safaris have to say about Lesingo ole Nanyoi, who was shot in the jaw during a confrontation between herders and Thomson guards together with the police in April 2008, is that he “wasn’t shot by a bullet and it didn’t happen on our property… The whole thing is a mystery”. Even the police and Thomson staff confirmed to reporters at the time that there was a clash and “shots in the air”. It is indeed a mystery that Lesingo would have got his injuries somewhere else at the same time. I met Lesingo in Wasso early 2010 and he is upset with Thomson Safaris making up lies about him without even having talked to him.
Thomson Safaris insist that they allow grazing in the dry season and that in 2009, “we helped them [the Maasai] save their cattle”. In 2009 there was a catastrophic drought and in early July even Thomson’s strong supporter, the highest government representative in Ngorongoro District, District Commissioner Elias Wawa Lali, is reported to have requested them to, as a temporary measure, allow the local pastoralists to graze their animals on the land to save them from starvation. I’ve been told that the only thing that happened was that Sukenya chairman and some other Laitayiok leaders could quietly graze their animals. At the time Thomson were saying that they were engaged in “discussions with community leaders about future sustainable grazing” and months later they started saying that they had allowed grazing during the drought. The irony of stealing people’s land and then charitably allowing selected individuals to use it in an emergency seems to sum up the spirit of Thomson Safaris.
The article presents Otterlo Business Corporation as an entirely different entity to Thomson Safaris, which it is. Though it’s a pity that the reporter, despite reported efforts, could not reach OBC for a comment – probably because they get their guests through personal networks and not through travel magazines – as he would have seen that the companies have a lot in common: not only are both Thomson Safaris and OBC imposed by the state on the Maasai pastoralists, but OBC have used classic colonial divide-and-rule tactics, befriending leaders of the Laitayiok section – tactics that have been copied by Thomson.
Both companies also see themselves as innocent victims of evil NGOs and jealous tour operators and are assisted by the Tanzanian Government with “investigations”. A report about the July 2009 evictions was supposed to be tabled in Parliament in February 2010, but was instead presented to the governing party caucus and 14 of 14 complaints from the MP for Ngorongoro were dismissed as baseless. Several MPs stood up to assert that the report was full of lies and the audience turned against the Government. The report was never presented in Parliament.
The chairman of Ololosokwan is reported in the article as having said that a boy disappeared in the chaos and shooting, but the child that never was found after the 2009 evictions was a girl – Nashipai Gume from Arash.
In April 2010 women in Loliondo turned in or burned their CCM (governing party) cards to protest the government taking their land for tourism and hunting. They demanded that the report into the 2009 evictions should be tabled in the national assembly, but this has still not happened. I wrote a blog post about the reports I got from the protests. http://termitemoundview.blogspot.com/2010/04/loliondo-women-say-enough-is-enough.html
There were indications that there would be consultations with village governments and civil society organisations – but on 22 May 2010 massive national, regional and district government representation cracked down on Loliondo with John Chiligati, the at that time minister for Lands, Housing and Settlement Development as the principal speaker, and senior officials for the ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism attending. The Regional Commissioner chaired the meeting and the District Commissioner with his District Team held a prominent place in the Ngorongoro District Council Conference Hall. Village chairpersons, councillors, and community based representatives got the meeting agenda upon arrival. Even the presence of the MP for Ngorongoro was toned down noticeably. The tone was aggressive and relevant questions were evaded. This was the official launch of the land alienation drive creating a “wildlife corridor” where OBC would be able to carry out their activities undisturbed and that with the incoming Wildlife Conservation Act could be upgraded to equal status with national parks.
A constitutional suit has now been filed in the High Court of Tanzania by several CSOs against the Government to petition the July 2009 evictions. The defendants are the Attorney General, the Ngorongoro District Commissioner – Elias Wawa Lali, the District Police Commander, the then Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism – Shamsa Mwangunga - and the managing director of Otterlo Business Corporation Ltd.
The new Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Ezekiel Maige, visited Ngorongoro District in late December 2010. He held meetings with the CCM District Political Committee and the District Security Committee (some not too agreeable guys that I have personally met). The minister also visited the proposed corridor area where he could observe that contrary to what has been said to justify the corridor there was no environmental destruction. Then he formed a committee led by the District Commissioner and as members the seven councillors from the wards bordering Serengeti National Park plus the District Natural Resources Officer and the District Community Development Officer. Some argue that the committee was ordered by the minister to mobilize the Maasai pastoralists to vacate the 1,500 square kilometres proposed for the corridor, while others said he left room to find a “solution” to the conflict.
In December there was also, for the first time, a meeting between OBC representatives and councillors. OBC made it clear that it’s the government and not they who are pushing for the corridor, since their guests prefer hunting in a wider area providing that the issues with “too much” livestock, permanent settlements and cultivation are tackled. In a meeting with the DC the councillors opposed the corridor and instead they decided to among the communities and CSOs seek alternative ideas that they could present to the Government. A Wildlife Management Area had earlier been rejected in Loliondo since it would give away too much power to the government, but was presented as an option provided that the current regulation would be changed. Other options were community wildlife ranches where grazing would still go on, or renting the land to the government while keeping the grazing. There are fears that the Government has already made the decision and that the committee is just a façade. What’s important is to make clear that the proposed corridor is village land and does in no way belong to OBC – and the constitutional case is ongoing. Government representatives will return in February.
The “investors” OBC and Thomson Safaris are essentially used as weapons by the Tanzanian Government in its campaign against pastoralist communities.
Thomson Safaris think there is a very organized NGO campaign against them. How I wish that were true. Fortunately the local NGOs whose job it is to protect the rights of the Maasai pastoralists must have been a little more organised than Thomson expected - having studied this case closely I wonder how many companies have got away with similar misdeeds with some intimidation and “philanthropy” - but coordination and information sharing between the defenders of pastoralists’ rights in Loliondo could definitely need some improvements.
If there is a vicious campaign it’s Thomson’s own, working hard to have their press releases published as news and the even more sinister cooperation with government representatives that Brian MacCormaic and Alex Renton can attest to.
I too experienced some of this cooperation when I, a year ago, asked Ward Executive Officer Amati in Soit Sambu - who works under the District Commissioner – about Thomson Safaris. The WEO would not leave my side until I had to return to Wasso. During the long wait when I was hoping for the WEO to go away so that I could talk to some other people he triumphantly held up his telephone showing those present the display saying “Thomson Manager”. When I finally had to leave to get my vehicle back a Thomson vehicle was parked right outside the restaurant next to my vehicle. It was loaded with mosquito nets from a government campaign against malaria. This, together with the fact that the WEO had phoned the DC who promised that I would be able to talk to him the following day in Soit Sambu, made me think I would just have to attend some kind of Thomson propaganda, but instead the DC sent the police to take me to the Ngorongoro Security Committee that confiscated my passport, and I had to go to Arusha where my presence in Tanzania was eventually declared undesirable.
&Beyond’s Klein’s Camp is painted in light colours in the Condé Nast article. It’s true that having a lease agreement with the village is a huge difference from being a state imposed “landowner” and &Beyond has suffered harassment from the government – the latest I’ve heard is the announcement of the closure of Klein’s airstrip - but how much have people in Ololosokwan really benefited? I don’t think they have AC and swimming pools in the bomas … I have not investigated this though.
Regarding Ngorongoro Conservation Area, in 1959 it was declared a multi land use area where conservation, wildlife, pastoralists and livestock should co-exist, and where people now are under the threat of being evicted – many have already been evicted - to save its World Heritage Site status using a UNESCO report as an excuse - it’s been reported that UNESCO in mid-2010 contacted the Government to do a re-nomination including the “Living Culture” since UNESCO had earlier only been asked to consider Natural Values. This happened after the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs had contacted UNESCO about the situation. The Government responded that the eviction exercise is stopped until further notice. Though there have not been any moves towards a re-nomination of the World Heritage Site. The ban on subsistence agriculture was enforced at the same time as the severe drought was killing livestock and the situation is serious. The plans of human rights organisations are to push the Government to commence the re-nomination and provide survival options to the community.
From what I’ve heard about the ongoing court case against Tanzania Conservation Ltd (Thomson Safaris), it seems like it keeps getting delayed. As I wrote in an earlier update, I’ve been told the arrests of “trespassers” have stopped after the case was initiated and the intimidation has been reduced. Towards the end of 2010 more herders ventured onto the disputed land to graze their animals against Thomson Safaris’ “rules”. Though there are still incidents with Thomson guards chasing livestock with Landrovers and I’ve been told that armed policemen are in the area when there are tourists on the disputed land. The young man, Matayo Mbario, who was interviewed in the Condé Nast article has had some problems. I’ve heard reports that he was picked up by Thomson’s manager and a policeman, and taken to Wasso. He was told never again to talk to foreign journalists, which he refused. Though the police, unlike the manager, was reasonable and he was let go after some severe warnings.
Thomson Safaris are having the absurd problem of making some of the poorest people in the world accept their money. Their charity/propaganda machine Focus on Tanzanian Communities, FoTZC, is hard at work pretending to be an independent entity and Tanzanian authorities of course diligently assist them. Lately the Division Secretary has been very active in putting pressure on Mondorosi Village (former Mondorosi Sub-Village since Soit Sambu is being split up). I’ve been told that Mondorosi village leaders have now, in spite of threats, refused money for their school three times in front of the Division Secretary.
Thomson have declared that a new village, Orkiu, that will now be bordering the disputed land – after Enguserosambu Village has been divided and Enguserosambu Ward formed - is seeking “partnership” with Tanzania Conservation Ltd accepting funding for their primary school. The school of this rather small village is at quite a distance from the disputed land and in fact much closer to Loliondo Town. The truly worrying aspect is that this “partnership” has been sought – through a letter written at the DC’s office - by a politician at district level who is very well aware of the arrests and the violence that Thomson have been involved in and who has earlier seemed seriously committed to land rights. People who have talked with the villagers themselves say that they in no way want any “partnership” with Thomson. I’ve received documented reports that Thomson Safaris have approached the Regional Commissioner about this politician who is interested in the District Council chairmanship. Though this did not work and he was not elected. The pressure by Thomson Safaris and the District Commissioner on Orkiu is intensifying and it seems like they are determined not to let this propaganda victory slip away even if they’ll have to tell the community that the money comes from the District Education Department.
Another part of the Thomson Safari invasion force’s “hearts and minds” campaign is to supply beads to and buy beadwork from women of strategically chosen families forming women’s organisations assisted by government institutions as a way to combat the current organisations.
This invasion of Maasai pastoralist land with attached PR campaign by Thomson Safaris has been going on for a long time now. I don’t know how much can be achieved with the ongoing court case and I continue urging everyone reading this to boycott the company. What else can be done?
Susanna Nordlund
sannasus@hotmail.com
(suggestions are best sent via email)
Representatives from Minority Rights Group International visited Loliondo in 2010 and I recommend their blog:
http://minorityrights.wordpress.com/2010/12/07/part-1-%E2%80%93-terra-nullius/
http://minorityrights.wordpress.com/2010/12/16/part-2-%E2%80%93-%E2%80%9Cwe-have-become-squatters-in-our-own-home-%E2%80%9D/
Update 17 February 2011
The ward councillors have made very strong and public statements against the land use plan.
24 February 2011
http://www.youtube.comhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif/watch?v=7knZOEVxO0k
June 2011
The court case has been dismissed on a preliminary objection. The objection was that it’s “exactly the same” case as in the late 80s. There will be an appeal.
July 2011
I've written a summary of the history of OBC and the "wildlife corridor".
http://termitemoundview.blogspot.com/2011/07/corridor.html
http://termitemoundview.blogspot.com/2010/03/sukenya-farm-conflict-what-thomson.html
The November 2010 issue of the magazine Condé Nast Traveler – associated by me, without any closer studies (like actually reading it), with luxury travel and embarrassing awards - published an article by Joshua Hammer called “Last Days of the Masai?” which deals with land conflicts in Ngorongoro District and particularly such threats to the Maasai pastoralists as are Otterlo Business Corporation Ltd, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority and even Thomson Safaris.
As always it’s frustrating that it doesn’t seem like a wide selection of people from around the disputed land that Thomson call their own “Enashiva Nature Refuge” were interviewed, but I suppose the reporter also talked to those who did not want to feature in the article. Even though many aspects are missing and I feel the article is a bit soft on the safari company claiming pastoralist land as its private nature refuge, I find it beautifully written and think it is being read despite its length. Here it is: http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler/articles/503114?pageNumber=1&all=yes
According to the article, what the owners of Thomson Safaris have to say about Lesingo ole Nanyoi, who was shot in the jaw during a confrontation between herders and Thomson guards together with the police in April 2008, is that he “wasn’t shot by a bullet and it didn’t happen on our property… The whole thing is a mystery”. Even the police and Thomson staff confirmed to reporters at the time that there was a clash and “shots in the air”. It is indeed a mystery that Lesingo would have got his injuries somewhere else at the same time. I met Lesingo in Wasso early 2010 and he is upset with Thomson Safaris making up lies about him without even having talked to him.
Thomson Safaris insist that they allow grazing in the dry season and that in 2009, “we helped them [the Maasai] save their cattle”. In 2009 there was a catastrophic drought and in early July even Thomson’s strong supporter, the highest government representative in Ngorongoro District, District Commissioner Elias Wawa Lali, is reported to have requested them to, as a temporary measure, allow the local pastoralists to graze their animals on the land to save them from starvation. I’ve been told that the only thing that happened was that Sukenya chairman and some other Laitayiok leaders could quietly graze their animals. At the time Thomson were saying that they were engaged in “discussions with community leaders about future sustainable grazing” and months later they started saying that they had allowed grazing during the drought. The irony of stealing people’s land and then charitably allowing selected individuals to use it in an emergency seems to sum up the spirit of Thomson Safaris.
The article presents Otterlo Business Corporation as an entirely different entity to Thomson Safaris, which it is. Though it’s a pity that the reporter, despite reported efforts, could not reach OBC for a comment – probably because they get their guests through personal networks and not through travel magazines – as he would have seen that the companies have a lot in common: not only are both Thomson Safaris and OBC imposed by the state on the Maasai pastoralists, but OBC have used classic colonial divide-and-rule tactics, befriending leaders of the Laitayiok section – tactics that have been copied by Thomson.
Both companies also see themselves as innocent victims of evil NGOs and jealous tour operators and are assisted by the Tanzanian Government with “investigations”. A report about the July 2009 evictions was supposed to be tabled in Parliament in February 2010, but was instead presented to the governing party caucus and 14 of 14 complaints from the MP for Ngorongoro were dismissed as baseless. Several MPs stood up to assert that the report was full of lies and the audience turned against the Government. The report was never presented in Parliament.
