On Friday 27th August 2021, two statements about land threats in Ngorongoro district were issued by village chairpersons – and then there was a long and frustrating time of waiting before anything was broadcast. One statement was about Ngorongoro Division (Ngorongoro Conservation Area, NCA), which was one of many since the genocidal Multiple Land Use Model review proposal was revealed by chief conservator Freddy Manongi in September 2019. It’s significant that the other statement was issued by village chairmen and other representatives from Loliondo and Sale. Other than two statements by all ward councillors in the district (in October 2019 and June 2021) basically nothing has been heard from Loliondo leaders and activists since those who had not already been silenced in one way or other were silenced by the terror of 2018 when soldiers from the Tanzania People’s Defence Force – without any kind of official order, unlike the illegal mass arson operations in 2009 and 2017 that were ordered by the DC – were in some way contracted to commit violent crime, arson included, for OBC that organize hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai.
This double press conference
follows a most illogical, inhumane and very, very illegal order, or ultimatum –
which I wrote about in the latest blog post - from Minister Ndumbaro to hunting
firms telling them to remove livestock from their hunting blocks, many of which,
like Loliondo, are on village land, and this was one of the reasons for the
Loliondo statement. How can Ndumbaro order the hunters to commit a crime that
they’re already far too inclined to commit and which OBC has for a long time
lobbied for? This has included the funding of a rejected draft district land
use plan that proposed turning their 1,500 km2 core hunting area into a
protected area, and this lobbying has led to several major illegal invasions of
village land, human rights crimes, and to a local police state at the service
of OBC (and the American Thomson Safaris) that finally silenced almost everyone.
Then there hasn’t been any
further explanation from Ndambaro and nobody, other than some social media
posts and my blog post, spoke up demanding accountability and retraction of the
statement. Though I was told that the councillors wrote a statement early on
protesting Ndumbaro’s order, but that they lacked funds for a press conference.
The village chairpersons were assisted by NGO’s (PINGOs Forum and others) to
hold their press conference on 27th August. Television coverage was
expected for the weekend, but didn’t appear, and then in a very brief form,
until a week later.
Then a video of Manongi and
deputy minister Masanja openly declaring war on the Ngorongoro pastoralists was
uploaded to the Youtube account of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism.
President Samia is soon to visit Ngorongoro on her “Royal Tour”, maybe even tomorrow (Monday).
Update: Samia is in Ngorongoro.
In this blog post:
The
Loliondo/Sale statement
Ngorongoro
Conservation Area Statement
Open
declaration of war by Deputy Minister and Chief Conservator against Ngorongoro
pastoralists
Samia’s Royal
Tour
The Loliondo/Sale
statement
The written statement by some village
chairpersons and other representatives from Loliondo and Sale divisions says
that there have been several statements by the Ministry of Natural Resources
and Tourism between June and August, and it states that Ndumbaro’s mention in his
budget speech for 2021-2022 that there are funds for three access gates in
Loliondo has caused disquiet in the community since there’s an unresolved land
conflict and an ongoing case in the East African Court of Justice. The
statement reminds of the injunction issued by the court on 25th
September 2018 against any evictions or any other kind of disturbances of the
villagers while the case continues. Further, the minister’s order to investors
to remove livestock from their hunting blocks was startling and violates the
court injunction. The brief statement also mentions the plans by the Ngorongoro
Conservation Area Authority to extend its boundaries, which would gravely
affect Malambo, Engaresero, and Piyaya, together with the 1,500 km2 in western
Lolondo that’s a case in the East African Court of Justice. Such plans to alienate
land without the villagers’ consent violate the Village Land Act of 1999 and
the Land Acquisition Act of 1967.
The village leaders urge the
Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism to do the following:
1. Immediately stop its intention to take village
land and turn it into protected area.
2. Respect the court case filed by the villages to
resolve the land dispute in Sale and Loliondo divisions.
3. Abandon the plan to expand the boundaries of
the Ngorongoro Conservation Area under the pretext of protecting the ecosystem.
While briefness is important
to keep attention and avoid confusion, there are several very important aspects
of the Loliondo land threats that the leaders haven’t spoken up about in a long
time, or that have never even been publicly addressed (like the soldier violence of
2018), so this statement could have been a little more detailed. Though I
suppose more was said, so I would like to watch a complete video.
