This brief blog
post was supposed to be published before the end of 2021, but I’ve lacked
focus, had some computer problems, and most importantly - waited in vain for
more detailed information about various issues, like several meetings by the
enemies of the Maasai of Ngorongoro and Loliondo. Though now it looks like
there could be a new post quite soon, and that’s not good.
In this blog post
Terrible
rumour about cabinet meeting and demand for Ololosokwan village certificate
OBC
and the Osero very briefly
The official December activities by the enemies
of Ngorongoro
New MP
Visit by the RC?
Update: the RC's visit was BAD:
https://termitemoundview.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-arusha-rc-sends-message-that.html
On 16th December
the terrible rumour reached me that at a cabinet meeting it had been decided
that Ololosokwan village in Loliondo must be de-listed and the area placed
under the Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority (TAWA). Also, there was a
decision that the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) should be “free of the
Maasai” as soon as possible. Ololosokwan village leadership had been told to
disclose the number of village certificate. I never found out if the source for
this information was someone serious or not, and I couldn’t get more details.
However, several people mentioned that Ololosokwan did receive a demand to hand
in the village certificate. This wasn’t the first time. I reported about such a
demand, that was fought off, already in 2011. At that time the demand for the
certificate came via an official letter mentioning some unspecified “conflict
with neighbours”, but now in December it was received via phone calls to the
Village Executive Officer and to the Ward Councillor (who shockingly became OBC’S
assistant director in 2015 - after, and through, so many human rights crimes -
and stayed until some point in 2021, or so is being said), with “orders from
above” as the “reason”. Reportedly and expectedly, Ololosokwan village
chairman, John Pyando, refused to hand in the village certificate. At a meeting
between 12 village chairs and some NGO people on 20th December
Pyando used strong language to declare that he’d not hand in the village
certificate for whatever reason, which was a good to hear, or even a flashback
to better times. Though, even if there are other worrying signs, local leaders
are not going to act on rumours about a cabinet meeting that hasn’t been
officially communicated.
OBC and the Osero
very briefly
The threat against village
land in Ololosokwan is part of the multiform threat that for many years has
been lobbied for by Otterlo Business Corporation (OBC) that since the early
1990s has the hunting block (permit to hunt) in Loliondo and organizes hunting
for Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai. As known, around OBC (and the American Thomson Safaris) a local police state has developed, in which basically every
government official, and particularly the security committee and always the consecutive
DCs (though currently the DED has taken this place) openly, shamelessly, and with
astonishing lawlessness work for the investors, threatening, defaming and
arresting anyone suspected of being able to speak up. This has led to several
illegal invasions of village land with mass arson, multiple human rights
crimes, fear, treason, and almost complete silence these past years when
repression has worsened in the whole of Tanzania.
OBC have been lobbying to
convert their 1,500 km2 core hunting area, which at the same time is
an important dry season grazing area, and legally registered village land, into
a “protected area”. In 2009, under Minister Mwangunga, this lobbying led to an
illegal mass-arson operation on village land, ordered by the DC’s office. Then
OBC funded a draft District Land Use Plan that proposed turning the 1,500 km2
Osero (bushland) into a protected area. This plan was rejected by Ngorongoro
District Council in 2011.
In 2013, Kagasheki, who by
this time was heading the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, made
vociferous statements acrobatically and shamelessly lying that alienating the
1,500 km2 meant gifting land to the Maasai. At that time of
not-again-seen unity and seriousness in Loliondo, Kagasheki’s threats were
finally stopped by PM Pinda. Then, under Nyalandu, divide and rule, and efforts
to buy off local leaders worsened, which was followed by increased repression
and multiple lengthy illegal arrests in 2016. By that time local leaders were
much weakened and agreed to a previously unthinkably sad compromise proposal,
while Maghembe showed signs of being as rabidly at the service of OBC as
Kagasheki had been.
Unexpectedly, while waiting to
hear from PM Majaliwa, an illegal mass arson operation, like the one in 2013,
erupted on 13th August 2017, ordered by DC Rashid Mfaume Taka. This
atrocity, with various human rights crimes, wasn’t stopped until Kigwangalla
was made new minister in late October, and for a short time was saying that OBC
would be chased away, until he changed his mind. Then, in 2018, OBC, as had
been done before, made substantial vehicle gifts to the Ministry of Natural
Resources and Tourism.
A military camp was set up in
Loliondo in 2018, and fear worsened to the point that no local leaders dared to
speak up against an intimidation drive to derail the case in the East African
Court of Justice that had been filed during the 2017 operation. At the lowest
point ever, nobody even spoke up when the soldiers from the national army
started torturing people and in November and December 2018 razed bomas in
Kirtalo and Ololosokwan, without any kind of official order.
There was a small kind of
relief when OBC’s director Isaack Mollel was arrested in 2019, but the Loliondo
police state wasn’t dealt with and hardly even Mollel’s personal economic
crimes. After a prolonged stay in remand prison, he was released without any
court ruling. While Mollel was still locked up, in September 2019 a genocidal
plan for Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) was presented and it included
proposals for surrounding areas, such as fulfilling what OBC had been lobbying
for. With the so-called elections in 2020 OBC ended up with at least three of
their employees as councillors.