The chairman of Ololosokwan is reported in the article as having said that a boy disappeared in the chaos and shooting, but the child that never was found after the 2009 evictions was a girl – Nashipai Gume from Arash.
In April 2010 women in Loliondo turned in or burned their CCM (governing party) cards to protest the government taking their land for tourism and hunting. They demanded that the report into the 2009 evictions should be tabled in the national assembly, but this has still not happened. I wrote a blog post about the reports I got from the protests. http://termitemoundview.blogspot.com/2010/04/loliondo-women-say-enough-is-enough.html
There were indications that there would be consultations with village governments and civil society organisations – but on 22 May 2010 massive national, regional and district government representation cracked down on Loliondo with John Chiligati, the at that time minister for Lands, Housing and Settlement Development as the principal speaker, and senior officials for the ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism attending. The Regional Commissioner chaired the meeting and the District Commissioner with his District Team held a prominent place in the Ngorongoro District Council Conference Hall. Village chairpersons, councillors, and community based representatives got the meeting agenda upon arrival. Even the presence of the MP for Ngorongoro was toned down noticeably. The tone was aggressive and relevant questions were evaded. This was the official launch of the land alienation drive creating a “wildlife corridor” where OBC would be able to carry out their activities undisturbed and that with the incoming Wildlife Conservation Act could be upgraded to equal status with national parks.
A constitutional suit has now been filed in the High Court of Tanzania by several CSOs against the Government to petition the July 2009 evictions. The defendants are the Attorney General, the Ngorongoro District Commissioner – Elias Wawa Lali, the District Police Commander, the then Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism – Shamsa Mwangunga - and the managing director of Otterlo Business Corporation Ltd.
The new Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Ezekiel Maige, visited Ngorongoro District in late December 2010. He held meetings with the CCM District Political Committee and the District Security Committee (some not too agreeable guys that I have personally met). The minister also visited the proposed corridor area where he could observe that contrary to what has been said to justify the corridor there was no environmental destruction. Then he formed a committee led by the District Commissioner and as members the seven councillors from the wards bordering Serengeti National Park plus the District Natural Resources Officer and the District Community Development Officer. Some argue that the committee was ordered by the minister to mobilize the Maasai pastoralists to vacate the 1,500 square kilometres proposed for the corridor, while others said he left room to find a “solution” to the conflict.
In December there was also, for the first time, a meeting between OBC representatives and councillors. OBC made it clear that it’s the government and not they who are pushing for the corridor, since their guests prefer hunting in a wider area providing that the issues with “too much” livestock, permanent settlements and cultivation are tackled. In a meeting with the DC the councillors opposed the corridor and instead they decided to among the communities and CSOs seek alternative ideas that they could present to the Government. A Wildlife Management Area had earlier been rejected in Loliondo since it would give away too much power to the government, but was presented as an option provided that the current regulation would be changed. Other options were community wildlife ranches where grazing would still go on, or renting the land to the government while keeping the grazing. There are fears that the Government has already made the decision and that the committee is just a façade. What’s important is to make clear that the proposed corridor is village land and does in no way belong to OBC – and the constitutional case is ongoing. Government representatives will return in February.
The “investors” OBC and Thomson Safaris are essentially used as weapons by the Tanzanian Government in its campaign against pastoralist communities.
Thomson Safaris think there is a very organized NGO campaign against them. How I wish that were true. Fortunately the local NGOs whose job it is to protect the rights of the Maasai pastoralists must have been a little more organised than Thomson expected - having studied this case closely I wonder how many companies have got away with similar misdeeds with some intimidation and “philanthropy” - but coordination and information sharing between the defenders of pastoralists’ rights in Loliondo could definitely need some improvements.
If there is a vicious campaign it’s Thomson’s own, working hard to have their press releases published as news and the even more sinister cooperation with government representatives that Brian MacCormaic and Alex Renton can attest to.
I too experienced some of this cooperation when I, a year ago, asked Ward Executive Officer Amati in Soit Sambu - who works under the District Commissioner – about Thomson Safaris. The WEO would not leave my side until I had to return to Wasso. During the long wait when I was hoping for the WEO to go away so that I could talk to some other people he triumphantly held up his telephone showing those present the display saying “Thomson Manager”. When I finally had to leave to get my vehicle back a Thomson vehicle was parked right outside the restaurant next to my vehicle. It was loaded with mosquito nets from a government campaign against malaria. This, together with the fact that the WEO had phoned the DC who promised that I would be able to talk to him the following day in Soit Sambu, made me think I would just have to attend some kind of Thomson propaganda, but instead the DC sent the police to take me to the Ngorongoro Security Committee that confiscated my passport, and I had to go to Arusha where my presence in Tanzania was eventually declared undesirable.
&Beyond’s Klein’s Camp is painted in light colours in the Condé Nast article. It’s true that having a lease agreement with the village is a huge difference from being a state imposed “landowner” and &Beyond has suffered harassment from the government – the latest I’ve heard is the announcement of the closure of Klein’s airstrip - but how much have people in Ololosokwan really benefited? I don’t think they have AC and swimming pools in the bomas … I have not investigated this though.
Regarding Ngorongoro Conservation Area, in 1959 it was declared a multi land use area where conservation, wildlife, pastoralists and livestock should co-exist, and where people now are under the threat of being evicted – many have already been evicted - to save its World Heritage Site status using a UNESCO report as an excuse - it’s been reported that UNESCO in mid-2010 contacted the Government to do a re-nomination including the “Living Culture” since UNESCO had earlier only been asked to consider Natural Values. This happened after the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs had contacted UNESCO about the situation. The Government responded that the eviction exercise is stopped until further notice. Though there have not been any moves towards a re-nomination of the World Heritage Site. The ban on subsistence agriculture was enforced at the same time as the severe drought was killing livestock and the situation is serious. The plans of human rights organisations are to push the Government to commence the re-nomination and provide survival options to the community.
From what I’ve heard about the ongoing court case against Tanzania Conservation Ltd (Thomson Safaris), it seems like it keeps getting delayed. As I wrote in an earlier update, I’ve been told the arrests of “trespassers” have stopped after the case was initiated and the intimidation has been reduced. Towards the end of 2010 more herders ventured onto the disputed land to graze their animals against Thomson Safaris’ “rules”. Though there are still incidents with Thomson guards chasing livestock with Landrovers and I’ve been told that armed policemen are in the area when there are tourists on the disputed land. The young man, Matayo Mbario, who was interviewed in the Condé Nast article has had some problems. I’ve heard reports that he was picked up by Thomson’s manager and a policeman, and taken to Wasso. He was told never again to talk to foreign journalists, which he refused. Though the police, unlike the manager, was reasonable and he was let go after some severe warnings.
Thomson Safaris are having the absurd problem of making some of the poorest people in the world accept their money. Their charity/propaganda machine Focus on Tanzanian Communities, FoTZC, is hard at work pretending to be an independent entity and Tanzanian authorities of course diligently assist them. Lately the Division Secretary has been very active in putting pressure on Mondorosi Village (former Mondorosi Sub-Village since Soit Sambu is being split up). I’ve been told that Mondorosi village leaders have now, in spite of threats, refused money for their school three times in front of the Division Secretary.
Thomson have declared that a new village, Orkiu, that will now be bordering the disputed land – after Enguserosambu Village has been divided and Enguserosambu Ward formed - is seeking “partnership” with Tanzania Conservation Ltd accepting funding for their primary school. The school of this rather small village is at quite a distance from the disputed land and in fact much closer to Loliondo Town. The truly worrying aspect is that this “partnership” has been sought – through a letter written at the DC’s office - by a politician at district level who is very well aware of the arrests and the violence that Thomson have been involved in and who has earlier seemed seriously committed to land rights. People who have talked with the villagers themselves say that they in no way want any “partnership” with Thomson. I’ve received documented reports that Thomson Safaris have approached the Regional Commissioner about this politician who is interested in the District Council chairmanship. Though this did not work and he was not elected. The pressure by Thomson Safaris and the District Commissioner on Orkiu is intensifying and it seems like they are determined not to let this propaganda victory slip away even if they’ll have to tell the community that the money comes from the District Education Department.
Another part of the Thomson Safari invasion force’s “hearts and minds” campaign is to supply beads to and buy beadwork from women of strategically chosen families forming women’s organisations assisted by government institutions as a way to combat the current organisations.
This invasion of Maasai pastoralist land with attached PR campaign by Thomson Safaris has been going on for a long time now. I don’t know how much can be achieved with the ongoing court case and I continue urging everyone reading this to boycott the company. What else can be done?
Susanna Nordlund
sannasus@hotmail.com
(suggestions are best sent via email)
Representatives from Minority Rights Group International visited Loliondo in 2010 and I recommend their blog:
http://minorityrights.wordpress.com/2010/12/07/part-1-%E2%80%93-terra-nullius/
http://minorityrights.wordpress.com/2010/12/16/part-2-%E2%80%93-%E2%80%9Cwe-have-become-squatters-in-our-own-home-%E2%80%9D/
Update 17 February 2011
The ward councillors have made very strong and public statements against the land use plan.
24 February 2011
http://www.youtube.comhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif/watch?v=7knZOEVxO0k
June 2011
The court case has been dismissed on a preliminary objection. The objection was that it’s “exactly the same” case as in the late 80s. There will be an appeal.
July 2011
I've written a summary of the history of OBC and the "wildlife corridor".
http://termitemoundview.blogspot.com/2011/07/corridor.html
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
In Short About Thomson Safaris’ ”Enashiva” Project
I’ve been asked for something shorter about Thomson Safaris than my, “The Sukenya Farm Conflict – What Thomson Safaris are up to in Loliondo and How I Became a Prohibited Immigrant in Tanzania”. I feel like I already left out too much in that blog entry, but I’ll give it a try.
Thomson Safaris – a Boston-based company - in a gesture of extreme vanity, bought 12,617 acres of grazing land – Sukenya Farm - as a “culmination of nearly 30 years” of their “commitment to Tanzania”. They say that they bought a “pristine wilderness” and they have turned it into their own private wilderness under the name “Enashiva Nature Refuge”.
Sukenya Farm lies in Soit Sambu village and in the ward of the same name in Loliondo division, Ngorongoro district, Arusha region in the United Republic of Tanzania. More exactly it lies between the sub-villages of Sukenya, Mondorosi and Enadooshoke, and is also bordering Enguserosambu village
Thomson Safaris bought the land from Tanzania Breweries Ltd that had grown barley on a small part of it for a short time and then left. Besides the fact that the land should never have been given away in the first place, Tanzania Breweries had been absent for more that 12 years and customary tenure had returned the local Maasai pastoralists. The impudence of Tanzania Breweries “selling” the land was shocking, but Thomson Safaris had reasons to feel safe. In Tanzania there’s a long history of alienation of pastoral lands and the current government has a very special love for “investors” and a way of treating pastoralists as undesirable.
Thomson Safaris’ guards, sometimes reinforced by the police, started harassing herders to keep them off the land. There is a long list of people that have been arrested and fined – also during the prolonged and very severe drought that ended in November 2009. In one confrontation herder Lesingo ole Nanyoi got shot in the jaw by either the police or guards from the safari company. There has never been a serious investigation. Apart from blocking grazing land, the invasion by Thomson Safaris gravely impedes movement by people and livestock.
Some mentions of the conflict appeared in the press outside Tanzania when New Zealand born photojournalist Trent Keegan, who had been investigating it, was killed in Nairobi in May 2008. When Trent’s friend, volunteer worker Brian MacCormaic, went to a meeting with the owners of the safari company, Rick Thomson and Judi Wineland, in July 2008 he was detained for hours by armed men arriving in a Thomson Safari vehicle. Later he was interrogated by the district commissioner who showed no interest whatsoever in investigating Thomson Safaris’ harassment of local people, or the fact that - apart from a motive - there had after the meeting appeared some circumstances pointing at a possible link between the safari company and Trent Keegan’s killers.
In February 2009 British journalist Alex Renton and photographer Caroline Irby were in Loliondo with an invitation from Thomson Safaris’ Arusha manager to visit “Enashiva”. They had already seen some people, including Lesingo ole Nanyoi, when they arrived at the disputed land to meet the local manager, Daniel Yamat, who refused to answer any questions. Ten minutes after leaving they were caught by the police and taken to the District Commissioner’s office where their passports were confiscated, and Alex and Caroline had to go to the Regional Commissioner in Arusha where they got their passports back. The District Commissioner’s secretary claimed to be acting on a complaint from Thomson Safaris.
In August 2008 the Prime Minister commissioned an “investigation” into allegations concerning the sale of Sukenya Farm. The report is still to be made public, but some conclusions, that unsurprisingly are a whitewash with many similarities to the official “explanations” of the July 2009 OBC evictions (described in my first blog entry), have been released. Even before these conclusions the Tanzania Tourist Board decided to honour Thomson Safaris with the 2009 Tanzania Conservation Award for their “Enashiva” project.
Thomson Safaris are in an accelerated spin saying that they have never been involved in anything bad at all, that a minority with selfish interests are spreading lies about them and that they have the support of the majority of people around the disputed land. Because of this I had to go to Loliondo and in February 2010 I talked to some people, including Lesingo ole Nanyoi and Sukenya villagers, before being taken to the Security Committee that confiscated my passport and sent it (and me) to Arusha for investigation. In Arusha I was eventually declared a “prohibited immigrant”, which means that my “continued presence in Tanzania is, in the opinion of the Minister or Director, undesirable”. So I had to go to Kenya before returning home.
Article 18 of the Constitution of Tanzania, states that, every person,(a) has a freedom of opinion and expression of his ideas;(b) has a right to seek, receive and impart or disseminate information regardless of national frontiers;(c) has a right to freedom to communicate and a right of freedom from interference with his right of communication;
I'd say that "every person" includes tourists.
(paragraph added to this blog post on 3 June)
Soit Sambu village council has initiated a court case against Thomson Safaris. I do hope that justice can be delivered in a Tanzanian court, but I think prospective clients can put more pressure on the safari company. Until they have left Sukenya Farm it’s essential to abstain from any business with Thomson Safaris or their sister companies Tanzania Conservation Ltd (that was used to purchase the disputed land), Thomson Family Adventures Ltd or Nature Discovery Ltd. The parent company is Wineland-Thomson Adventures Inc. and Thomson/Wineland are also the current owners of Gibb’s Farm in Karatu.
