Tanzania’s government announced that it plans to kick thousands of families off Massi lands so that wealthy tourists can use them to hunt lions and leopards. Those evictions are said to begin immediately. Last year is when word leaked out globally about this plan, almost one million people petitioned against it.

 

Tanzania’s government has been accused of breaking its promise to 40,000 Massi pastoralists by going ahead with plans to evict them and turn their ancestral land for the royal family of Dubai to hunt big game. Activists all over the world celebrated when the government said it had backed out of a proposed 1,500 sq km “wildlife corridor” bordering the Serengeti national park that would serve a commercial hunting and safari company based in the United Arab Emirates.

Now the deal appears to be back on and the Massai have been ordered to quit their traditional lands by the end of the year. Masai representatives will meet the prime minister, Mizengo Pinda, in Dodoma to express their anger.

 

They insist the sale of the land would rob them of their heritage and directly or indirectly affect the livelihoods of 80,000 people. The area is crucial for grazing livestock on which the nomadic Masai depend. Unlike last year, the government is offering compensation of 1 billion shillings (£369,350), not to be paid directly but to be channeled into socio-economic development projects. The Masai have dismissed the offer. Many feel betrayed. Samwel Nangiria, co-ordinator of the local Ngonett civil society group said he believes the government never truly intended to abandon the scheme in the Loliondo district but was wary of global attention. “They had to pretend they were dropping the agenda to fool the international press.”

 

An international campaign was established last year against the hunting reserve by the online activism site Avazz.org, it attracted more than 1.7 million protesters against the proposed reserve. Today the site is doing the same and hopes to raise over 2 million protesters.