A week after the press
statement, ITV broadcast a brief clip, in which all that was heard about
Loliondo and Sale was the chairman of Ololosokwan, John Pyando, who read from
the statement about Ndumbaro’s order, and the Piyaya chairman, Linyori Karinya,
who complained that NCAA or TANAPA randomly erect beacons on land belonging to
registered villages, without involving the villagers. Some say that the delay
in TV coverage was caused by that the journalists wanted to “balance” by
interviewing Manongi, who wasn’t available due to illness. The news clip
instead ends with some added words by district council chairman Emmanuel
Oleshangai who says that the 1,500 km2 isn’t an issue that even should be
brought up by Ndumbaro, since there’s a case in the East African Court of
Justice.
It’s good news indeed that
Loliondo leaders are coming out from where they were hiding (not without
reasons) but so much more needs to be said.
My previous blog post includes
a brief summary about OBC and the 1,500 km2 Osero and in April I wrote a longer summary.
Ngorongoro
Conservation Area Statement
The statement by village
chairpersons from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area explains that NCA consists
of 25 legally registered villages in Ngorongoro Division, Ngorongoro District,
Arusha Region. That the area of NCA is 8,292 km2 and was initiated by the colonial
government in 1959 by forcefully evicting the Maasai pastoralist to establish
the over 14,000 km2 Serengeti National Park. The statement reminds of that the
Maasai were promised never to be evicted again, and that the colonial governor,
Richard Turnbull, said that in case of conflict the interests of the Maasai
would be given precedence over wildlife.
Then the statement goes on to
remind of how the government has for a long time made efforts to move the
pastoralists out of NCA, using various baseless arguments, like that the
population of pastoralists and livestock would endanger the survival of NCA. The
statement says that a committee formed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and
Tourism in 2018 to come up with proposal for the fate of NCA, showed a clear
bias for conservation, and in its report released in 2019 proposed evictions of
pastoralists. Then President Samia in one of her first speeches as president
expressed concerns over the population growth and ordered authorities to take
measures to save NCA.
The NCA statement lists the
pastoralist relocation strategies like:
- Ten days after the
President's speech, the Ngorongoro Conservation Authority issued a 30-day
notice (after protests revoked until further notice, but insisted upon by the
DC at the time) ordering many pastoralists to leave Ngorongoro and
others to demolish their houses. The notice included schools, clinics, and
houses of worship to be demolished.
- The ban on agriculture in
Ngorongoro has led to hunger and malnutrition in the areas of highest tourism
revenue in the country.
- Livestock has been banned in
many good grazing areas and this has led to extreme poverty in Ngorongoro
Division.
- Wildlife have killed kill or
injured pastoralists and damaged their property. For example, a lion recently
killed three children and injured one in Ngoile Village (since some are using
this tragedy for their own purposes, I’d need to write about it in another blog
post).
- Proposal to relocate
pastoralists: the committee's report recommends that the government relocate
more than 73,000 pastoralists from Ngorongoro (the genocidal Multiple Land Use
Model review proposal).
- Impaired development caused by
the NCAA’s control of construction, trade, and ban on agriculture.
The recommendations by the
village chairpersons of Ngorongoro division:
1. The government should remove the NCAA chief
conservator from office since he hasn’t got any focus on community interests,
but on dirty politics, and repression of pastoralists’ rights in Ngorongoro.
2. The government should abandon all plans to move
pastoralists from Ngorongoro, since they lost 14,000 km2 in 1958 to make way
for Serengeti National Park and have remained with only 8,292 km2
3. The government should act, involving
pastoralists to solve the problem of hunger.
4. A judicial commission should be set up to
investigate the atrocities committed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and
Tourism in collaboration with the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority for
more than six decades and the perpetrators should be dealt with severely.
5. The government should stop the Ministry of
Natural Resources and Tourism's plans to relocate pastoralists from Ngorongoro,
as it is their heritage land, they have not destroyed it for centuries, and
will not destroy it.
6. The Government should approve the launch of a
participatory NCA debate that will address in more detail the environmental,
human, and tourism challenges.
7. The government should bring back the Pastoral
Council which was the only platform to protect the rights of pastoralists residing
in the 25 villages in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
8. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority
should allow livestock to use grazing areas that have been prohibited, to
rescue the economic situation of Ngorongoro residents and stabilize relations
between the community and conservation.