For better information about this conflict I strongly recommend this post (including updates and links to more updates): http://termitemoundview.blogspot.com/2010/03/sukenya-farm-conflict-what-thomson.html
Susanna Nordlund
sannasus@hotmail.com
Thomson Safaris – a Boston-based company - in a gesture of extreme vanity, bought 12,617 acres of grazing land – Sukenya Farm - as a “culmination of nearly 30 years” of their “commitment to Tanzania”. They say that they bought a “pristine wilderness” and they have turned it into their own private wilderness under the name “Enashiva Nature Refuge”.
Sukenya Farm lies in Soit Sambu village and in the ward of the same name in Loliondo division, Ngorongoro district, Arusha region in the United Republic of Tanzania. More exactly it lies between the sub-villages of Sukenya, Mondorosi and Enadooshoke, and is also bordering Enguserosambu village
Thomson Safaris bought the land from Tanzania Breweries Ltd that had grown barley on a small part of it for a short time and then left. Besides the fact that the land should never have been given away in the first place, Tanzania Breweries had been absent for more that 12 years and customary tenure had returned the local Maasai pastoralists. The impudence of Tanzania Breweries “selling” the land was shocking, but Thomson Safaris had reasons to feel safe. In Tanzania there’s a long history of alienation of pastoral lands and the current government has a very special love for “investors” and a way of treating pastoralists as undesirable.
Thomson Safaris’ guards, sometimes reinforced by the police, started harassing herders to keep them off the land. There is a long list of people that have been arrested and fined – also during the prolonged and very severe drought that ended in November 2009. In one confrontation herder Lesingo ole Nanyoi got shot in the jaw by either the police or guards from the safari company. There has never been a serious investigation. Apart from blocking grazing land, the invasion by Thomson Safaris gravely impedes movement by people and livestock.
Some mentions of the conflict appeared in the press outside Tanzania when New Zealand born photojournalist Trent Keegan, who had been investigating it, was killed in Nairobi in May 2008. When Trent’s friend, volunteer worker Brian MacCormaic, went to a meeting with the owners of the safari company, Rick Thomson and Judi Wineland, in July 2008 he was detained for hours by armed men arriving in a Thomson Safari vehicle. Later he was interrogated by the district commissioner who showed no interest whatsoever in investigating Thomson Safaris’ harassment of local people, or the fact that - apart from a motive - there had after the meeting appeared some circumstances pointing at a possible link between the safari company and Trent Keegan’s killers.
In February 2009 British journalist Alex Renton and photographer Caroline Irby were in Loliondo with an invitation from Thomson Safaris’ Arusha manager to visit “Enashiva”. They had already seen some people, including Lesingo ole Nanyoi, when they arrived at the disputed land to meet the local manager, Daniel Yamat, who refused to answer any questions. Ten minutes after leaving they were caught by the police and taken to the District Commissioner’s office where their passports were confiscated, and Alex and Caroline had to go to the Regional Commissioner in Arusha where they got their passports back. The District Commissioner’s secretary claimed to be acting on a complaint from Thomson Safaris.
In August 2008 the Prime Minister commissioned an “investigation” into allegations concerning the sale of Sukenya Farm. The report is still to be made public, but some conclusions, that unsurprisingly are a whitewash with many similarities to the official “explanations” of the July 2009 OBC evictions (described in my first blog entry), have been released. Even before these conclusions the Tanzania Tourist Board decided to honour Thomson Safaris with the 2009 Tanzania Conservation Award for their “Enashiva” project.
Thomson Safaris are in an accelerated spin saying that they have never been involved in anything bad at all, that a minority with selfish interests are spreading lies about them and that they have the support of the majority of people around the disputed land. Because of this I had to go to Loliondo and in February 2010 I talked to some people, including Lesingo ole Nanyoi and Sukenya villagers, before being taken to the Security Committee that confiscated my passport and sent it (and me) to Arusha for investigation. In Arusha I was eventually declared a “prohibited immigrant”, which means that my “continued presence in Tanzania is, in the opinion of the Minister or Director, undesirable”. So I had to go to Kenya before returning home.
Article 18 of the Constitution of Tanzania, states that, every person,(a) has a freedom of opinion and expression of his ideas;(b) has a right to seek, receive and impart or disseminate information regardless of national frontiers;(c) has a right to freedom to communicate and a right of freedom from interference with his right of communication;
I'd say that "every person" includes tourists.
(paragraph added to this blog post on 3 June)
Soit Sambu village council has initiated a court case against Thomson Safaris. I do hope that justice can be delivered in a Tanzanian court, but I think prospective clients can put more pressure on the safari company. Until they have left Sukenya Farm it’s essential to abstain from any business with Thomson Safaris or their sister companies Tanzania Conservation Ltd (that was used to purchase the disputed land), Thomson Family Adventures Ltd or Nature Discovery Ltd. The parent company is Wineland-Thomson Adventures Inc. and Thomson/Wineland are also the current owners of Gibb’s Farm in Karatu.
For better information about this conflict I strongly recommend this post (including updates and links to more updates): http://termitemoundview.blogspot.com/2010/03/sukenya-farm-conflict-what-thomson.html
Susanna Nordlund
sannasus@hotmail.com
Wednesday, 14 April 2010
Loliondo Women Say Enough is Enough
I was waiting to write something about recent developments in Loliondo until having the whole picture clear and some really good article to link to, but now it has occurred to me that a blog is a web log with ongoing commentary.
I’ve been told that on 6 April Maasai women had started gathering in the villages to go to Loliondo town and hand in their CCM (government party) cards. They were protesting against the July 2009 evictions to give way to the UAE hunting company Otterlo Business Corporation. The evictions included the burning of houses and other human (and animal) rights abuses. Several children were lost in the chaos and one of them has not been found. I have a summary of these events in my first blog entry. A parliamentary report into the evictions was supposed to be presented in Parliament in February, but was blocked by the CCM caucus. There’s considerable risk that the report is a whitewash, but a debate in parliament is needed.
OBC have their hunting block on village land, but now there are government plans to cut away a big piece of land creating a “buffer zone” along the boundary of Serengeti National Park and give this land to OBC to carry on their activities undisturbed. In my first blog entry I have a summary of the historical background that explains why pastoralists have to fight against every single square inch of grazing land being taken.
The night of 6 April police vehicles were sent to Ololosokwan where more than 400 women had gathered. The police warned the women that they would be fired on if they moved towards Loliondo town. In spite of this, in the morning the women started moving along footpaths. They were intercepted in Oloipiri and held up for hours having to listen to Ngorongoro District Commissioner, Elias Wawa Lali. It’s said that the MP also turned up, expressing support for the women. Then, under threats of violence, they were forced to get on a truck to return to Ololosokwan. Other women on the move were 60 women from Enguserosambu who were arrested and interrogated for hours and some 500 women who spent the night in the bush near Wasso.
The women who spent the night near Wasso managed to reach the CCM office in Loliondo where they handed in 1,883 CCM cards. Through their leader Kijoolo Kakiya from Piyaya they promised to hand in thousands of cards if their demands are not met by 16 April.
I’ve been told that their principal demands are:
1. That the parliamentary committee’s report into evictions of July 2009, blocked by the CCM caucus in February, be tabled when Parliament reopens this week.
2. That the government disavow plans to cut village land creating a buffer zone along the boundary of Serengeti National Park.
3. That women be allowed to have a peaceful demonstration in Loliondo town, since previous requests were turned down by the police.
The DC can’t believe that these protests have been organised by village women and, as is his habit, has started hunting NGOs. On 12 April three civil society organisation representatives were arrested, interrogated and locked up for the night by the Officer Commanding District. They were released on bail on the 13th. There’s an article in the Guardian reporting from before they were released. The three are Samwel Nangiria (NGONET Director), Robert Kamakia (NGONET) and an employee of OXFAM, Gasper Leboy. In the article the DC isn’t aware of anything and hasn’t seen anything.
Thomson Safaris, unsurprisingly, are involved in the same anti-NGO hysteria (to use a kind word) seeing themselves as the innocent victims of NGOs without which everyone would love their “philanthropic” grabbing of grazing land. More about them in my first blog entry.
It’s said that the police have started to interrogate women from the villages and have a list of 54 names. Yesterday the DC told staff in the District Office to go today to tell those who were evicted and have resettled on land claimed by OBC, that they must move for their own safety. The Regional Commissioner is due in Loliondo town in the next few days together with regional security people. There is pressure from the District on the women leaders to join a reconciliation committee to come to Loliondo for meetings - even as some of their number are being interrogated.
Authorities have seriously attacked the women’s constitutional rights of freedom of association and freedom of expression. Instead of listening to the legitimate complaints from a community under attack, DC Elias Wawa Lali seems intent on, even breaking the law, defending the anti-pastoralist government and its darling “investors”. How can the democratic United Republic of Tanzania accept to have a police state in Loliondo?
Susanna Nordlund
sannasus@hotmail.com
Update
In July 2011 I posted a summary of the history of OBC and the "wildlife corridor".
http://termitemoundview.blogspot.com/2011/07/corridor.html
I’ve been told that on 6 April Maasai women had started gathering in the villages to go to Loliondo town and hand in their CCM (government party) cards. They were protesting against the July 2009 evictions to give way to the UAE hunting company Otterlo Business Corporation. The evictions included the burning of houses and other human (and animal) rights abuses. Several children were lost in the chaos and one of them has not been found. I have a summary of these events in my first blog entry. A parliamentary report into the evictions was supposed to be presented in Parliament in February, but was blocked by the CCM caucus. There’s considerable risk that the report is a whitewash, but a debate in parliament is needed.
OBC have their hunting block on village land, but now there are government plans to cut away a big piece of land creating a “buffer zone” along the boundary of Serengeti National Park and give this land to OBC to carry on their activities undisturbed. In my first blog entry I have a summary of the historical background that explains why pastoralists have to fight against every single square inch of grazing land being taken.
The night of 6 April police vehicles were sent to Ololosokwan where more than 400 women had gathered. The police warned the women that they would be fired on if they moved towards Loliondo town. In spite of this, in the morning the women started moving along footpaths. They were intercepted in Oloipiri and held up for hours having to listen to Ngorongoro District Commissioner, Elias Wawa Lali. It’s said that the MP also turned up, expressing support for the women. Then, under threats of violence, they were forced to get on a truck to return to Ololosokwan. Other women on the move were 60 women from Enguserosambu who were arrested and interrogated for hours and some 500 women who spent the night in the bush near Wasso.
The women who spent the night near Wasso managed to reach the CCM office in Loliondo where they handed in 1,883 CCM cards. Through their leader Kijoolo Kakiya from Piyaya they promised to hand in thousands of cards if their demands are not met by 16 April.
I’ve been told that their principal demands are:
1. That the parliamentary committee’s report into evictions of July 2009, blocked by the CCM caucus in February, be tabled when Parliament reopens this week.
2. That the government disavow plans to cut village land creating a buffer zone along the boundary of Serengeti National Park.
3. That women be allowed to have a peaceful demonstration in Loliondo town, since previous requests were turned down by the police.
The DC can’t believe that these protests have been organised by village women and, as is his habit, has started hunting NGOs. On 12 April three civil society organisation representatives were arrested, interrogated and locked up for the night by the Officer Commanding District. They were released on bail on the 13th. There’s an article in the Guardian reporting from before they were released. The three are Samwel Nangiria (NGONET Director), Robert Kamakia (NGONET) and an employee of OXFAM, Gasper Leboy. In the article the DC isn’t aware of anything and hasn’t seen anything.
Thomson Safaris, unsurprisingly, are involved in the same anti-NGO hysteria (to use a kind word) seeing themselves as the innocent victims of NGOs without which everyone would love their “philanthropic” grabbing of grazing land. More about them in my first blog entry.
It’s said that the police have started to interrogate women from the villages and have a list of 54 names. Yesterday the DC told staff in the District Office to go today to tell those who were evicted and have resettled on land claimed by OBC, that they must move for their own safety. The Regional Commissioner is due in Loliondo town in the next few days together with regional security people. There is pressure from the District on the women leaders to join a reconciliation committee to come to Loliondo for meetings - even as some of their number are being interrogated.
Authorities have seriously attacked the women’s constitutional rights of freedom of association and freedom of expression. Instead of listening to the legitimate complaints from a community under attack, DC Elias Wawa Lali seems intent on, even breaking the law, defending the anti-pastoralist government and its darling “investors”. How can the democratic United Republic of Tanzania accept to have a police state in Loliondo?
Susanna Nordlund
sannasus@hotmail.com
Update
In July 2011 I posted a summary of the history of OBC and the "wildlife corridor".
http://termitemoundview.blogspot.com/2011/07/corridor.html
Thursday, 18 March 2010
The Sukenya Farm Conflict – What Thomson Safaris are up to in Loliondo and How I Became a Prohibited Immigrant in Tanzania
In a hidden corner of the world in the far north of Tanzania lies Loliondo Division, one of the three divisions – Ngorongoro, Loliondo and Sale - of Ngorongoro District where for hundreds of years people have lived of cattle, managing the land communally as wet and dry season grazing, like the wild animals migrate seasonally. This together with the Maasai pastoralists’ cultural aversion to eating game meat has been part in making the area the most spectacular place in the world for watching wildlife and the land has therefore become very valuable - which has been far from only a blessing. Under pressure from international conservation all people were evicted from the huge Serengeti National Park in 1959. The colonial government made a deal with the Maasai living in the eastern part of the National Park giving them land further east in Ngorongoro Conservation Area (some also moved to Loliondo Game Controlled Area) where their interests would be paramount, but instead the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority now reserves the right to decide where the Maasai can graze their cattle and to evict or relocate families that they don’t consider original inhabitants of the area. Human population has increased greatly since the 60s, but the number of cattle has not, while at the same time the NCAA has strict regulations limiting food cultivation. In 1975 families living inside the world famous crater were chased out, eviction threats have been a constant over the years and have recently intensified. In Loliondo Game Controlled Area land conflicts are as common as dust and many of these conflicts originated in the late 80s during Tanzania’s transition from socialism to a more market orientated economy. Some often corrupt and, in those times, even more often illiterate leaders of village councils sold off communal lands to investors without the consent of village assemblies, and land was alienated in many other fraudulent ways.
