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Tanzania: Forty thousand Maasai to be evicted from Serengeti to make room for Dubai royal family

Forty thousand Maasai will be evicted from their homeland by the end of the year after the Tanzanian government reportedly backtracked on a promise to leave the pastoralists alone.

Last year, the Tanzanian government appeared to have resisted a land purchase by the Dubai royal family, proposing instead a “wildlife corridor” dedicated to hunting near Serengeti National Park. But the deal to sell the land for a private hunting reserve is reported to have gone through, and the Tanzanian government says the Maasai will have to leave.

Samwel Nangiria is the coordinator for a local civil society group called Ngonett. He says: “I feel betrayed. [Compensation of] one billion [Tanzanian shillings – $578,500 U.S.] is very little and you cannot compare that with land. It’s inherited. [Our] mothers and grandmothers are buried in that land.”

To read the full article, go to: http://www.salon.com/2014/11/17/tanzania_will_sell_masai_homeland_to_dubai_royal_family/ For further background information, see: http://weekly.farmradio.org/2013/04/15/news-brief-tanzanian-maasai-to-lose-land-to-%e2%80%98green-land-grab%e2%80%99-agencies/