(Regarding chief conservator
Manongi, several sources have told me that he is to retire in November anyway).
The Daily News published an
article about the press conference, but dedicated half of it to Manongi’s
response, which went like, "I'm not aware of any plans of evicting the
communities from the area, but my only concern is the survival of the place
which will be compromised if the Multiple Land Use module isn't looked at again
as it has failed to cope with the population pressure in the NCA,". I
wish that journalists instead and “balancing” could do research, like reading
the MLUM review report to see what’s proposed.
In ITV’s brief news clip a
week after the press statement, the Endulen village chairman, Thomas Olwati,
explains that Ngorongoro residents are like orphans without a mother or a
father, and district council chairman Oleshangai adds that the population issue
is heavily exaggerated by conservationists and that the area is not for
conservation only. So much more must have been said and I’m still looking for more
complete video.
Open
declaration of war by Deputy Minister and Chief Conservator against Ngorongoro
pastoralists
The weekend following the
press conferences in Mto wa Mbu, the deputy minister of natural resources and
tourism, Mary Masanja, again visited Ngorongoro with MPs doing domestic
tourism, this time the Standing Committee on Land, Natural Resources, and
Tourism, currently headed by Aloyce Kwezi. This visit was reported upon showing
some frivolous MPs at Shifting Sands, ignorant of the abuse and genocidal plans, talking about
the importance of protecting the wonders of Ngorongoro, and the deputy minister
urging all Tanzanians to visit Ngorongoro. Though unconfirmed reports say that
some MPs, and some members of the Pastoral Council, confronted the deputy
minister. For some reason, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism
removed the video that they had uploaded, which of course didn’t include any
kind of confrontation.
On 3rd September,
the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism uploaded a video from a meeting between Mary Masanja’s and the NCAA. In this video the deputy minister complains about having seen herds
of cattle even on the way to Oldupai with the honourable MPs, using the same
tone as if she would have seen heaps of rubbish, or worse. Though she’s happy
that now even the leader of the nation has understood the importance of
increasing the value of Ngorongoro. Then Masanja moves on to how to increase
the value of this product via diversification, domestic tourism, and improved
infrastructure. To her the people of Ngorongoro and their livestock are
apparently a defect to be cleaned off the prime tourism product.
At the end of the video NCAA
chief conservator Manongi says that conservation is a war that they aren’t
fighting for their own interest, but for the nation. He says that the
pastoralists have many “conspiracies” (wanakuwa na conspiracies nyingi,
kweli, kweli) and that they sadly are winning, adding that now conservationists
must “start” developing conspiracies … Manongi fears the people who suffer from
malnourishment because of NCAA policies, and his fear inspires hope that the
enemies of the people of Ngorongoro will be defeated.
Samia’s Royal
Tour
President Samia is currently
being filmed for a tourism television series in which heads of state act as
tour guides – the Royal Tour. This is presented as hard work to promote
Tanzania internationally, while the disturbing questions on ethics are too many
to even start listing. It’s not hard to guess that a major incentive for the heads
of state is to promote themselves, so how can the journalist behind the
initiative – Peter Greenberg - lend such assistance to a president who keeps
the chairman of the biggest opposition party locked up on bogus terrorism
charges? Though since some previous tour guides have been Kagame, Netanyahu,
and Morawiecki, human rights and rule of law are hardly of any concern at all. Then
there are the disturbing questions about which investors Samia is selling
Tanzania to, what her relations to those are, and which Tanzanians will be
sacrificed for their benefit.
Samia is soon to arrive in
Ngorongoro and I'm told that all village leaders have been summoned by the NCAA and instructed not
to allow anyone to disturb her filming, and that cattle should not be allowed
along the Ngorongoro-Serengeti road. The expected date keeps being moved
forward, but there’s a risk that I’ll need to write a new blog post very soon.
Update: she's heeere ...
Susanna
Nordlund is a working-class person based in Sweden who since 2010 has been
blogging about Loliondo (now increasingly also about NCA) and has her
fingerprints thoroughly registered with Immigration so that she will not be
able to enter Tanzania through any border crossing, ever again. She has never
worked for any NGO or intelligence service and hasn’t earned a shilling from
her Loliondo work. She can be reached at sannasus@hotmail.com
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