Ngorongoro councillors and customary leaders send a message once again to President Magufuli

On 21^st January 2021 in Arusha, a delegation representing ward councillors and customary leaders from Ngorongoro District (specifically from Ngorongoro division/Ngorongoro Conservation Area), on behalf of the Ngorongoro residents, met the press and read a statement prepared in Endulen on the 16^th January. The statement urges President Magufuli to disregard recent reports from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism (MNRT) about Ngorongoro, particularly the Multiple Land Use Model (MLUM) review report.  The councillors and customary leaders insist that these reports were compiled and written without the informed or full involvement of communities, but rather with the aim of evicting these communities from their land. They reminded the president that the multiple land use model that makes the area unique has been effective because of the traditional way of life of the indigenous pastoralist community and their support for the model. They also reminded him that the pastoralist communities in NCA are not land invaders, but rather they are the lawful residents of legally registered villages, with their land and legal rights recognised, amongst others in the NCA Ordinance of 1959. 

 

The councillors and customary leaders finish the statement with emphasis on the fact that the people of Ngorongoro do not agree with the process adopted by the MLUM team or the General Management Plan (GMP) team, and that they also reject the results of these studies, including the proposals. They therefore ask the president not to agree to proposals that do not have the consent or blessings of local people. They are ready to seek solutions, but the participation should be genuine and not hateful, fraudulent or with pressure from the NCAA.

“Therefore, we ward councillors and customary leaders, on behalf of the people of Ngorongoro Conservation Area, with great humility ask the president to keep an eye on this area so that if possible, he will change the leadership of the NCAA and completely expose the whole institution because it has failed to manage the area, and is the source of conflicts and deteriorating relations between communities and conservationists.”

 

The delegation from Ngorongoro. 

The workshop and the anti-Maasai journalist

The workshop for editors and senior journalists mentioned in the statement (and in my latest blog post) was held by the NCAA, headed by the Permanent Secretary to the MNRT, Aloyce Nzuki and with chief conservator Freddy Manongi as main lecturer. Besides promoting a need for journalists to engage with increasing the numbers of tourists to NCA, Manongi stirred up a sense of urgency about the imminent “death” of Ngorongoro, which he said was being caused by greatly increasing human and livestock populations (the numbers are disputed). The press (like the Daily News) subsequently reported about how a big percentage of attendees supported the mass evictions proposed by people in and around the MNRT and NCAA.  This is nothing less than genocidal incitement.

One enthusiastic participant in NCAAs workshop was Manyerere Jackton, as can be seen in some video clips, in which he engages in the usual anti-Maasai rhetoric. Jackton usually reports for the Jamhuri, a notoriously anti-Maasai weekly newspaper, and on 5^th January, the Jamhuri published an article about the workshop (including misleading charcoal pictures). On 12^th January it published an article calling for Magufuli to “help” Ngorongoro, for some reason published under the name of another journalist (Mkinga Mkinga).

Manyerere Jackton receiving his diploma for attending the workshop. photo: Richard Mwaikenda, CCM blog

On 22^nd January there were brief news clips from the press conference by Ngorongoro councillors and customary leaders on Azam tv and Ayo tv. In the Azam tv clip James Moringe, councillor of Alaitole, initiated the reading of the statement, and other Ngorongoro representatives – Johanes Tiamisi, councillor of Kakesio and Meruoyo Nepapaai, representing the women of Ngorongoro division - express anger and consternation that one newspaper, following NCAAs workshop published pictures of sacks of charcoal, trying to pass them off as if from NCA, when they obviously aren’t, since they show a paved road, which isn’t found in NCA, and even more obviously since nobody in Ngorongoro is burning charcoal.

Jamhuri frontpage on 5th January 2021. I've been told that charcoal picture purported to be from Ngorongoro is from Minjingu alongside Babati Road from Makuyuni junction, and would appreciate if someone could confirm this. 

