Rest in peace dad, Alf
Nordlund.
And, rest in peace MP and
deputy minister, Willliam Olenasha.
I’m unfocused and am again
posting far, far too late about important issues. I was writing about the new
DED’s contribution to the Loliondo police state, but also needed to return to
the president’s “Royal Tour”. Then protests erupted in Endulen against abuse
and violence by the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority.
On 27th September
the Ngorongoro MP and Deputy Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office
(Investment) William Tate Olenasha passed away far too young at 49. I will
write about him later, or maybe I won’t. He was of invaluable help for this
blog up until 13th August 2017. I would like to extend my
condolences to William’s family and friends.
Then we suffered a shocking,
but not unexpected, family tragedy.
And then President Samia once
again made an ignorant and threatening statement about Ngorongoro.
This blog post is about two,
or more, different land threats in Loliondo and NCA, but that are united by the
threat of a genocidal Multiple Land Use Model review proposal (in case new
readers are confused).
In this blog post:
More about
The Royal Tour
Petition
Protests
against ranger violence in Endulen
A most
unsuitable district executive director
The Germans
again
Samia again
showing off her dangerous ignorance
By-election?
The latest blog post was published when President Samia was about to arrive in Ngorongoro to film for the travel television show The Royal Tour. Shorty afterwards I added some brief updates, but maybe I should again report what I so far know about what happened.
The expectation was that
councillors and other local leaders would flood social media with pictures from
the president’s visit, but there wasn’t anything all, except for a video from
her arrival, shared by the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA). There
was heavy police deployment, and nobody was allowed near, while in other areas,
like Moshi and Karatu, Samia addressed the public from atop her vehicle.
At Kimba three staff members
of the NGO Pastoral Women’s Council (PWC) were detained by police and NCAA
rangers and taken to the police station together with four people that were
being given a lift in their vehicle, including the Piyaya village chairman and Piyaya
ward women’s special seats councillor. The women’s special seats councillor of
Nainokanoka ward was also detained at Kimba, but not taken to the police
station.
Those detained at the police
station were told that there were orders from above to keep them locked up
until Samia had left Ngorongoro. At dark they were released and told to present
themselves at the police the following Friday, 10th September.
The information when summoned
to the police was that the case was still under investigation to establish if
the “suspects” had planned to make protest signs out of a flip chart that they
were carrying in the vehicle. I’ve got a feeling that nothing at all is being
investigated, and obviously it isn’t a crime in any way to make or carry
protest signs. As far as I’ve been able to find out, nothing more has been
heard from the police.
PWC used to be one of the two
NGOs that were speaking out about land rights in Loliondo, but that were
silenced – through intimidation significantly worse than that seen in NCA
during The Royal Tour. This silence is especially painful and destructive since
PWC was the only NGO that was dealing with the case of Thomson Safaris that in
the most ruthlessly hypocrite, neo-colonial way claim 12,617 acres of Maasai
grazing land as their private nature refuge, and have learned every one of
OBC’s tricks, plus some more, to make the Loliondo police state work for them.
There are some indications that when tourism has started to pick up again,
Thomson’s harassment of herders has worsened (I’ve seen people trying to reach
out to local leaders about this) but it’s impossible to get hold of anyone
brave enough to communicate with me, and capable of explaining in English or
Swahili. Any help to investigate this would be greatly appreciated.
One sad and infuriating aspect
is that several people have reported that some/many local leaders were
discouraging any protests and may even have been involved in the arrests. The
reason for this would have been their wish to maintain good relations with the
new DC, Raymond Stephen Mwangwala, and DED, Jumaa Mhina, which is impossibly
naïve, or worse. It’s not that long ago that the old DC, Rashid Mfaume Taka,
was believed to be a new kind of civilized DC, and then he went on to order an
illegal invasion of village land in Loliondo with mass human rights crimes,
several illegal, lengthy, and bizarre arrests, and to commit perjury in the
East African Court of Justice. The new DED has already been working hard to
distinguish himself in the Loliondo police state (see below), but still seems
popular among even the least useless councillors.