The best-known Loliondo land conflict is that with Otterlo Business Corporation. In 1992 a hunting block – which is just a kind of hunting concession and shouldn’t be about land alienation – was given to this company, owned by a member of the Dubai royal family of the United Arab Emirates, by the Tanzanian government. The contract was for 10 years and without the consent of the affected villages, and eventually the way it had been allocated led to a mayor scandal called Loliondogate, which involved the Office of the President, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism as well as the Attorney General. This contract was revoked in 1999, because of its illegalities, but new 5-year contracts have kept being signed against the wishes of pastoralists whose mobile grazing has been disturbed by the hunting activities. There is a conflict between legal systems where the right of villages to manage land clashes with the Ministerial Wildlife Division’s authority over wildlife. There have also been allegations of the breaking of hunting laws, including the illegal transport of live wildlife out of the country, and of violent acts against local people, including assassinations. The company became tired of the conflicts and in 2007 it entered “development cooperation contracts” with several villages. Though two villages refused to sign any contracts. These contracts contained various flaws and varied from village to village. OBC has been involved in several development projects – even before the new contracts - but these have been far from outweighing the resource losses. In May 2009, during a severe drought, the company donated 100 tonnes of grain to the residents of Ngorongoro District and this was the last thing media reported about OBC before 4 July 2009 when Tanzania’s special police force – the Field Force Unit – together with the company – started clearing OBC’s “operational ground” for the hunting season. Letters of warning had been sent to villages from different government authorities since early May, but nobody acted since according to the contract the coordination of hunting and grazing should be arranged in meetings with OBC, and those meetings had never materialized. 150 bomas (homesteads) were destroyed in the fires set ablaze by the Field Force Unit, stored grain and maize fields were destroyed, 60,000 heads of cattle were pushed into an extreme drought area, calves were left behind in the stampede, there was a shortage of water both for animals and people, 12 men were beaten by the police and three seriously injured, four children were lost – three were found and one – Nashipai Gume from Arash - is still missing – four goats were burnt to death in the blast, 27 people were arrested and 12 have been prosecuted. First both the Prime Minister and the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism denied any knowledge of the incident, then it was said that the Maasai had burned their own houses as a sign of acceptance. In media presenting the government view giving room for an investor was soon described as “protecting the environment”. The Maasai were “accused” of coming from Kenya, it was claimed journalists and NGOs had burnt the houses. The minister for Natural Resources and Tourism lashed out against NGOs in Loliondo accusing them of “breaching peace” and the Regional Commissioner threatened with having them all “audited”. Some say that there are tourism companies that have done deals with villages without threatening land tenure, but the Government prefer the likes of OBC and Thomson Safaris. A parliamentary committee on investigate mission late last year (2009) conveniently found a dead elephant with missing tusks right next to the airstrip of one of these companies.
The Tanzanian state’s attitude towards pastoralism has at best been ambiguous, while the current government has been downright hostile from the beginning. Apart from in Loliondo, the government has supported “investors” in agriculture, mining, conservation or tourism against the rights of pastoralists in many other places like for example Mbarali and Kilosa where human rights abuses have been committed. Despite the fact that pastoralism is the backbone of Tanzania’s commercial livestock sector and that almost all the wildlife that attracts significant foreign earnings is located in pastoral areas pastoralism is seen as undesirable by the government. Already in his inauguration speech in December 2005 the president stated, “Mr. Speaker, we must abandon altogether nomadic pastoralism which makes the whole country pastureland...The cattle are bony and the pastoralists are sacks of skeletons. We cannot move forward with this type of pastoralism in the twenty first century.” And I March 2006 he stated, “I am committed to taking unpopular steps to pastoralists in order to protect the environment for the benefit of the nation and future generations.”
Not all the Maasai in Loliondo oppose OBC. There are three Maasai sections, popularly known as “clans”, living in the area – the Purko, the Loita and the Laitaiyok. The government has used the classic divide and rule technique sometimes working with corrupt local leaders that think they can support anti-pastoralist policies that will mostly hurt people from other clans than their own, or that will even just benefit them personally. It’s said there were Purko and Loita leaders that in 1992 collaborated in signing away the hunting concession to OBC. At the moment the minority Laitaiyok clan, that claim to have been politically marginalized, is being used in this way. Unfortunately, in Loliondo even the organisations working for human rights can each be described as associated to one of the three sections or clans. Navaya ole Ndaskoi – a researcher with ample knowledge about the struggle of pastoralists and hunter-gatherers all over Tanzania – says, “A radical change in the mentality of the human rights activists in Ngorongoro is a must if the land is to stay. Otherwise the land is gone without fight. Trading on tribalism may indeed help some selfish people. It will never help the marginalized in Ngorongoro.”
Another conflict – that tourists to Tanzania (like myself) should be able to do something about – is that of Sukenya Farm. Unlike its name suggests, Sukenya Farm is mostly open grazing land and not a “farm” and lies in Soit Sambu village bordered by the Sukenya, Mondorosi and Enadooshoke sub-villages, and also Enguserosambu village to the northeast. In 1984 the then state-owned Tanzania Breweries Limited got hold of the 10,000 acres Sukenya Farm. Exactly how is unclear, but the talk is about forged documents and corrupt leaders. What is clear is that the land was allocated by the District Land Allocation Committee, which according to the law at that time could only grant up to 100 acres. Of the 10,000 acres TBL cultivated 100 acres during the 1985-1986 season and 700 acres during the 1986-1987 season. Thereafter they left the land due to conditions that were too dry for barley cultivation. Some villagers took the case to court in 1987 where they lost and in 1991 they lodged an appeal to the High Court, which was dismissed for non-appearance in 1995. By then the problem had been solved by itself - it seemed - and the grazing land was back in the hands of the pastoralists whose customary tenure should be more than evident.
Shockingly – and with immediate protests from Soit Sambu village - in 2006 TBL announced that they were “selling” Sukenya Farm. Somehow in 2003 they had obtained a 99-year Right of Occupancy for 12,617 acres (some 51 square kilometres) from the Land Commissioner and eventually in 2006 they sub-leased the land to Tanzania Conservation Limited, a sister company (founded specifically for this purchase) of the high profile and extremely vocal US-owned Thomson Safaris. As a “culmination of nearly 30 years of Thomson’s commitment to Tanzania” they considered they had purchased a “pristine wilderness” to turn into their own nature refuge, which they subsequently re-named “Enashiva [Happiness] Nature Refuge”. Though in the language spoken in Loliondo “Enashipa” would have been a more correct spelling than the Arusha-style “Enashiva”. The land was theirs and their guards aided by the local police started blocking grazing. The disputed land lies right between several sub-villages and many homesteads, and apart from taking away important grazing, the invasion by the safari company seriously impedes movement of people and livestock to other grazing areas and to watering points. When “Thomson’s land” “from there to there” is pointed out to you by a local pastoralist the sense of rudeness of this company from another side of the world, owned by a family of four, is overwhelming.
In May 2008 a link to an article on an Internet forum frequented by Africa travellers made me aware of the conflict. For some years East Africa and its wildlife had been the centre of my universe and I had come across information about injustices committed towards the pastoralists on whose land the great wildlife numbers were found. I had also come across an immense naivety shown by many travellers viewing the tourist companies reaping benefits from the pastoralist lands as charitable organisations if they had contributed to building a classroom or two. I expressed my frustration that everyone, including myself, would soon have forgotten everything about the issue and that Thomson Safaris’ story would take precedence, but then a business associate of the company chimed in that the whole problem was “a local Kenyan Maasai woman that encouraged all locals to squat on the land and use it for their benefit” and this chiming in made me less likely to forget. Much later did I hear of the Tanzanian government’s habit of accusing “troublemakers” of being from the nearest neighbouring country.
Then to my surprise I found information that an international photojournalist, New Zealand-born Trent Keegan, had investigated the harassment of “trespassing” pastoralists at Sukenya Farm, but tragically he was already dead, murdered in Nairobi on 28 May 2008. Trent’s laptop and camera were stolen, but not the money he was carrying or his Visa card. In Loliondo he had been visited by the police at the place where he was staying and he had encountered Thomson’s guards.
Later I found the blog of Trent’s friend, volunteer worker Brian MacCormaic, who at the time had been assisting a school in Ololosokwan as an advisor. The owners of Thomson Safaris, Rick Thomson and Judi Wineland flew over to Tanzania when they heard there were rumours about the murder and Brian, thinking that they might be unaware of what was happening on the ground, arranged to meet them. The company owners were staying in Wasso and were also supposed to have a meeting with the Village Council in Soit Sambu that lies between Ololosokwan and Wasso, so Brian was surprised that they insisted on meeting him in Wasso. It was clear that Rick and Judi would not meet the Village Council. Instead they were having a meeting with a “grazing committee” handpicked by the District Commissioner and they insisted that Brian, who had come for a private talk, join the meeting with this handpicked committee. The committee spoke Maa, the Maasai language, and the translator was Thomson’s local manager, Daniel Yamat. A bishop that accompanied Rick and Judi did not speak Maa, and neither did the company owners or Brian. Almost immediately the atmosphere became hostile towards Brian, and he was prevented from leaving. When he was about to leave the compound anyway a Thomson Safari vehicle with some ten armed men arrived and these men started blocking his departure. After some considerable time and a phone call to the Regional Commissioner Brian was finally let go. By this time he was convinced that at least Rick Thomson was fully aware about what was happening on the ground.
A few days later Brian was summoned to the District Commissioner’s office outside of which he met Daniel Yamat who boasted about having files from Brian’s computer, naming several of the files. Later the headmaster of the school witnessed at a meeting with the District Commissioner how Daniel presented prints of personal files from Brian’s – and from Trent’s -computers.
In February 2009 British journalist Alex Renton and photographer Caroline Irby went to Ngorongoro on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the eviction from the Serengeti. They had a look at the favoured “investors” OBC and Thomson Safaris. In Soit Sambu they met the then Village Chairman James Lembikas who had expressed some support for Thomson, which must be the reason that the company, that had never had a meeting with the Village Council, for a long time boasted about their excellent relations with the village government. Detractors of Lembikas say that he was paid by Thomson while he himself, according to people who know him, says he was intimidated by the District Commisssioner. As my recent Loliondo trip got cut short I never got the opportunity to talk to Lembikas. Anyway, he was the chairman for some 20 years, but no longer.
Even before having Lembikas voted out the Soit Sambu Village Council sent a petition to the president about the situation and recently they have initiated a court case against Thomson Safaris to regain their land.
After an invitation from Thomson Safaris’ Arusha manager and a phone appointment with Daniel Yamat, Alex and Caroline went to visit “Enashiva”, but the manager refused to show them around or answer any questions, and 10 minutes after leaving they were stopped by the police and sent to the District Commissioner’s office where their passports were confiscated and then they were escorted out of the district by the police and sent to Arusha for investigation. The District Commissioner’s secretary told Alex and Caroline that they were acting on a complaint from Thomson Safaris about their questions.
In March 2009 the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination sent a letter to the Tanzanian Government requesting information about the Sukenya Farm conflict, but I don’t know if they have received a reply. They also requested some interim measures – like allowing grazing and watering, suspending commercial development, ensuring physical security and investigating brutality and criminality - to be put in place, which has not happened.
Alex Renton’s article wasn’t published until early September 2009. A couple of weeks earlier when Thomson Safaris knew about the publication, they started their own blog about their “Enashiva” project. Their reaction to the article was extremely aggressive, basically accusing this journalist with more than 20 years of experience of making it all up. In a point-by-point “rebuttal” their lies were so wild that they could only have been written for prospective clients with no knowledge of the area at all, and some participants in travel forums actually were convinced by these writings. I wasn’t, as I had some information from Tanzania. Another particularity of this safari company is having a journalist on staff and managing to get their press releases published as “news” in the Tanzanian press, often with something like “by staff reporter” as by line. I was hoping for someone to go and talk to people affected, tell them about what Thomson Safaris were saying and ask them what really was happening. Time passed and it didn’t happen, so when the New Year 2010 began I decided I had to go even though I’m not a journalist or a researcher.
In late October 2009 signs were put up around the disputed land saying that the Government was changing the land use classification from pastoralism and agriculture to tourism and conservation and that anyone affected should express his/her opinion within 30 days. Soit Sambu Village Council, including the Sukenya Sub-Village Chairman, very strongly opposed this change, as did the District Council.
In April 2008 Lesingo ole Nanyoi got shot in the jaw in a confrontation with Thomson guards reinforced by the police. In their rebuttal of Alex Renton’s article Thomson Safaris say that “Lesingo Ole Nanyoi was not involved in a confrontation at Enashiva and has since admitted that his injuries did not occur there.” I personally met Lesingo in Wasso on my recent trip in February 2010. He says he was together with some other herders on their way to River Pololet watering point near the disputed land where pastoralists have watered their animals for centuries when they were approached by angry Thomson guards telling them, “this land does not belong to you anymore” and a discussion ensued. Police reinforcement arrived, there was a push and pull situation and three shots were fired. One shot hit Lesingo in the jaw, people fled, some cows managed to get water. Lesingo was first taken to the nearest dispensary that’s in Kenya and later in the evening to Wasso hospital. Then he was moved to Muhimbili Hospital where he had to stay for one and a half month. There has not been any independent investigation at all. According to Lesingo, Thomson Safaris are corrupt and not at all fair to the community. Despite writing about him, nobody from the company has ever talked to Lesingo; only their local manager approached his father trying to corrupt him when Lesingo was in hospital. Lesingo would like to personally inform the owners of Thomson Safaris exactly what happened.
Harassment and arrests of herders by Thomson guards and the police continue. Unsurprisingly, Thomson Safaris are saying that everything is fabrication by a minority from a Purko sub-clan associated to an NGO, but the list is very long. My plan before I was kicked out of Loliondo was to talk to as many on this list as possible. Lesingo ole Nanyoi’s own brother got caught herding his cattle near the disputed land in November 2009, was taken to prison and released after paying a big fine.
Thomson Safaris have borrowed OBC’s Laitaiyok trick befriending some selected leaders from this minority clan that is majority – approximately three quarters of the population - in Sukenya sub-village (the Purko are majority in Enadooshoke and Mondorosi, and Enguserosambu is Loita dominated). Though Shangai ole Putaa – a traditional Laitaiyok leader and Soit Sambu Sub-Village Chairman (not “ward chairman” as claimed in Thomson’s blog) – opposed Thomson Safaris publicly during the president’s Ngorongoro tour in March 2007. Of course, Thomson Safaris claim that he didn’t oppose them, but the contrary is common knowledge and I’ve heard several first hand accounts. Stranger than this is that the safari company also claim that nobody knows who killed Shangai in November 2007 when even the Regional Police Commander has confirmed that the local police did it when he tried to escape while under custody suspected of knowing the place of some hidden weapons (most people find it highly unlikely that Shangai would have been involved in any crime). There has not been any serious investigation. Meeting the Putaa family was on my “programme” before being thrown out of Loliondo and then out of Tanzania.