Through the Jamhuri newspaper, Manyerere Jackton has been spewing out unhinged hatred against the Maasai of Loliondo in well over 50 articles, in which he also campaigned for taking 1,500 km2 of dry season grazing land away from Maasai village land. This area is also the core hunting area used by OBC, that that organizes hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, and OBC would like exclusive rights to this land (the main topic of most posts in this blog). Besides painting the Maasai as a menace to wildlife and governed by corrupt NGOs, he has claimed that 70 percent of the Loliondo Maasai are not Tanzanian, and published lists of hundreds of private individuals that his “sources” consider to be Kenyan. Manyerere Jackton’s slandering of those speaking up for land rights and against “investors” that lobby for evictions, or those he thinks could possibly speak up, has been vicious, fabricating the craziest stories. He has not even hesitated to boast about his own involvement in the arrests of innocent people. Manyerere started writing about Loliondo around 2010, but has kept a lower profile after OBC’s Tanzanian director Mollel was arrested for economic crimes in 2019.

 

Sadly, in the MLUM review proposal, OBC’s wishes are well catered for, since most of the 1,500 km2 is to be annexed to NCA and all human activities other than tourism, research, and hunting will be banned.

 

Around the same time as articles from the workshop were being published, some conservationists in social media started sharing hard to watch video clips of Maasai dogs hunting wildlife. They were upset and started campaigning for the shooting of stray dogs in NCA. Though when equally, or more, gruesome video clips of wild predators, that kill so much more prey in NCA (and sometimes livestock) they are either in awe or even find it funny. Sadly, dog husbandry leaves a lot to be desired in Tanzania, not only in Ngorongoro where too many people themselves have too little to eat due to policies, but the whole thing became like a campaign, also in the press, and not least when someone shared a clip with Manyerere Jackton’s incitement combined with the domestic dogs. Though I have not yet looked into this closely enough. 

Update, 28^th January: on Wednesday 20^th January at Naiborsoit market in Olbalbal rangers opened fire and started shooting dogs. Reportedly several women fainted. I only got very vague information about this and it was confirmed when I had published this delayed blog post. Reportedly, after the shooting some community members started beating the rangers. 

The statement by the councillors and customary leaders mentions some issues that could have been brought up at the workshop, like the bloated NCAA workforce, hotel overcrowding in sensitive ecosystems, poor sewage systems that drain water into Ngorongoro Crater, pollution from guest camps toilets, complaints from staff about the NCAA management, and the attendants could have been told about the pastoralists’ contributions to the protection of wildlife and to the increase of visitors and revenue.

Evict the Maasai and bring more of these, was the message of Manongi's late December workshop.

Ngorongoro and the MLUM review threat

When the Maasai were evicted from Serengeti in 1959 by the colonial government, as a compromise deal, they were guaranteed the right to continue occupying Ngorongoro Conservation Area as a multiple land-use area administered by the government, in which natural resources would be conserved primarily for their interest, but with due regard for wildlife. This promise was not kept, and tourism revenue has turned into the paramount interest, while the human rights situation has deteriorated, which was worsened by the designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 1975 (the Ordinance was changed in 1974), the Maasai living inside Ngorongoro Crater were violently evicted, and the same year cultivation was prohibited in NCA. This cultivation ban was lifted in 1992, but re-introduced in 2009 after threats from the UNESCO. The people of NCA, living under the authoritarian colonial-style rule of the NCAA, are not allowed to grow crops or build modern houses, and have the past years been losing access to one grazing area after the other. They lost grazing and saltlicks in Ngorongoro crater in 2017, which Manongi stretched to include the Northern Highland Forest, Embakaai and Olmoti craters as well as the Lake Ndutu basin (through order and without required change to the Ordinance and without the MP speaking up in objection). As a result, the Maasai residents of NCA are suffering from high levels of child malnutrition, while throughout the years they have been shaken by rumours and threats of eviction.

 

In March 2019, a joint monitoring mission from the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) once again visited Ngorongoro and in their report reminded that they wanted the MLUM review completed to see the results and offer advice, while again complaining about the visual impact of settlements with “modern” houses, and so on. This did not bode well as recommendations and concerns from the UNESCO have in the past repeatedly led to a worsened human rights situation. In September 2019, chief conservator Freddy Manongi announcedthe MLUM review report proposal, which is so destructive that it will lead to the end of Maasai livelihoods and culture in Ngorongoro District.