The Royal Tour was presented
as an admirable way of “promoting” Tanzania internationally through a famous
travel show. Though when I’ve asked a limited number of people, a couple of
travel-oriented Americans included, nobody has heard about this television
program. The concept is that heads of state/government act as tour guides to
the journalist Peter Greenberg. Doing this while the chairman of the main
opposition party is locked up in remand prison on bogus “terrorism” charges may
seem problematic, but some quick googling shows that other of Greenberg’s tour
guides have been Kagame, Netanyahu, and Morawiecki, so he obviously doesn’t
care. The researcher Alex Dukalskis in his book Making the World Safe for
Dictatorship describes Kagame’s use of The Royal Tour as “authoritarian
image management”, recommended by consultants who specialize in this. In the Rwanda case, there was
screening at events for the international tourism industry, but also
domestically to show that the authoritarian leader is internationally
respected. Even less authoritarian examples, like New Zealand, indicate that The
Royal Tour is not just a tv show, but a service that’s solicited, and that
funds from the national tourist board are spent on it, which is criticized by
political rivals. Selling Tanzania for tourism is of course not an innocent
endeavour when the land rights and human rights of rural Tanzanians are so
often sacrificed doing it. Samia, not long after having been appointed as
president, in a speech at the swearing in of the newly appointed Permanent
Secretaries and heads of public institutions at State House in Dar es Salaam, made
some statements showing that she had already been briefed by those working for
evictions from Ngorongoro Conservation Area (and then she repeated it yesterday
… see below), so not organizing protests upon her visit can be described as negligence
by local leaders, even if they have earlier – and later – spoken up with
seriousness.
The president should not be
allowed to visit Ngorongoro undisturbed when people living under the
authoritarian 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, and as a result are suffering from high levels of child malnutrition,
while throughout the years they have been shaken by rumours and threats of
eviction. The current threat was announced in September 2019, when chief
conservator Freddy Manongi made public the Multiple Land Use Model review
report’s proposal, which is so destructive that it would lead to the end of
Maasai livelihoods and culture in Ngorongoro District. This had followed 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) that once again visited Ngorongoro and
in their report repeated 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. Recommendations and concerns from
the UNESCO had in the past repeatedly led to a worsened human rights situation.
When the Maasai were evicted
from Serengeti in 1959 by the colonial government, losing access to over 14,000
km2, as a compromise deal they were guaranteed the right to continue occupying
the 8,292 km² 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.
The proposal of the MLUM
review report is to divide Ngorongoro into four 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 saltlicks
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 in Loliondo and Sale Divisions and designate most of these areas to be
no-go zones for pastoralists and livestock. These huge areas include many
villages and are important grazing areas, the loss of which would have
disastrous knock-on effects on lives and livelihoods elsewhere. The annexation
of the Osero in Loliondo caters almost perfectly to the wishes of OBC that
organizes hunting for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, and has a local police state at
its service, which has led to several illegal invasions of village land,
multiple human rights crimes, fear and treason.
 |
| Samia and Greenberg in Serengeti |
Petition
While the Ngorongoro
pastoralists have many international enemies in UNESCO, much of international
conservation, tourism industry, and elsewhere, they also have friends. On 8th
September 2021, the Oakland Institute and Rainforest Rescue delivered apetition, signed by 94,000 people, to UNESCO and the Tanzanian government,
amplifying community demand for an end to the planned evictions of indigenous
Maasai pastoralists from their ancestral lands in the name of conservation.
It’s still possible to sign the petition, and the number of signatures keep growing.
Violence and
protests in Endulen
On 23rd September
several young herders were assaulted and badly beaten by NCAA rangers at Ndutu.
This was a repeated incidence following other assaults, beating of young
herders and running over sheep with a vehicle by the NCAA rangers.
On 14th September
the rangers had attacked other herders at Oldupai. On 29th August
one herder that was being assaulted climbed a tree and the rangers tried to get
him down by first attempting to cut the tree and then firing live bullets, but
they didn’t succeed.
On another occasion the
rangers hit sheep with a vehicle killing four of them.
The 23rd November
incident turned to be a wakeup call for the community to defend themselves
leading to mass protest in Endulen for several days, calling for arrest of the
NCAA rangers responsible for illegal assaults.
After three days of protest,
on 26th September, one ranger admitted to the killing of sheep and
sent money through the Endulen Officer Commanding Station for the payment of
three of the sheep.
Other issues brought up at the
protest meetings was the long-term problem of rangers that harass, arresting
and beating, women who fetch dry firewood, blocking access to grazing areas
that are proposed as “no-go zones” in the genocidal MLUM review report, and
generally blocking the passage of cattle at places like Endamghai gate and this
way obstructing livestock trade.
The District Council Chairman,
Emmanuel Oleshangai, solidarized himself with the protesters and all their
complaints, but at the same time he discouraged a marching manifestation.