During a previous East Africa trip in June/July 2009 I got on the bus for a few days in Loliondo without talking to anyone except an ambitious young man who hijacked me upon arrival in Soit Sambu with the intent of becoming my guide for the rest of my trip. He was a great admirer of Thomson Safaris and wanted to work for them. His view was that people hated them because, unlike he himself, they were un-educated and only cared about cattle.
This time I was determined to get more information without becoming dangerously indiscreet. I was assisted in finding a guy with a motorbike and was off to Sukenya sub-village. Thomson Safaris urge people to speak to Enyuata Women’s Collaborative, the Sukenya Primary School and the Laitaiyok council of traditional Maasai leaders and elders. As it was Saturday, it would be a good day for visiting the school. This would be a visit to state employed, non-pastoralists outsiders with every reason to support Thomson. Thomson Safaris, like many other tourism companies, have their own charitable organisation that their clients donate to for a combination of some worthwhile projects and propaganda for the company, and schools have been a speciality of this organisation that until recently was named Friends of Tanzanian Schools. Now its name is Focus on Tanzanian Communities. The extremely friendly and welcoming head teacher was accompanied by an equally friendly head teacher from a neighbouring sub-village, as they were preparing for the upcoming elections that would take place at the school. I’ve had some teaching experiences and the rate of pupils per teacher at the Sukenya Primary School was simply terrifying. More housing for teachers was needed to solve this problem and teachers’ housing for 2-3 new teachers is exactly what Focus on Tanzanian Communities claim to have announced they will be building this year. Though the teachers had not heard anything about this saying that Thomson Safaris may have given something to the village, but never anything at all to the school – neither had anyone else - and they declared that Thomson take a lot and give very little. Maybe the on-line announcement was more urgent than the one on the ground. Though it looks like the Sukenya Primary School head teacher will soon feature in an elaborate youtubed thanking ritual on Thomson’s blog.
The other charitable/propaganda projects that Focus on Tanzanian Communities has been involved in are: the delivery of 50 ton of food aid (maize) in August 2009 during the prolonged and very severe drought. It was government food aid – which further strengthened the safari company’s excellent relation to the anti-pastoralist government - and a dream for an occupying force like Thomson Safaris.
And in 2008 the repair and borehole re-drilling of the well – built originally in the 50s as a part of the so-called “Serengeti Compensation Scheme” - next to Sukenya Primary School. Though the pump does no longer work, allegedly because it was “vandalized by a jealous clan”.
After meeting Moringe ole Parkipuny I thought I had found a more efficient way of finding out what was going on – just asking! This Member of Parliament for Ngorongoro in the 80s was the first African to address the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations in Geneva. After a period of exile following an assassination attempt Parkipuny found new organisations had sprung up working for indigenous people’s (the Maasai and other pastoralists, and hunter-gatherers like the Hadza, Dorobo and Sandawe) rights but he is not impressed with their achievements in influencing the Tanzanian state. The day I went to see him at his home we were off to Sukenya in a rented vehicle in the afternoon. We visited a Loita – not Purko (the clan Thomson think all their detractors come from) - boma with some people very unhappy about Thomson Safaris. They quickly assisted Parkipuny in making a list of the “Enashiva” staff. The manager and driver are outsiders, of eleven guards two are Purko and two are from the agricultural Sonjo tribe that mainly inhabit the neighbouring Sale division while the rest are Laitaiyok. They also said that the Sub-Village Chairman was on the payroll. There is some house keeping staff as well, but those people don’t participate in the harassment of herders. These people claimed that practically all Loita and Purko oppose Thomson while the company had bought some Laitaiyok leaders living out along the road. They said that Enyuata Women’s Collaborative basically consists of the wives of these leaders. In 2008 Thomson had made a big circus of donating the cheapest Chinese made maize grinder to this collaborative (this donation apparently was from Thomson Safaris and a guest, and not Focus on Tanzanian Communities).
Parkipuny got the idea that we should just go to “Enashiva” for a friendly visit and a drink. This wasn’t cautious at all, but I was curious and off we went. Parkipuny got out next to the staff housing to talk to a very tense looking guard. Within seconds another guard talking on a phone appeared and then a third one with a bow and poison arrow ready in hand. The people from the Loita boma had said that the guards had both firearms and bows and I’ve also seen pictures of this, but one of the more farcical aspects of Thomson Safaris is the way they in their propaganda material insist on that they don’t even have guards, but only “unarmed wildlife scouts”. I couldn’t resist snapping a picture, the guards got even more upset and we had to leave. They had phoned the manager who was in Arusha. The guards were mostly interested in the vehicle writing down the registration number and there was little risk they would know who I was.
I met Parkipuny again the following day and during the night he had been “visited” by three men with a powerful searchlight. Fortunately, he was accompanied by three friends and the “visitors” were chased off. One of Parkipuny’s friends, who was from Sukenya, said that Thomson Safaris use that kind of searchlight.
I wasn’t in a hurry, thinking I would still have a week or two left for talking to people, and the last day of January I was again off to Sukenya together with Parkipuny. As there was a celebration for a girl that was getting married, not many people were around. Parkipuny found some friends to talk to and then we found one of the women of Enyuata Women’s Collaborative. I had met this very friendly and laughing group on my visit by motorbike, but lacked language skills and was still too discreet to talk with them about Thomson Safaris. It must be noted that this women’s group are the people Thomson Safaris most strongly urge anyone to talk with to experience the “overwhelming support” for their “Enashiva” project. This member spoke very frankly and had no problem sharing her opinion: Yes, the group of 20 women do business with Thomson, but they live of cattle and not beads. They complained in Loliondo Town about Thomson invading the land, but are very poor and would do business with the devil. They sell to anyone passing, like they sold me a snuff container. They also go and sing at the camp - if Thomson pay.
It’s just common sense that a pastoralist would value the land more than a bead business opportunity. The Laitiyok are pastoralists like everyone else and it would be a good idea to talk with them and work together with them instead of thinking that they have some con-genital defect that make them collaborate with the nastiest of “investors” – even though some of their leaders apparently are doing this.
We continued to Soit Sambu and sat down in a central restaurant where anyone may turn up. Thomson Safaris’ driver made an appearance, Parkipuny enquired about visiting the camp and was told it’s only possible with a special permit. Many people wanted to talk about Thomson. I had - very unwisely, I would later discover - written a list of what the safari company is saying on the Internet. The things said astonished some people from sub-villages bordering the disputed land. I needed interviews, but it certainly wasn’t the right time or place. There would be a meeting the following morning at ten and we would return to Soit Sambu then.
Later a black, but Arab and tourist (shorts and slightly round) looking man presented himself as Ali Green from the UAE, wondering if I knew what UAE was, which I did … He told me they were hunting and had a camp “that way”. Parkipuny, who wasn’t having soda, presented himself as “the chief of all the Maasai” and me as his only wife, and wanted to discuss polygamy. He asked Ali Green if we could visit the camp and the reply was, “yes, of course, sure”. They were just buying some drinks and would inform us when they were leaving. Parkipuny whispered that it was a great opportunity and I, who was only having soda, agreed. Though Ali Green and his OBC colleagues escaped, leaving without telling us.
On Friday 5 February, due to logistical problems I arrived in Soit Sambu very late and without Parkipuny, and did not know where to go. In the middle of “town” there was a big heap of mosquito nets from the government. I tried to make some phone calls, but there was no Voda coverage except for a few seconds sometimes next to a little dry tree. The driver and his friend went for lunch and time was running out, as the vehicle I had rented had to be back in Wasso before 4 pm. I thought I’d heard Parkipuny saying something about “ofisi ya kijiji” so I went to the “ofisi ya kijiji” asking if anyone knew anything about a meeting. I even introduced myself as someone wanting to know if what Thomson Safaris were writing on the Internet was true. The men in the office were the Ward Executive Officer, Amati, and the Ward Educational Coordinator, so I thought they were working with the Ward Councillor, about whom I didn’t know anything, except that Parkipuny was waiting for him. Some village representatives arrived, I asked the men at the office what they thought about the conflict, but they couldn’t say anything about this sensitive issue without talking to the District Commissioner first. They were working under the DC! Talking to representatives for the government and Thomson Safaris should have been left for the last moments of my Loliondo stay. I continued asking for an un-official opinion, but the Ward Executive Officer phoned the District Commissioner who said he would be in Soit Sambu next morning and would answer my questions then. It suited me well as it would be market day with public transport and I would meet the new District Commissioner who had been appointed in March 2009. I had heard that he would be more reasonable than the old one. Though “reasonable” must be very relative, as he was heavily involved in the July 2009 OBC evictions.
The Ward Executive Officer suggested I buy everyone sodas and we walked off to the restaurant. His phone rang and he held it up so that everyone could see that the screen said “Thomson manager”. I was waiting for the government employees to leave, but they didn’t and I had to leave at 3 pm to be sure I wouldn’t return later than 4 pm. The Ward Executive Officer and Ward Educational Coordinator followed me to my vehicle and outside the restaurant was also the “Enashiva” vehicle loaded with a pile of mosquito nets.
After some other business I went to my room for a while before dinner, there was a knock on my door and I was told that the police had been at the guesthouse looking for me.
In the morning I decided that the best thing to do was to go to Soit Sambu and hope for some informative pro-Thomson spectacle by the District Commissioner. Though, because of the visit by the police, I would not be going to the “ofisi ya kijiji” without Parkipuny who should be around on a market day. There was a long wait for the bus and I had to decline several offers of cheaper transport as I had already bought the bus ticket. When the bus had finally arrived a policeman approached me and told me the District Commissioner wanted to see me at his office. I protested that I was going to meet him in Soit Sambu, but the District Commissioner had changed his plans and was going to Soit Sambu later. A young policewoman accompanied the policeman and I had to go with them in their vehicle first to the Loliondo police station and then to the District Commissioner’s office. An ironic detail was that I was told to “feel free” – the favourite phrase of all annoying salesmen intent on forcing me to buy something I don’t want. Otherwise I didn’t notice many details as I was on my mobile phone sending text messages all the time.
At the District Commissioner’s office I was shown into a room where, apart from the DC himself, Elias Wawa Lali, five men from the Ngorongoro Security Committee were seated around a table. I should have written down their names, but I was very busy on my phone trying to alert relatives and friends of my whereabouts. My friend - in Dodoma at that moment - had phoned the Swedish Embassy in Dar es Salaam and my brother had phoned the Foreign Ministry in Sweden. I did not get any explanation at all regarding the meeting in Soit Sambu. Instead the committee wanted to know what permit I had to be working in Tanzania. I didn’t have any permits except the tourist visa and I wasn’t working. Nobody – anywhere – was paying me any money at all. I guess my replies about my “profession” made me even more suspect, as I don’t have a profession, but have mostly earned the money I have teaching Spanish as an un-qualified teacher. Maybe I should have mentioned my import “business”, but that “business” hardly exists. I wrote down the name of the headmaster at the latest school where I’d worked for a longer time, so that they could phone him, but I don’t think they did. The District Commissioner wanted to know who had paid my ticket. As if anyone would be that generous… He was interested in the owner of the vehicle used for the “Enashiva” visit, but this person had nothing to do with the whole issue, except for doing business.
I was driven back to the guesthouse to get my passport. The Security Committee joined their heads gleefully looking at my visa stamp and then I was asked to read what it said, “employment with or without pay is strictly prohibited”. But, I still wasn’t employed by anyone. I was told there is no country in the world where I can just go and ask people about sensitive issues (really?) and I was asked, “how would you feel if someone came into your house and started asking your children what was going on?” I had only talked to grown up Tanzanian citizens that weren’t the children of any authorities, but if they were there would be a clear case of child abuse. I did NOT say this. Instead I calmly explained that I am a repeat visitor to East Africa and that exchanging information with people on the Internet is my main activity AFTER work. I had even discussed this sensitive issue with Thomson Safaris and they had strongly urged me to go and speak with people on the ground – which I did asking them if what the safari company was writing on the Internet was true. I was even shown around by a former Member of Parliament part of the time (but this did not impress). It was more than obvious that the Security Committee just wanted to get rid of me. They claimed to have talked to Thomson Safaris’ Boston office that said that what they had told me was that I had to arrange a meeting in Arusha if I wanted to see the local manager, nothing else. Anyone doing research had to seek a permit through Dar es Salaam and Arusha. It was also for my own safety as I could be bitten by a snake (don’t ask me how come Tanzanian reptiles respect written documents because it was not explained to me). “Research” is a matter of definition, but I suppose it’s something I could be accused of having tried to do. All documentation about me would be sent to the president. Last year they had a big problem with someone who came and then wrote about Loliondo issues all over the Internet! My passport was confiscated and sent to Arusha for investigation and I would have to go to the office of the Regional Commissioner on Tuesday morning. It was Saturday and there would be a bus to Arusha the following morning.
The Security Committee wanted prints of my photos from the day we visited the “Enashiva” guards and asked me how to get this. They did not have a computer or printer. I went with two men working for the Security Committee to an office that I should not have involved in this problem. One of the men getting the prints said he hoped I was enjoying my stay in Tanzania, or something to that effect. It was just too much when my passport had been confiscated and my expensive plans thwarted by the nasty, stupid and corrupt bullies of the Security Committee. I said that most people were very friendly and that I definitely would return, but that what they were doing wasn’t a nice way of treating visitors at all.
The guesthouse where I was staying could not have someone who had been interrogated by the Security Committee staying for a single night. Some staff offered their homes, but I went to another guesthouse. A dear newfound friend stayed with me until I went to bed and barricaded the door with all furniture available. I had been asked if I had any idea how dangerous what I was doing was. I did have some idea, but seeing the closeness in which people are living made me careless. Though only a little peek under the surface was needed to perceive the fear among people in Loliondo. That night it rained heavily, which contributed to a rather Gothic feeling, but bad things are more likely to stay at home when it’s raining.
Thomson Safaris had not since September 2009 updated the blog they created to attack Alex Renton, but only a few days after my encounter with the Security Committee they wrote about “The Enyuata Women’s Collaborative” (I’ve met them) and “The People of Sukenya” (their name for the selected Laitaiyok leader that they’ve befriended) then they filled up with “Select Projects Update” (Focus on Tanzanian Communities), “Future Plans”, “Investigative Report Summary” and “Sukenya Sub-Village: Will its People Finally have a voice” (Thomson Safaris thought that recent decisions about re-formation of villages would be beneficial for their divide and rule tactics - but later they removed this blog entry for some reason). They also added some videos with Laitaiyok leaders voicing their support for Thomson Safaris and thanking them on behalf of the Enyuata Women’s Collaborative with the “Enashiva” manager translating. Now in March they’ve added “Tanzania Conservation Ltd Staff” (“wildlife scouts”...) and “Sukenya Leaders Support TCL”. This recently renewed blog activity could have something to do with the recently initiated court case.