 

The proposal of the MLUM report is to divide Ngorongoro into zones, with an extensive “core conservation zone” that is to be a no-go zone for livestock and herders. In NCA this includes the Ngorongoro Highland Forest, with the three craters Ngorongoro, Olmoti and Empakaai where grazing these past few years has already been banned through order. This has led to a loss of 90% of grazing and water for Nainokanoka, Ngorongoro, Misigiyo wards, and a 100% loss of natural salt licks for livestock in these wards. The proposal is to do the same with Oldupai Gorge, Laitoli footprints, and the Lake Ndutu and Lake Masek basins. In the rest of Ngorongoro District, the proposal is for NCAA to annex the Lake Natron basin (including areas of Longido and Monduli districts) and the 1,500 km2 ‘Osero’ (bushland) in Loliondo and Sale Divisions, and designate most of these areas to be no-go zones for pastoralists and livestock. These large areas include many villages and are important grazing areas, the loss of which would have disastrous knock-on effects on lives and livelihoods. For years turning thethe 1,500 km2 Osero into a protected area has been lobbied for by OBC (that organizes hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai), and successfully resisted by the Maasai, but now NCA proposes to turn most of it into a no-go-zone, but allowing hunting (‘core conservation sub-zone’). The reason for including Loliondo and Lake Natron is in the report explained as an estimated 25% loss of tourism revenue for NCA when the upgrading of the Mto-wa-Mbu - Loliondo road has been finished and tourists will use that route to Serengeti.

The genocidal proposal.

 

There were complaints as soon as the MLUM proposal was presented, and then Minister Kigwangalla agreed that “community representatives” would be added to the MLUM review team, and the NCA wards re-visited. On 5^th October 2019, the Pastoral Council, that ostensibly represent the local pastoralists in the NCAA, finally issued a statement, but it seemed weak, and compromised, and it misrepresented Loliondo. On 29^th October 2019, a statement by the ward councillors of Ngorongoro District was even weaker.

 

The MLUM review team again toured the wards and could again observe people’s unsurprising rejection of any evictions. The community views were briefly mentioned in the new version of the report, but the “community representatives” were side-lined, which they panicked about, refusing to share the new version of the report, in which exactly the same genocidal proposal was repeated. It was reported that at a regional CCM meeting there were assurances that there was no way that the ruling party would support the proposal for evictions. Some traditional leaders from NCA went to see the CCM secretary-general Bashiru Ally towards the end of 2019.

 

In March 2020, a MoU was signed between the Ngorongoro Pastoral Council (PC), the Ngorongoro District Council, and the NCAA, after pressure by the MNRT and others, for funds to bypass the PC to instead go to the District Council, and for PC employees to be directly employed by the NCAA. The reason for this was mismanagement and corruption among PC members, but at the same time it gave more power to the person corrupting them – chief conservator Manongi.

 

Following the signing of the MoU, Several young professionals from NCA wrote an open letter to president Magufuli about the injustices, threats, and mismanagement going on in NCA.

 

On 14^th April 2020 the Pastoral Council, customary leaders, and village and ward leaders from NCA held a press conference in Arusha with a much stronger statement than the previous one. They called upon the president and the prime minister to intervene against the abuse committed by the MLUM team - together with chief conservator Manongi whom they wanted removed - that have proposed measures to remove over 15 villages and turn the Maasai into refugees in their own country.

 

On 23^rd April 2020, a collection of leaders from Ngorongoro were summoned to Kigwangalla in Dodoma, and were promised four new community representatives, and told that the Ngorongoro residents should compose their own ideal proposal, submit it to the committee, and send him a copy. At a feedback meeting in Mokilal the MP was booed by the attendants who wanted to cut all engagement with the MLUM team, but finally the MP side managed to impose their view that the offer should be taken, but this time accompanied by public pressure (of which not much has been seen so far).