In 2021, the new DED Jumaa
Mhina has been acting as the worst kind of DC, pressuring the chairmen of the
four villages with a case in the East African Court of Justice to withdraw this
case. It seems like the chairmen are resisting, and as mentioned, at least the
Ololosokwan village chair has been showing some seriousness. In the previous
blog post, I mention how this terrible DED has also been working to make the not
so serious chairmen of Sukenya, Mondorosi, and Soitsambu withdraw the case against
Thomson Safaris that’s been in the court of appeal for years. For the past
years there has been a horrible, almost total, silence about this ruthless and
enormously hypocrite tour operator that claim Maasai land as their very private
nature refuge, and has learned every trick from OBC, plus some more, about using
the Loliondo police state to silence those who could speak up. Though lately
some local people who don’t explain anything with any kind of detail showed
concern that the DED was derailing the case, then the lawyers even talked to the
press about that the DED was preventing them from meeting villagers. The chairmen
replied that they had already signed the DED’s withdrawal letter, didn’t want the
case, and that the lawyers had their own agenda. Though the latest I heard was
that the letter was never presented to the court, and that these chairmen, who
reportedly “think with their stomachs”, changed their mind and now want the
case.
One theory I’ve heard is that
there’s “competition” between NCAA and TAWA about who should control the Osero
in Loliondo. Though both are looking to please OBC by blocking people and
livestock while allowing hunting. It matters very little if this is called Game
Reserve or Core Conservation Sub-Zone. There’s also an old TANAPA wish to extend
the Serengeti National Park boundary into village land.
Now OBC’s people must be
prevented from getting the district council chairperson seat …
December
activities by the enemies of Ngorongoro
On 21st December
pictures were shared in WhatsApp from a meeting in Karatu that had concluded
that it’s now time to “open wildlife corridors”. Various NCAA officials and
those from other parastatals under the Ministry of Natural Resources and
Tourism, district officials, and people from conservation organizations had
been discussing “corridors” (this word is usually used for evictions, dispossession
and restrictions) around NCA and other areas. According to the brief description
shared in WhatsApp there would also have been representatives from “organizations
of common citizens”. As far as I’ve seen, there hasn’t been any information
about this meeting on the pages of the organizations and parastatals. Later I
was informed that a participant had reported that only “Natural Resources”, not
villagers, were present and that the talks were about influencing village land
use plans, educating and engaging “communities”.
On 6th to 8th
December 2021, the 13th Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI)
Scientific Conference was held at Arusha International Conference Centre. Among
the many ugly (anti-pastoralist) sponsors were OBC. The press reported about
Ndumbaro’s worries about too many livestock …
 |
| Some of the ugly sponsors. There were more of them. |
In mid-December, Deputy Minister
Masanja was networking at the EXPO 2020 in Dubai, of all places.
 |
| Nary Masanja appreciated by the former environment and water minister of the UAE. |
On 19th to 20th
December President Samia was in Ngorongoro to complete filming for The Royal
Tour “documentary”. In September I wrote about this project by the reporter
Peter Greenberg who films a promotional show in which heads of states, many of
them not at all friends of democracy and human rights, function as tour guides.
The researcher Alex Dukalskis has described it as “authoritarian image
management”. When The Royal Tour came to Ngorongoro in September, there was
heavy police deployment, some hysterical arrests, and nobody was allowed near
the president. This time, in December, reportedly filming from a “cultural boma”
was added. As known, Samia has in at least two official speeches expressed the
importance of “saving” Ngorongoro, by this meaning the removal of the Maasai,
which has put a cloud over the somewhat lighter and more relaxed governance atmosphere
after Magufuli passed away on 17th March 2021.
One more year passed without the
government - despite repeated promises of doing the Multiple Land Use Model
review afresh – scrapping the genocidal proposals for Ngorongoro Conservation
Area where the Maasai already live with unacceptable restrictions and have lost
access to several grazing areas the past years. Instead, demolition threats
against individuals accused of having built houses without permits have been
issued, withdrawn, and apparently issued again with court cases that I haven’t
got clear information about. Fortunately, there have also been several protest
statements (see various previous blog posts since late 2019), while the silence
about Loliondo has continued in an insufferable way, even if the case in the
East African Court of Justice continues, albeit without the serious efforts that
should be expected from everyone involved. The most anti-pastoralist and
pro-evictions NCAA chief conservator, Freddy Manongi, was supposed to retire in
November, but continues in office. Some say that President Samia has added two
years to his appointment. And, sadly (see previous blog posts), Ndumbaro and
Masanja survived a recent cabinet reshuffle.
New MP
Now hopes are placed on the
new MP, Emmanuel Oleshangai. Shangai has often spoken up with great
seriousness, but there is the problem that all political leaders are
illegitimate after the violently stolen 2020 elections, and the main opposition
party didn’t even participate in the recent Ngorongoro by-election, since there
isn’t any kind of independent electoral commission. Sadly, judging by reports
from the so-called campaign, it doesn’t seem like Shangai made any kind of
effort to call a spade a spade. Though if the threats and abuse continue, he
has no choice but to speak up in Parliament. I look forward to Ngorongoro being
treated with some seriousness in the National Assembly. We’ve lost too many
people in 2021 and we will all go that way, so we may just as well accept some
risks to leave a legacy as defenders of Ngorongoro district!
To make matters worse, rains
have failed with terrible, terrible consequences. There are rumours that the
Arusha RC will soon visit Ngorongoro district with bad news. Apparently he has already arrived today, 9th January. I hope it isn’t
true, and if it is, it will just have to be stopped.
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
No comments:
Post a Comment