In August 2008 the Prime Minister commissioned an investigation into allegations concerning the sale of Sukenya Farm. This of course is the same as criminals investigating themselves. Before any conclusions were presented, the Tanzania Tourism Board decided to honour Thomson Safaris with the 2009 Tanzania Conservation Award for their “community based conservation project Enashiva Nature Refuge” and the ceremony took place in Egypt in May with the minister for Natural Resources and Tourism attending. No report has been published, but a summary has been presented to the District Council and it unsurprisingly concludes that the sales both to TBL and later to Thomson Safaris were very legal and that the conflict – like in the OBC case – is due to tourism companies and NGOs, throwing in some blame on Kenyans and the Purko.
The ten-hour bus trip to Arusha was an extremely frustrating affair leaving behind so many people that I hadn’t talked with and Mondorosi and Enadooshoke sub-villages without visiting. Though the land was beautiful and green and full of plains game; I was a bit worried about passing the Ngorongoro gate without a passport, but all interest was on the US$50 Ngorongoro Conservation Area fee that you have to pay even when you’re just passing by bus. I didn’t have any kind of document explaining that my passport had been confiscated.
Once at the office of the Regional Commissioner in Arusha I was told that he was abroad and then I was sent to Immigration instead. At Immigration I was interrogated by a clueless security officer who scolded me for saying I was a tourist when I had built houses in Loliondo. Eh? Then I was told to write a summary of what had happened and I scribbled down a short but absolutely truthful summary. In the same room was a woman applying for citizenship. She wrote a note and held it up in her palm so that I could see it. The note said, “Take care. They are up to something big.”
I’d been on the phone several times with the Embassy in Dar es Salaam and they asked if I would like the Finnish Honorary Consul to accompany me to the Regional Commissioner next morning. Unbelievably as it sounds, Sweden does not have a consulate in what former US president, Bill Clinton, described as “the Geneva of Africa”. The Finnish consul very graciously followed me to the Regional Commissioner who was still away. Then we visited Immigration Officer Nyaki who had missed the consul’s inauguration party. He told me to return in the afternoon, which I did alone, and then I was told that my documentation was with Regional Security and I should return the following morning. Nyaki informed me that I had a problem, as if I hadn’t noticed, and that he next day would have to do what he was told to do about me.
Thursday 11 February a woman at Immigration took my statement. She said that the problem was Loliondo being a very political area and I could have been involved in human rights. I got a bank slip saying I would have to pay US$400 as a “special pass fee”. I asked Nyaki when I would get my passport back and he got very angry saying that I was “arguing” with him. He wanted me to go home to Sweden this afternoon, but I told him I had a ticket for the 21st that couldn’t be changed, which made him even angrier. I paid US$400 at the bank and then it was too late to return to Immigration.
Friday morning I took the bank slip to Immigration where they said it hadn’t gone through the machine at the bank, so I had to return to get a stamp with a signature. Nyaki wasn’t around and I didn’t miss him. I handed the slip to a man in charge of those things and he asked me for my passport! I told him it must be somewhere in the building and he went to fetch it, gave me a receipt – and the passport. I asked if everything was finished and it was. Very quietly I left Immigration on the way meeting the woman who took my statement. I had been let go and needed to make the most of the almost ruined trip. I contemplated returning to Loliondo, which felt a bit dangerous, but I wasn’t sure I would be able to get any information in Arusha. When I phoned the Embassy I was very strongly advised to leave Tanzania as soon as possible. Some 15 minutes after having returned to the guesthouse there was a knock on my door. It was the woman from Immigration together with another Immigration employee. They had forgot to stamp my passport and the boss was away. They took the passport again and told me to return to the office on Monday 15 February – it was Friday afternoon. After another 15 minutes or so I got a text message saying, “Sorry madam, you are needed at the office right now”. Back at Immigration I got a stamp in my passport declaring me a prohibited immigrant contrary to section 10(f) of Immigration Act no 7 of 1995*. I also got a document called “Notice to Prohibited Immigrant”. The woman who took my statement and the security officer who accused me of building houses said that it was just “a matter of procedure”.
I went to Kenya for the rest of my trip.
Now what Thomson Safaris have to do is to pick up their stuff and get off Sukenya Farm. Maybe they could have a camp on a few acres next to the road where they could continue their philanthropic projects without threatening people’s lives and livelihoods. The sooner they start re-building their reputation, the better. I doubt they can make Tanzania Breweries Ltd return the $1.2 million, but that’s something they have to take. The court case against Thomson Safaris (Tanzania Conservation Ltd) is ongoing and I have fingers and toes crossed. Though it is extremely rare for pastoralists to win court cases in Tanzania. What’s really important is that anyone contemplating a trip with Thomson Safaris reconsiders and tells the company why they will not get their business. Apart from Thomson Safaris Ltd, Tanzania Conservation Ltd - that was used to buy Sukenya Farm - Thomson Family Adventure Ltd and Nature Discovery Ltd are all divisions of Wineland-Thomson Adventures Inc. They also own Gibb’s Farm in Karatu that has to be avoided because of the current owners.
Please, tell people about this.
Susanna Nordlund
sannasus@hotmail.com
*Section 10(F) of the Immigration Act says:
(f) a person whose entry into or continued presence in Tanzania is,
in the opinion of the Minister of the Director, undesirable and
is declared by the Minister or the Director to be a prohibited
immigrant; except that every declaration of the Director under
this paragraph shall be subject to confirmation by the Minister,
whose decision shall be final;
(In case anyone would like to give me legal advice.)
Article 18 of the Constitution of Tanzania, states that, every person,(a) has a freedom of opinion and expression of his ideas;(b) has a right to seek, receive and impart or disseminate information regardless of national frontiers;(c) has a right to freedom to communicate and a right of freedom from interference with his right of communication;
I'd say that "every person" includes tourists.
(paragraph added to this blog post on 3 June)
Update September 2010
I’ve been told that the court case keeps getting delayed, but that the arrests have stopped and the harassment has been reduced since it was initiated.
In April Thomson Safaris approached the MP for Ngorongoro to arrange a big meeting with Soit Sambu Village Council and the three Maasai sections, but then they never turned up.
Soit Sambu Village Chairman was interrogated by the police about why a court case had been initiated.
Thomson Safaris have stepped up their propaganda war bringing the US ambassador to announce the construction of teachers’ housing at Sukenya Primary School.
Mondorosi have refused (!) money for their school.
Soit Sambu Village is in the process of being split up. New villages bordering the disputed land will be Sukenya and Mondorosi. Sukenya will be part of the new allegedly OBC friendly Oloipiri Ward.
Regarding Otterlo Business Corporation, I wrote a blog entry of what I was told about the women’s protests in April. http://termitemoundview.blogspot.com/2010/04/loliondo-women-say-enough-is-enough.html
Currently the threat is the government’s plans to take away a corridor from village land where OBC will be able to hunt undisturbed, and the renewal of the hunting permit.
Update 6 February 2011
http://termitemoundview.blogspot.com/2011/02/some-updates-on-thomson-safaris-and.html
The best-known Loliondo land conflict is that with Otterlo Business Corporation. In 1992 a hunting block – which is just a kind of hunting concession and shouldn’t be about land alienation – was given to this company, owned by a member of the Dubai royal family of the United Arab Emirates, by the Tanzanian government. The contract was for 10 years and without the consent of the affected villages, and eventually the way it had been allocated led to a mayor scandal called Loliondogate, which involved the Office of the President, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism as well as the Attorney General. This contract was revoked in 1999, because of its illegalities, but new 5-year contracts have kept being signed against the wishes of pastoralists whose mobile grazing has been disturbed by the hunting activities. There is a conflict between legal systems where the right of villages to manage land clashes with the Ministerial Wildlife Division’s authority over wildlife. There have also been allegations of the breaking of hunting laws, including the illegal transport of live wildlife out of the country, and of violent acts against local people, including assassinations. The company became tired of the conflicts and in 2007 it entered “development cooperation contracts” with several villages. Though two villages refused to sign any contracts. These contracts contained various flaws and varied from village to village. OBC has been involved in several development projects – even before the new contracts - but these have been far from outweighing the resource losses. In May 2009, during a severe drought, the company donated 100 tonnes of grain to the residents of Ngorongoro District and this was the last thing media reported about OBC before 4 July 2009 when Tanzania’s special police force – the Field Force Unit – together with the company – started clearing OBC’s “operational ground” for the hunting season. Letters of warning had been sent to villages from different government authorities since early May, but nobody acted since according to the contract the coordination of hunting and grazing should be arranged in meetings with OBC, and those meetings had never materialized. 150 bomas (homesteads) were destroyed in the fires set ablaze by the Field Force Unit, stored grain and maize fields were destroyed, 60,000 heads of cattle were pushed into an extreme drought area, calves were left behind in the stampede, there was a shortage of water both for animals and people, 12 men were beaten by the police and three seriously injured, four children were lost – three were found and one – Nashipai Gume from Arash - is still missing – four goats were burnt to death in the blast, 27 people were arrested and 12 have been prosecuted. First both the Prime Minister and the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism denied any knowledge of the incident, then it was said that the Maasai had burned their own houses as a sign of acceptance. In media presenting the government view giving room for an investor was soon described as “protecting the environment”. The Maasai were “accused” of coming from Kenya, it was claimed journalists and NGOs had burnt the houses. The minister for Natural Resources and Tourism lashed out against NGOs in Loliondo accusing them of “breaching peace” and the Regional Commissioner threatened with having them all “audited”. Some say that there are tourism companies that have done deals with villages without threatening land tenure, but the Government prefer the likes of OBC and Thomson Safaris. A parliamentary committee on investigate mission late last year (2009) conveniently found a dead elephant with missing tusks right next to the airstrip of one of these companies.
The Tanzanian state’s attitude towards pastoralism has at best been ambiguous, while the current government has been downright hostile from the beginning. Apart from in Loliondo, the government has supported “investors” in agriculture, mining, conservation or tourism against the rights of pastoralists in many other places like for example Mbarali and Kilosa where human rights abuses have been committed. Despite the fact that pastoralism is the backbone of Tanzania’s commercial livestock sector and that almost all the wildlife that attracts significant foreign earnings is located in pastoral areas pastoralism is seen as undesirable by the government. Already in his inauguration speech in December 2005 the president stated, “Mr. Speaker, we must abandon altogether nomadic pastoralism which makes the whole country pastureland...The cattle are bony and the pastoralists are sacks of skeletons. We cannot move forward with this type of pastoralism in the twenty first century.” And I March 2006 he stated, “I am committed to taking unpopular steps to pastoralists in order to protect the environment for the benefit of the nation and future generations.”
Not all the Maasai in Loliondo oppose OBC. There are three Maasai sections, popularly known as “clans”, living in the area – the Purko, the Loita and the Laitaiyok. The government has used the classic divide and rule technique sometimes working with corrupt local leaders that think they can support anti-pastoralist policies that will mostly hurt people from other clans than their own, or that will even just benefit them personally. It’s said there were Purko and Loita leaders that in 1992 collaborated in signing away the hunting concession to OBC. At the moment the minority Laitaiyok clan, that claim to have been politically marginalized, is being used in this way. Unfortunately, in Loliondo even the organisations working for human rights can each be described as associated to one of the three sections or clans. Navaya ole Ndaskoi – a researcher with ample knowledge about the struggle of pastoralists and hunter-gatherers all over Tanzania – says, “A radical change in the mentality of the human rights activists in Ngorongoro is a must if the land is to stay. Otherwise the land is gone without fight. Trading on tribalism may indeed help some selfish people. It will never help the marginalized in Ngorongoro.”
Another conflict – that tourists to Tanzania (like myself) should be able to do something about – is that of Sukenya Farm. Unlike its name suggests, Sukenya Farm is mostly open grazing land and not a “farm” and lies in Soit Sambu village bordered by the Sukenya, Mondorosi and Enadooshoke sub-villages, and also Enguserosambu village to the northeast. In 1984 the then state-owned Tanzania Breweries Limited got hold of the 10,000 acres Sukenya Farm. Exactly how is unclear, but the talk is about forged documents and corrupt leaders. What is clear is that the land was allocated by the District Land Allocation Committee, which according to the law at that time could only grant up to 100 acres. Of the 10,000 acres TBL cultivated 100 acres during the 1985-1986 season and 700 acres during the 1986-1987 season. Thereafter they left the land due to conditions that were too dry for barley cultivation. Some villagers took the case to court in 1987 where they lost and in 1991 they lodged an appeal to the High Court, which was dismissed for non-appearance in 1995. By then the problem had been solved by itself - it seemed - and the grazing land was back in the hands of the pastoralists whose customary tenure should be more than evident.
Shockingly – and with immediate protests from Soit Sambu village - in 2006 TBL announced that they were “selling” Sukenya Farm. Somehow in 2003 they had obtained a 99-year Right of Occupancy for 12,617 acres (some 51 square kilometres) from the Land Commissioner and eventually in 2006 they sub-leased the land to Tanzania Conservation Limited, a sister company (founded specifically for this purchase) of the high profile and extremely vocal US-owned Thomson Safaris. As a “culmination of nearly 30 years of Thomson’s commitment to Tanzania” they considered they had purchased a “pristine wilderness” to turn into their own nature refuge, which they subsequently re-named “Enashiva [Happiness] Nature Refuge”. Though in the language spoken in Loliondo “Enashipa” would have been a more correct spelling than the Arusha-style “Enashiva”. The land was theirs and their guards aided by the local police started blocking grazing. The disputed land lies right between several sub-villages and many homesteads, and apart from taking away important grazing, the invasion by the safari company seriously impedes movement of people and livestock to other grazing areas and to watering points. When “Thomson’s land” “from there to there” is pointed out to you by a local pastoralist the sense of rudeness of this company from another side of the world, owned by a family of four, is overwhelming.
In May 2008 a link to an article on an Internet forum frequented by Africa travellers made me aware of the conflict. For some years East Africa and its wildlife had been the centre of my universe and I had come across information about injustices committed towards the pastoralists on whose land the great wildlife numbers were found. I had also come across an immense naivety shown by many travellers viewing the tourist companies reaping benefits from the pastoralist lands as charitable organisations if they had contributed to building a classroom or two. I expressed my frustration that everyone, including myself, would soon have forgotten everything about the issue and that Thomson Safaris’ story would take precedence, but then a business associate of the company chimed in that the whole problem was “a local Kenyan Maasai woman that encouraged all locals to squat on the land and use it for their benefit” and this chiming in made me less likely to forget. Much later did I hear of the Tanzanian government’s habit of accusing “troublemakers” of being from the nearest neighbouring country.