The District Council Chairman alerted
the Officer Commanding District to the violation of human rights in every
respect being committed by NCAA rangers at the instance of the Chief Conservator
Among many others Mzee Kiperra expressed his anger with Ngorongoro Chief Conservator Freddy Manongi
The apparent attempt at an uprising was put on hold on 27th September when William Olenasha, the sitting member of parliament for Ngorongoro passed away unexpectedly and too soon.
Then less than a day later my
father passed away.
A most
unsuitable district executive director
The new DED, Jumaa Mhina, has
started working on his own contribution to the Loliondo police state by putting
pressure on the village chairmen of the four villages that have sued the
government in the East African Court of Justice to withdraw the case.
On 9th September
the DED held a meeting with eight village chairmen of Loliondo division. The
alleged purpose of this meeting was to “solve conflicts”, but it was in its
entirety dedicated to different court cases, and particularly the case filed by
the villages of Ololosokwan, Kirtalo, Oloirien, and Arash against the Tanzanian
government (attorney general) during the illegal invasion of village land in
2017.
The DED insisted on that the
village governments can’t sue the central government, “like a child can’t sue
his father”. He wanted the chairmen to talk with the village governments to
make them withdraw the case and promised that solving the conflict was the main
aim of the meeting. The DED recommended holding a meeting between OBC and the
villages to reach an agreement about grazing, and a meeting with the management
of Serengeti National Park to solve conflicts about the boundary. He wanted
them to write a letter to the court to request an agreement outside it. When
the chairmen explained that the case belongs to the villagers and not to them,
he wanted them to call general assemblies to withdraw the case as soon as
possible. The DED said that the district council lawyer would assist them in
writing the letter.
The chairmen agreed to talks
with the government, but not about the court case. Instead, they asked the DED
to talk with the villagers about withdrawing the case. They decided to hold
their own meeting to discuss this DED issue. Then they reached the conclusion
that the DED didn’t need the participation by the villagers in this process to
withdraw the case, since he wanted the chairmen to do it and refused to meet
the villagers. His main objective was to obstruct the case.
The chairmen decided that the
case only concerns the complainants and not anyone else, not even other
villages, and that talks should only be held with their lawyers present. The
DED isn’t a respondent, any talks don’t concern him, and he’s not suitable as a
mediator. Further, they decided that before proposing any talks the government
should present a draft of what the complainants are to get out of it, and
what’s the government will obtain, and that talks should be based on the
complaints that are in court. They explained that the case doesn’t belong to
the village, but to each person who’s been harmed, and that besides land, it is
about human rights. They declared that from now on any talks or writings will
be done through their lawyers, and that the door for talks will be open after
the court has issued its ruling.
It’s essential that the
chairmen, and everyone else, continue standing their ground. Usually, this kind
of pressure and threats, or even worse, is done by the Ngorongoro DC, but it
seems like we have got a nasty DED indeed, while the current DC, for now at
least … comes across as a friendly young guy. History shows with clarity that
when any agreement or MoU has been entered, or local leaders have sought sad
“compromise solutions” the government has moved forward several steps to please
“investors” and violence has spiralled out of all control.
Though this DED showed some
understanding of some issues when announcing a 15 US dollar charge for every
tourist entering NCA. I don’t know if the specific proposal is a good idea, but
talking about the resource curse, he told journalists, “We are forced to come up with
the new fee as part of the urgent measures to expand our revenue base to boost
the coffers and be able to render services to the population, which in reality
are the host of all the natural attractions through which tour operators are
making fortunes,” “The area is full of natural resources, but its people are
starving. This is an elephant in the living room no one wants to talk about.
It’s sad, it’s painful and we must address this historical injustice to this
community,”. The NCAA is charging a more substantial fee for every
non-resident, even if just passing through on public transport, and this was
supposed to be a fee for the Ngorongoro District Council. Unsurprising, the new
fee was put on hold after complaints from the tourism industry about being
devastated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Today, 18th October, when addressing the public in Longido and talking about discipline at work, the president brought up the strange example of the former DED who was transferred for being rude and lacking work discipline! Though since she felt pity, she didn’t do away with him altogether. Samia was talking about Mhina who was moved from Longido to Ngorongoro. Being insulted like this by the president would be a good sign if it weren’t because Mhina has already started engaging in Loliondo police state behaviour.
Returning to the importance of
standing one’s ground, remember that it was after DC Jowika Kasunga threatened
and pressured the villages to sign a MoU with OBC to coordinate grazing and
hunting that village land was invaded in 2009 with mass arson and other extreme
violence.
