TANZANIA’S GOVERNMENT is facing an international backlash over its decision to boot out about 40,000 Masai tribes people from their ancestral lands in order to make room for a hunting reserve for the Dubai royal family.
Authorities had been planning to create a 1,500 sq km area for the use of a commercial hunting and safari business based in the United Arab Emirates, but the plans were apparently abandoned last year following a campaign led by activists.
However, the initial plans appear to be back on the agenda as the government has ordered the Masai to vacate their lands by the end of the year.
The tribe has been offered the equivalent of almost £370,000 in compensation that would not be paid directly to the Masai but invested into development projects.
The Masai have rejected the government’s deal.
A local NGO leader Samwel Nangiria said: “I feel betrayed. One billion [shillings] is very little and you cannot compare that with land. It’s inherited.
“Their mothers and grandmothers are buried in that land. There’s nothing you can compare with it.”
His life has been threatened for his activism against selling off the land to the Dubai-based company, and Nangiria added: “I will fight for my community. I’m more energetic than I was. The Masai would like to ask the prime minister about the promise. What happened to the promise? Was it a one-year promise or forever? Perhaps he should put the promise in writing.”
An international campaign against the plans was led by online activism group Avaaz.org, whose petition garnered over 1.7 million signatures.
Avaaz campaign director Alex Wilks said: “The Masai stare out from every tourism poster, but Tanzania’s government wants to kick them off their land so foreign royalty can hunt elephants there.
“Almost two million people around the world have backed the Masai’s call for president Jakaya Kikwete to fulfil his promise to let them stay where they’ve always lived.
“Treating the Masai as the great unwanted would be a disaster for Tanzania’s reputation.”
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