Then to my surprise I found information that an international photojournalist, New Zealand-born Trent Keegan, had investigated the harassment of “trespassing” pastoralists at Sukenya Farm, but tragically he was already dead, murdered in Nairobi on 28 May 2008. Trent’s laptop and camera were stolen, but not the money he was carrying or his Visa card. In Loliondo he had been visited by the police at the place where he was staying and he had encountered Thomson’s guards.
Later I found the blog of Trent’s friend, volunteer worker Brian MacCormaic, who at the time had been assisting a school in Ololosokwan as an advisor. The owners of Thomson Safaris, Rick Thomson and Judi Wineland flew over to Tanzania when they heard there were rumours about the murder and Brian, thinking that they might be unaware of what was happening on the ground, arranged to meet them. The company owners were staying in Wasso and were also supposed to have a meeting with the Village Council in Soit Sambu that lies between Ololosokwan and Wasso, so Brian was surprised that they insisted on meeting him in Wasso. It was clear that Rick and Judi would not meet the Village Council. Instead they were having a meeting with a “grazing committee” handpicked by the District Commissioner and they insisted that Brian, who had come for a private talk, join the meeting with this handpicked committee. The committee spoke Maa, the Maasai language, and the translator was Thomson’s local manager, Daniel Yamat. A bishop that accompanied Rick and Judi did not speak Maa, and neither did the company owners or Brian. Almost immediately the atmosphere became hostile towards Brian, and he was prevented from leaving. When he was about to leave the compound anyway a Thomson Safari vehicle with some ten armed men arrived and these men started blocking his departure. After some considerable time and a phone call to the Regional Commissioner Brian was finally let go. By this time he was convinced that at least Rick Thomson was fully aware about what was happening on the ground.
A few days later Brian was summoned to the District Commissioner’s office outside of which he met Daniel Yamat who boasted about having files from Brian’s computer, naming several of the files. Later the headmaster of the school witnessed at a meeting with the District Commissioner how Daniel presented prints of personal files from Brian’s – and from Trent’s -computers.
In February 2009 British journalist Alex Renton and photographer Caroline Irby went to Ngorongoro on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the eviction from the Serengeti. They had a look at the favoured “investors” OBC and Thomson Safaris. In Soit Sambu they met the then Village Chairman James Lembikas who had expressed some support for Thomson, which must be the reason that the company, that had never had a meeting with the Village Council, for a long time boasted about their excellent relations with the village government. Detractors of Lembikas say that he was paid by Thomson while he himself, according to people who know him, says he was intimidated by the District Commisssioner. As my recent Loliondo trip got cut short I never got the opportunity to talk to Lembikas. Anyway, he was the chairman for some 20 years, but no longer.
Even before having Lembikas voted out the Soit Sambu Village Council sent a petition to the president about the situation and recently they have initiated a court case against Thomson Safaris to regain their land.
After an invitation from Thomson Safaris’ Arusha manager and a phone appointment with Daniel Yamat, Alex and Caroline went to visit “Enashiva”, but the manager refused to show them around or answer any questions, and 10 minutes after leaving they were stopped by the police and sent to the District Commissioner’s office where their passports were confiscated and then they were escorted out of the district by the police and sent to Arusha for investigation. The District Commissioner’s secretary told Alex and Caroline that they were acting on a complaint from Thomson Safaris about their questions.
In March 2009 the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination sent a letter to the Tanzanian Government requesting information about the Sukenya Farm conflict, but I don’t know if they have received a reply. They also requested some interim measures – like allowing grazing and watering, suspending commercial development, ensuring physical security and investigating brutality and criminality - to be put in place, which has not happened.
Alex Renton’s article wasn’t published until early September 2009. A couple of weeks earlier when Thomson Safaris knew about the publication, they started their own blog about their “Enashiva” project. Their reaction to the article was extremely aggressive, basically accusing this journalist with more than 20 years of experience of making it all up. In a point-by-point “rebuttal” their lies were so wild that they could only have been written for prospective clients with no knowledge of the area at all, and some participants in travel forums actually were convinced by these writings. I wasn’t, as I had some information from Tanzania. Another particularity of this safari company is having a journalist on staff and managing to get their press releases published as “news” in the Tanzanian press, often with something like “by staff reporter” as by line. I was hoping for someone to go and talk to people affected, tell them about what Thomson Safaris were saying and ask them what really was happening. Time passed and it didn’t happen, so when the New Year 2010 began I decided I had to go even though I’m not a journalist or a researcher.
In late October 2009 signs were put up around the disputed land saying that the Government was changing the land use classification from pastoralism and agriculture to tourism and conservation and that anyone affected should express his/her opinion within 30 days. Soit Sambu Village Council, including the Sukenya Sub-Village Chairman, very strongly opposed this change, as did the District Council.
In April 2008 Lesingo ole Nanyoi got shot in the jaw in a confrontation with Thomson guards reinforced by the police. In their rebuttal of Alex Renton’s article Thomson Safaris say that “Lesingo Ole Nanyoi was not involved in a confrontation at Enashiva and has since admitted that his injuries did not occur there.” I personally met Lesingo in Wasso on my recent trip in February 2010. He says he was together with some other herders on their way to River Pololet watering point near the disputed land where pastoralists have watered their animals for centuries when they were approached by angry Thomson guards telling them, “this land does not belong to you anymore” and a discussion ensued. Police reinforcement arrived, there was a push and pull situation and three shots were fired. One shot hit Lesingo in the jaw, people fled, some cows managed to get water. Lesingo was first taken to the nearest dispensary that’s in Kenya and later in the evening to Wasso hospital. Then he was moved to Muhimbili Hospital where he had to stay for one and a half month. There has not been any independent investigation at all. According to Lesingo, Thomson Safaris are corrupt and not at all fair to the community. Despite writing about him, nobody from the company has ever talked to Lesingo; only their local manager approached his father trying to corrupt him when Lesingo was in hospital. Lesingo would like to personally inform the owners of Thomson Safaris exactly what happened.
Harassment and arrests of herders by Thomson guards and the police continue. Unsurprisingly, Thomson Safaris are saying that everything is fabrication by a minority from a Purko sub-clan associated to an NGO, but the list is very long. My plan before I was kicked out of Loliondo was to talk to as many on this list as possible. Lesingo ole Nanyoi’s own brother got caught herding his cattle near the disputed land in November 2009, was taken to prison and released after paying a big fine.
Thomson Safaris have borrowed OBC’s Laitaiyok trick befriending some selected leaders from this minority clan that is majority – approximately three quarters of the population - in Sukenya sub-village (the Purko are majority in Enadooshoke and Mondorosi, and Enguserosambu is Loita dominated). Though Shangai ole Putaa – a traditional Laitaiyok leader and Soit Sambu Sub-Village Chairman (not “ward chairman” as claimed in Thomson’s blog) – opposed Thomson Safaris publicly during the president’s Ngorongoro tour in March 2007. Of course, Thomson Safaris claim that he didn’t oppose them, but the contrary is common knowledge and I’ve heard several first hand accounts. Stranger than this is that the safari company also claim that nobody knows who killed Shangai in November 2007 when even the Regional Police Commander has confirmed that the local police did it when he tried to escape while under custody suspected of knowing the place of some hidden weapons (most people find it highly unlikely that Shangai would have been involved in any crime). There has not been any serious investigation. Meeting the Putaa family was on my “programme” before being thrown out of Loliondo and then out of Tanzania.
During a previous East Africa trip in June/July 2009 I got on the bus for a few days in Loliondo without talking to anyone except an ambitious young man who hijacked me upon arrival in Soit Sambu with the intent of becoming my guide for the rest of my trip. He was a great admirer of Thomson Safaris and wanted to work for them. His view was that people hated them because, unlike he himself, they were un-educated and only cared about cattle.
This time I was determined to get more information without becoming dangerously indiscreet. I was assisted in finding a guy with a motorbike and was off to Sukenya sub-village. Thomson Safaris urge people to speak to Enyuata Women’s Collaborative, the Sukenya Primary School and the Laitaiyok council of traditional Maasai leaders and elders. As it was Saturday, it would be a good day for visiting the school. This would be a visit to state employed, non-pastoralists outsiders with every reason to support Thomson. Thomson Safaris, like many other tourism companies, have their own charitable organisation that their clients donate to for a combination of some worthwhile projects and propaganda for the company, and schools have been a speciality of this organisation that until recently was named Friends of Tanzanian Schools. Now its name is Focus on Tanzanian Communities. The extremely friendly and welcoming head teacher was accompanied by an equally friendly head teacher from a neighbouring sub-village, as they were preparing for the upcoming elections that would take place at the school. I’ve had some teaching experiences and the rate of pupils per teacher at the Sukenya Primary School was simply terrifying. More housing for teachers was needed to solve this problem and teachers’ housing for 2-3 new teachers is exactly what Focus on Tanzanian Communities claim to have announced they will be building this year. Though the teachers had not heard anything about this saying that Thomson Safaris may have given something to the village, but never anything at all to the school – neither had anyone else - and they declared that Thomson take a lot and give very little. Maybe the on-line announcement was more urgent than the one on the ground. Though it looks like the Sukenya Primary School head teacher will soon feature in an elaborate youtubed thanking ritual on Thomson’s blog.
The other charitable/propaganda projects that Focus on Tanzanian Communities has been involved in are: the delivery of 50 ton of food aid (maize) in August 2009 during the prolonged and very severe drought. It was government food aid – which further strengthened the safari company’s excellent relation to the anti-pastoralist government - and a dream for an occupying force like Thomson Safaris.
And in 2008 the repair and borehole re-drilling of the well – built originally in the 50s as a part of the so-called “Serengeti Compensation Scheme” - next to Sukenya Primary School. Though the pump does no longer work, allegedly because it was “vandalized by a jealous clan”.
After meeting Moringe ole Parkipuny I thought I had found a more efficient way of finding out what was going on – just asking! This Member of Parliament for Ngorongoro in the 80s was the first African to address the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations in Geneva. After a period of exile following an assassination attempt Parkipuny found new organisations had sprung up working for indigenous people’s (the Maasai and other pastoralists, and hunter-gatherers like the Hadza, Dorobo and Sandawe) rights but he is not impressed with their achievements in influencing the Tanzanian state. The day I went to see him at his home we were off to Sukenya in a rented vehicle in the afternoon. We visited a Loita – not Purko (the clan Thomson think all their detractors come from) - boma with some people very unhappy about Thomson Safaris. They quickly assisted Parkipuny in making a list of the “Enashiva” staff. The manager and driver are outsiders, of eleven guards two are Purko and two are from the agricultural Sonjo tribe that mainly inhabit the neighbouring Sale division while the rest are Laitaiyok. They also said that the Sub-Village Chairman was on the payroll. There is some house keeping staff as well, but those people don’t participate in the harassment of herders. These people claimed that practically all Loita and Purko oppose Thomson while the company had bought some Laitaiyok leaders living out along the road. They said that Enyuata Women’s Collaborative basically consists of the wives of these leaders. In 2008 Thomson had made a big circus of donating the cheapest Chinese made maize grinder to this collaborative (this donation apparently was from Thomson Safaris and a guest, and not Focus on Tanzanian Communities).
Parkipuny got the idea that we should just go to “Enashiva” for a friendly visit and a drink. This wasn’t cautious at all, but I was curious and off we went. Parkipuny got out next to the staff housing to talk to a very tense looking guard. Within seconds another guard talking on a phone appeared and then a third one with a bow and poison arrow ready in hand. The people from the Loita boma had said that the guards had both firearms and bows and I’ve also seen pictures of this, but one of the more farcical aspects of Thomson Safaris is the way they in their propaganda material insist on that they don’t even have guards, but only “unarmed wildlife scouts”. I couldn’t resist snapping a picture, the guards got even more upset and we had to leave. They had phoned the manager who was in Arusha. The guards were mostly interested in the vehicle writing down the registration number and there was little risk they would know who I was.
I met Parkipuny again the following day and during the night he had been “visited” by three men with a powerful searchlight. Fortunately, he was accompanied by three friends and the “visitors” were chased off. One of Parkipuny’s friends, who was from Sukenya, said that Thomson Safaris use that kind of searchlight.
I wasn’t in a hurry, thinking I would still have a week or two left for talking to people, and the last day of January I was again off to Sukenya together with Parkipuny. As there was a celebration for a girl that was getting married, not many people were around. Parkipuny found some friends to talk to and then we found one of the women of Enyuata Women’s Collaborative. I had met this very friendly and laughing group on my visit by motorbike, but lacked language skills and was still too discreet to talk with them about Thomson Safaris. It must be noted that this women’s group are the people Thomson Safaris most strongly urge anyone to talk with to experience the “overwhelming support” for their “Enashiva” project. This member spoke very frankly and had no problem sharing her opinion: Yes, the group of 20 women do business with Thomson, but they live of cattle and not beads. They complained in Loliondo Town about Thomson invading the land, but are very poor and would do business with the devil. They sell to anyone passing, like they sold me a snuff container. They also go and sing at the camp - if Thomson pay.
It’s just common sense that a pastoralist would value the land more than a bead business opportunity. The Laitiyok are pastoralists like everyone else and it would be a good idea to talk with them and work together with them instead of thinking that they have some con-genital defect that make them collaborate with the nastiest of “investors” – even though some of their leaders apparently are doing this.
We continued to Soit Sambu and sat down in a central restaurant where anyone may turn up. Thomson Safaris’ driver made an appearance, Parkipuny enquired about visiting the camp and was told it’s only possible with a special permit. Many people wanted to talk about Thomson. I had - very unwisely, I would later discover - written a list of what the safari company is saying on the Internet. The things said astonished some people from sub-villages bordering the disputed land. I needed interviews, but it certainly wasn’t the right time or place. There would be a meeting the following morning at ten and we would return to Soit Sambu then.
Later a black, but Arab and tourist (shorts and slightly round) looking man presented himself as Ali Green from the UAE, wondering if I knew what UAE was, which I did … He told me they were hunting and had a camp “that way”. Parkipuny, who wasn’t having soda, presented himself as “the chief of all the Maasai” and me as his only wife, and wanted to discuss polygamy. He asked Ali Green if we could visit the camp and the reply was, “yes, of course, sure”. They were just buying some drinks and would inform us when they were leaving. Parkipuny whispered that it was a great opportunity and I, who was only having soda, agreed. Though Ali Green and his OBC colleagues escaped, leaving without telling us.