 

In May 2020, the councillor for Endulen reported about how NCA rangers were conducting an operation, invading villages to interrogate people about houses that had been built and doing reconnaissance of areas under threat of mass eviction, even using a plane, and that the rangers then went to the market at Naiborsoit where they arrested three women small-scale traders that were taken to Loliondo and illegally detained for 48 hours. Surprisingly, the DC (a known human rights criminal) ordered that the rangers should be arrested and said that they had been acting on their own behalf, and that Manongi had in no way ordered them. The councillor also reported that the new “community representatives” had been given terms of reference that more looked like preparing for evictions than preparing a community proposal to be sent to Kigwangalla.

 

At the meeting of all councillors of Ngorongoro District Council that ended on 3^rd June 2020, the information was that the NCAA had approved funding of 5 billion TZShs for the task of expanding its boundaries – according to the proposal in the MLUM report - to become 12,000 km2 and to include the Osero in Loliondo and Lake Natron. This included the cost of “relocations”. Reportedly, the councillors resolved to work against the plan regardless of consequences and were discussing the way forward – but then the elections got in the way … and they became busy praising the government, while burying their heads in the sand.

 

Nothing more was heard from Kigwangalla, except that he and the permanent secretary to the MNRT went on to threaten Lake Natron GCA – that’s included in the genocidal proposal – with a Game Reserve and a Wildlife Management Area, against which there was a protest meeting in Engaresero a few days later. Then Kigwangalla just intensified the threat. 

 

On 1^st July 2020, a statement addressed to President Magufuli from the traditional leaders of Ngorongoro ward - the villages of Mokilal, Kayapus and Oloirobi - in Ngorongoro district was read by Njamama Medukenya and Sembeta Ngoidiko on Global tv. These leaders called for the president to hear their cry about their land that keep being stolen for conservation and tourism, and ask him to stop the current proposal, while reminding of that since they were evicted from Serengeti in 1959, there have been multiple violations of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Ordinance.

 

MP Olenasha while contesting for the CCM candidacy for the Ngorongoro parliamentary seat, chose to deny any threat in the MLUM review proposal, calling it “propaganda” by his opponents.

 

On 13^th September, the councillor of Endulen posted in social media, apparently in a panic, about a visit to NCA by the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Constitutional and Legal Affairs, adding that while other Tanzanians are busy finding leaders that will bring them development the coming five years, people in Ngorongoro live in fear and doubt due to various ongoing committees working to undermine the rights of the people. Not much more was heard about this.

 

On 16^th October 2020, the election campaign had brought PM Majaliwa to Loliondo, and he could have declared that the genocidal proposal would definitely not be implemented, that everyone could go on with their lives as normal, and no land would be taken. Though instead of this Majaliwa insisted on denying, deflecting, and using the horrible word “participatory” (shirikishi).

 

The so-called “elections” were a violent horror with vote rigging all over the country. On election day in Ngorongoro 23-year-old Salula Ngorisiolo was killed when police and NCA rangers opened fire at unarmed voters who were protesting the blocking of opposition polling agents.

Shot at Oloirobi polling station.

Then on 28^th – 30^th December 2020, NCAA held their workshop for editors and senior journalists, and on 21^st January 2021, the delegation representing councillors and traditional leaders from Ngorongoro met the press in Arusha.

 

The statement says that they – unlike what the NCAA keep telling the government – rejected the MLUM review proposal because:

 

• The collection of opinions was marred by threats and bullying, and when locals commented, those comments were not considered in the report.

   
• The committee/team/task force had the face of one ministry [representing solely the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism] and did not appear to observe fairness, especially listening to and recognizing the views of the people. 
• The area proposed for community development [the already inhabited area to where people are supposed to be moved] is 18 percent of the whole area and is arid. 
• The committee was headed by the Director of Policy and Planning of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, coordinated by Dr Manongi, the NCA chief conservator, and the secretary was the director of wildlife. Under their influence, the committee showed favouritism and was unwilling to listen to and consider the views of the local people.

 

Customary leader Lazaro Saitoti was seen on Azam tv clip calling for the new Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, Damas Ndumbaro, not to be misled by the NCAA, but to come to Ngorongoro and meet people face to face. Let’s see what he does. Anyway, there is no other option than to continue working to stop the MLUM review proposal.

Susanna Nordlund

sannasus@hotmail.com