Browsing by Author "Mwiinga, Aura"

The Maasai, an Indigenous ethnic group of East Africa, have long been intertwined with the landscapes of northern Tanzania. Their traditional pastoralist lifestyle has shaped the region's ecology and cultural heritage. However, the Maasai communities often find themselves marginalized in decision-making processes, where state-led policies and agendas are dominating. In recent decades, Tanzania's wildlife policies, largely adopted from the colonial era, have frequently clashed with the traditional land use practices of the Maasai. Central to these policies have been forced relocations and marginalization policies of Maasai communities from areas designated as protected areas. Through a literature review drawing from political ecology, this thesis aims to contribute to the broader discourse on conservation, governance, and social environmental justice. The Ngorongoro area is known for its biodiversity and natural significance, making it a focal point to examining the Maasai-state relations in Tanzania and shedding light to broader academic understanding of environmental justice in Sub-Saharan Africa. By analyzing the historical context, evolution of conservation policies, and the negotiation strategies of the Maasai, especially in relation to their land rights, this research aims to shed light on how power operates within conservation and development, and the ways in which it has shaped the lives and futures of the Maasai in Ngorongoro area. The conservation policies in Tanzania have been shaped by many historical and contemporary political dynamics. The making of the modern postcolonial state, growing hegemony of neoliberal economic policies, rising of the sustainable development agenda and the general state of civic space and democracy in the country have shaped the evolution of conservation policies in Tanzania, especially in relation to Maasai, who are Indigenous inhabitants of many biodiversity rich areas. The Maasai have experienced decades of long marginalization and dispossession by national politics, ultimately resulting in forced relocations from their ancestral lands. However, the Indigenous group has created various negotiation strategies through which they have actively advocated their rights on local, national and global scales.