On Friday 5 February, due to logistical problems I arrived in Soit Sambu very late and without Parkipuny, and did not know where to go. In the middle of “town” there was a big heap of mosquito nets from the government. I tried to make some phone calls, but there was no Voda coverage except for a few seconds sometimes next to a little dry tree. The driver and his friend went for lunch and time was running out, as the vehicle I had rented had to be back in Wasso before 4 pm. I thought I’d heard Parkipuny saying something about “ofisi ya kijiji” so I went to the “ofisi ya kijiji” asking if anyone knew anything about a meeting. I even introduced myself as someone wanting to know if what Thomson Safaris were writing on the Internet was true. The men in the office were the Ward Executive Officer, Amati, and the Ward Educational Coordinator, so I thought they were working with the Ward Councillor, about whom I didn’t know anything, except that Parkipuny was waiting for him. Some village representatives arrived, I asked the men at the office what they thought about the conflict, but they couldn’t say anything about this sensitive issue without talking to the District Commissioner first. They were working under the DC! Talking to representatives for the government and Thomson Safaris should have been left for the last moments of my Loliondo stay. I continued asking for an un-official opinion, but the Ward Executive Officer phoned the District Commissioner who said he would be in Soit Sambu next morning and would answer my questions then. It suited me well as it would be market day with public transport and I would meet the new District Commissioner who had been appointed in March 2009. I had heard that he would be more reasonable than the old one. Though “reasonable” must be very relative, as he was heavily involved in the July 2009 OBC evictions.
The Ward Executive Officer suggested I buy everyone sodas and we walked off to the restaurant. His phone rang and he held it up so that everyone could see that the screen said “Thomson manager”. I was waiting for the government employees to leave, but they didn’t and I had to leave at 3 pm to be sure I wouldn’t return later than 4 pm. The Ward Executive Officer and Ward Educational Coordinator followed me to my vehicle and outside the restaurant was also the “Enashiva” vehicle loaded with a pile of mosquito nets.
After some other business I went to my room for a while before dinner, there was a knock on my door and I was told that the police had been at the guesthouse looking for me.
In the morning I decided that the best thing to do was to go to Soit Sambu and hope for some informative pro-Thomson spectacle by the District Commissioner. Though, because of the visit by the police, I would not be going to the “ofisi ya kijiji” without Parkipuny who should be around on a market day. There was a long wait for the bus and I had to decline several offers of cheaper transport as I had already bought the bus ticket. When the bus had finally arrived a policeman approached me and told me the District Commissioner wanted to see me at his office. I protested that I was going to meet him in Soit Sambu, but the District Commissioner had changed his plans and was going to Soit Sambu later. A young policewoman accompanied the policeman and I had to go with them in their vehicle first to the Loliondo police station and then to the District Commissioner’s office. An ironic detail was that I was told to “feel free” – the favourite phrase of all annoying salesmen intent on forcing me to buy something I don’t want. Otherwise I didn’t notice many details as I was on my mobile phone sending text messages all the time.
At the District Commissioner’s office I was shown into a room where, apart from the DC himself, Elias Wawa Lali, five men from the Ngorongoro Security Committee were seated around a table. I should have written down their names, but I was very busy on my phone trying to alert relatives and friends of my whereabouts. My friend - in Dodoma at that moment - had phoned the Swedish Embassy in Dar es Salaam and my brother had phoned the Foreign Ministry in Sweden. I did not get any explanation at all regarding the meeting in Soit Sambu. Instead the committee wanted to know what permit I had to be working in Tanzania. I didn’t have any permits except the tourist visa and I wasn’t working. Nobody – anywhere – was paying me any money at all. I guess my replies about my “profession” made me even more suspect, as I don’t have a profession, but have mostly earned the money I have teaching Spanish as an un-qualified teacher. Maybe I should have mentioned my import “business”, but that “business” hardly exists. I wrote down the name of the headmaster at the latest school where I’d worked for a longer time, so that they could phone him, but I don’t think they did. The District Commissioner wanted to know who had paid my ticket. As if anyone would be that generous… He was interested in the owner of the vehicle used for the “Enashiva” visit, but this person had nothing to do with the whole issue, except for doing business.
I was driven back to the guesthouse to get my passport. The Security Committee joined their heads gleefully looking at my visa stamp and then I was asked to read what it said, “employment with or without pay is strictly prohibited”. But, I still wasn’t employed by anyone. I was told there is no country in the world where I can just go and ask people about sensitive issues (really?) and I was asked, “how would you feel if someone came into your house and started asking your children what was going on?” I had only talked to grown up Tanzanian citizens that weren’t the children of any authorities, but if they were there would be a clear case of child abuse. I did NOT say this. Instead I calmly explained that I am a repeat visitor to East Africa and that exchanging information with people on the Internet is my main activity AFTER work. I had even discussed this sensitive issue with Thomson Safaris and they had strongly urged me to go and speak with people on the ground – which I did asking them if what the safari company was writing on the Internet was true. I was even shown around by a former Member of Parliament part of the time (but this did not impress). It was more than obvious that the Security Committee just wanted to get rid of me. They claimed to have talked to Thomson Safaris’ Boston office that said that what they had told me was that I had to arrange a meeting in Arusha if I wanted to see the local manager, nothing else. Anyone doing research had to seek a permit through Dar es Salaam and Arusha. It was also for my own safety as I could be bitten by a snake (don’t ask me how come Tanzanian reptiles respect written documents because it was not explained to me). “Research” is a matter of definition, but I suppose it’s something I could be accused of having tried to do. All documentation about me would be sent to the president. Last year they had a big problem with someone who came and then wrote about Loliondo issues all over the Internet! My passport was confiscated and sent to Arusha for investigation and I would have to go to the office of the Regional Commissioner on Tuesday morning. It was Saturday and there would be a bus to Arusha the following morning.
The Security Committee wanted prints of my photos from the day we visited the “Enashiva” guards and asked me how to get this. They did not have a computer or printer. I went with two men working for the Security Committee to an office that I should not have involved in this problem. One of the men getting the prints said he hoped I was enjoying my stay in Tanzania, or something to that effect. It was just too much when my passport had been confiscated and my expensive plans thwarted by the nasty, stupid and corrupt bullies of the Security Committee. I said that most people were very friendly and that I definitely would return, but that what they were doing wasn’t a nice way of treating visitors at all.
The guesthouse where I was staying could not have someone who had been interrogated by the Security Committee staying for a single night. Some staff offered their homes, but I went to another guesthouse. A dear newfound friend stayed with me until I went to bed and barricaded the door with all furniture available. I had been asked if I had any idea how dangerous what I was doing was. I did have some idea, but seeing the closeness in which people are living made me careless. Though only a little peek under the surface was needed to perceive the fear among people in Loliondo. That night it rained heavily, which contributed to a rather Gothic feeling, but bad things are more likely to stay at home when it’s raining.
Thomson Safaris had not since September 2009 updated the blog they created to attack Alex Renton, but only a few days after my encounter with the Security Committee they wrote about “The Enyuata Women’s Collaborative” (I’ve met them) and “The People of Sukenya” (their name for the selected Laitaiyok leader that they’ve befriended) then they filled up with “Select Projects Update” (Focus on Tanzanian Communities), “Future Plans”, “Investigative Report Summary” and “Sukenya Sub-Village: Will its People Finally have a voice” (Thomson Safaris thought that recent decisions about re-formation of villages would be beneficial for their divide and rule tactics - but later they removed this blog entry for some reason). They also added some videos with Laitaiyok leaders voicing their support for Thomson Safaris and thanking them on behalf of the Enyuata Women’s Collaborative with the “Enashiva” manager translating. Now in March they’ve added “Tanzania Conservation Ltd Staff” (“wildlife scouts”...) and “Sukenya Leaders Support TCL”. This recently renewed blog activity could have something to do with the recently initiated court case.
In August 2008 the Prime Minister commissioned an investigation into allegations concerning the sale of Sukenya Farm. This of course is the same as criminals investigating themselves. Before any conclusions were presented, the Tanzania Tourism Board decided to honour Thomson Safaris with the 2009 Tanzania Conservation Award for their “community based conservation project Enashiva Nature Refuge” and the ceremony took place in Egypt in May with the minister for Natural Resources and Tourism attending. No report has been published, but a summary has been presented to the District Council and it unsurprisingly concludes that the sales both to TBL and later to Thomson Safaris were very legal and that the conflict – like in the OBC case – is due to tourism companies and NGOs, throwing in some blame on Kenyans and the Purko.
The ten-hour bus trip to Arusha was an extremely frustrating affair leaving behind so many people that I hadn’t talked with and Mondorosi and Enadooshoke sub-villages without visiting. Though the land was beautiful and green and full of plains game; I was a bit worried about passing the Ngorongoro gate without a passport, but all interest was on the US$50 Ngorongoro Conservation Area fee that you have to pay even when you’re just passing by bus. I didn’t have any kind of document explaining that my passport had been confiscated.
Once at the office of the Regional Commissioner in Arusha I was told that he was abroad and then I was sent to Immigration instead. At Immigration I was interrogated by a clueless security officer who scolded me for saying I was a tourist when I had built houses in Loliondo. Eh? Then I was told to write a summary of what had happened and I scribbled down a short but absolutely truthful summary. In the same room was a woman applying for citizenship. She wrote a note and held it up in her palm so that I could see it. The note said, “Take care. They are up to something big.”
I’d been on the phone several times with the Embassy in Dar es Salaam and they asked if I would like the Finnish Honorary Consul to accompany me to the Regional Commissioner next morning. Unbelievably as it sounds, Sweden does not have a consulate in what former US president, Bill Clinton, described as “the Geneva of Africa”. The Finnish consul very graciously followed me to the Regional Commissioner who was still away. Then we visited Immigration Officer Nyaki who had missed the consul’s inauguration party. He told me to return in the afternoon, which I did alone, and then I was told that my documentation was with Regional Security and I should return the following morning. Nyaki informed me that I had a problem, as if I hadn’t noticed, and that he next day would have to do what he was told to do about me.
Thursday 11 February a woman at Immigration took my statement. She said that the problem was Loliondo being a very political area and I could have been involved in human rights. I got a bank slip saying I would have to pay US$400 as a “special pass fee”. I asked Nyaki when I would get my passport back and he got very angry saying that I was “arguing” with him. He wanted me to go home to Sweden this afternoon, but I told him I had a ticket for the 21st that couldn’t be changed, which made him even angrier. I paid US$400 at the bank and then it was too late to return to Immigration.
Friday morning I took the bank slip to Immigration where they said it hadn’t gone through the machine at the bank, so I had to return to get a stamp with a signature. Nyaki wasn’t around and I didn’t miss him. I handed the slip to a man in charge of those things and he asked me for my passport! I told him it must be somewhere in the building and he went to fetch it, gave me a receipt – and the passport. I asked if everything was finished and it was. Very quietly I left Immigration on the way meeting the woman who took my statement. I had been let go and needed to make the most of the almost ruined trip. I contemplated returning to Loliondo, which felt a bit dangerous, but I wasn’t sure I would be able to get any information in Arusha. When I phoned the Embassy I was very strongly advised to leave Tanzania as soon as possible. Some 15 minutes after having returned to the guesthouse there was a knock on my door. It was the woman from Immigration together with another Immigration employee. They had forgot to stamp my passport and the boss was away. They took the passport again and told me to return to the office on Monday 15 February – it was Friday afternoon. After another 15 minutes or so I got a text message saying, “Sorry madam, you are needed at the office right now”. Back at Immigration I got a stamp in my passport declaring me a prohibited immigrant contrary to section 10(f) of Immigration Act no 7 of 1995*. I also got a document called “Notice to Prohibited Immigrant”. The woman who took my statement and the security officer who accused me of building houses said that it was just “a matter of procedure”.
I went to Kenya for the rest of my trip.
Now what Thomson Safaris have to do is to pick up their stuff and get off Sukenya Farm. Maybe they could have a camp on a few acres next to the road where they could continue their philanthropic projects without threatening people’s lives and livelihoods. The sooner they start re-building their reputation, the better. I doubt they can make Tanzania Breweries Ltd return the $1.2 million, but that’s something they have to take. The court case against Thomson Safaris (Tanzania Conservation Ltd) is ongoing and I have fingers and toes crossed. Though it is extremely rare for pastoralists to win court cases in Tanzania. What’s really important is that anyone contemplating a trip with Thomson Safaris reconsiders and tells the company why they will not get their business. Apart from Thomson Safaris Ltd, Tanzania Conservation Ltd - that was used to buy Sukenya Farm - Thomson Family Adventure Ltd and Nature Discovery Ltd are all divisions of Wineland-Thomson Adventures Inc. They also own Gibb’s Farm in Karatu that has to be avoided because of the current owners.
Please, tell people about this.
Susanna Nordlund
sannasus@hotmail.com
*Section 10(F) of the Immigration Act says:
(f) a person whose entry into or continued presence in Tanzania is,
in the opinion of the Minister of the Director, undesirable and
is declared by the Minister or the Director to be a prohibited
immigrant; except that every declaration of the Director under
this paragraph shall be subject to confirmation by the Minister,
whose decision shall be final;
(In case anyone would like to give me legal advice.)
Article 18 of the Constitution of Tanzania, states that, every person,(a) has a freedom of opinion and expression of his ideas;(b) has a right to seek, receive and impart or disseminate information regardless of national frontiers;(c) has a right to freedom to communicate and a right of freedom from interference with his right of communication;
I'd say that "every person" includes tourists.
(paragraph added to this blog post on 3 June)
Update September 2010
I’ve been told that the court case keeps getting delayed, but that the arrests have stopped and the harassment has been reduced since it was initiated.
In April Thomson Safaris approached the MP for Ngorongoro to arrange a big meeting with Soit Sambu Village Council and the three Maasai sections, but then they never turned up.
Soit Sambu Village Chairman was interrogated by the police about why a court case had been initiated.
Thomson Safaris have stepped up their propaganda war bringing the US ambassador to announce the construction of teachers’ housing at Sukenya Primary School.
Mondorosi have refused (!) money for their school.
Soit Sambu Village is in the process of being split up. New villages bordering the disputed land will be Sukenya and Mondorosi. Sukenya will be part of the new allegedly OBC friendly Oloipiri Ward.
Regarding Otterlo Business Corporation, I wrote a blog entry of what I was told about the women’s protests in April. http://termitemoundview.blogspot.com/2010/04/loliondo-women-say-enough-is-enough.html
Currently the threat is the government’s plans to take away a corridor from village land where OBC will be able to hunt undisturbed, and the renewal of the hunting permit.
Update 6 February 2011
http://termitemoundview.blogspot.com/2011/02/some-updates-on-thomson-safaris-and.html
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