A similar mass arson operation
with beatings, seizing of cattle, and rape, among other crimes, was “unexpectedly”
and very illegally ordered by DC Rashid Mfaume Taka in 2017 after leaders
through years of divide and rule and then increased intimidation by the local
Loliondo police state at the service of “investors” were weakened to the point
of proposing a WMA as a compromise.
When absolutely everyone had
been silenced through terror in 2018, JWTZ soldiers could commit violent crime,
arson included, without any official order, and without anyone daring to speak
up, except for RC Gambo months later and in a very vague way. Then embarrassing
leaders were praising the government until the genocidal MLUM proposal was
presented in September 2019, and included OBC’s wishes of turning their core
hunting area into no-go zone for herders and livestock.
In contrast, in 2013 when
Kagasheki was announcing the alienation of the 1,500 km2 Osero there was
relative unity, mass meetings, and protest delegations to Dar es Salaam and
Dodoma, and PM Pinda revoked Kagasheki’s threats.
OBC have long ago disqualified
themselves from any agreements and MoUs and must be chased away! The same could
be said about the central government, which can’t be chased away, but must
always be met with firmness!
The East African case is so
very important, it’s a shining hope in the fearful silence that’s governed
Loliondo since 2018, and before. Further, everyone in the know has told me that
it shouldn’t be difficult to win at all. Therefore, it almost insufferable to
witness how basically nobody involved (working for the villages’ side) is
making their best effort. This isn’t out of incompetence or laziness, but
everyone is overwhelmed with other issues, and in some cases suffering from
emotional fatigue. More people are needed, so if anyone can help, please do so,
primarily with funds.
Germans again
In mid-September the Germans
were again gushing money at TANAPA and schmoozing with the deputy minister and
other too well-documented long-time threats to land rights (FZS and WWF). This
time it was about 25 million euros for sustainable natural resource and
ecological sustainability development in the Serengeti ecosystem and
Katavi-Mahale corridor, and is hardly news, since it’s a repetitive apparently
compulsive behaviour.
I’ll never forget how the German ambassador was smiling with Minister Maghembe in 2017 while Loliondo was burning in the illegal invasion of village land with mass arson and every other human rights crime. Some months earlier Maghembe had claimed that implementing OBC’s land use plan for the alienation of the 1,500 km2 was a condition for receiving German funds. This led to manifestations by women in Wasso while the Germans didn’t say a word until over two years later when representatives from the German development bank denied that there were any such conditions.
Samia again
showing off her dangerous ignorance
Yesterday, 17th
October, President Samia Suluhu Hassan, on a two-day visit to Arusha, addressed
the public in a speech at Sheikh Amri Abeid Stadium. Sadly, she again threatened
the Ngorongoro pastoralists with her ignorant words. Her message was that
Ngorongoro was too “important” for people to live there. She said that
Ngorongoro is very important when talking about Arusha and tourism and “we”
(who?) can’t continue considering people’s interests while destroying
Ngorongoro. She also claimed that there are places to relocate people and
requested customary leaders to help resolving the stalemate. She had started by
ordering RC Mongella to sit at the discussion table with the laigwanak, and
that she herself would join if there weren’t any progress. I wonder where Samia
gets the idea that customary leaders have the mandate to trade away community
land to facilitate a cultural genocide but let her talk with them to learn a
thing a two, even if she seems set on an aggressive and destructive mission. It
has never been more important for next MP to be someone who will speak up
strongly in parliament.
Samia had even got her very
own laigwanani - one Lekisonko from Monduli, who has probably never set foot in
Ngorongoro, but who had a message that people could and should be evicted! I
had only heard about Lekisonko in April this year when he was crying in media
about his cattle being confiscated. Terrible as it was, at that time, people familiar with him were
almost saying that he deserved what was happening. Now I’m starting to
understand this and what kind of spineless character we are dealing with.
Customary leaders from Ngorongoro will soon hold a press conference about the eviction threat and to
denounce Lekisonko.
Tanzania has had anti-pastoralist
presidents before. Maybe all of them. But Samia’s specific targeting of
Ngorongoro is at another level. She must be stopped!
By-election?
Now a by-election will be held on 11th December. Intrigues and rumours have already started. May there be at least some
kind of minimal resemblance of democracy and may the least bad candidate win in
a sad joke of a system. Hyenas are regrouping.
Last time, the general elections on 28th October 2020, election theft was in many places violent and open, also at Oloirobi polling station in Ngorongoro where police and NCAA rangers opened fire at unarmed voters who didn’t agree with the theft, killing 23-year old Salula Ngorisiolo.
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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