Country: Tanzania

Group: Maasai

Date Finalized: 10/19/2023

Team: Hannah Lux (Lead), Natasha Chandra, Emily Allan, Esha Kubavat, Gordon Kok.

Content Warning: Forced Away, violence, sexual assault

Approximate Time Period: 1940s-Present

The Maasai, estimated to number around 430,000, are an ethnic minority group in northern Tanzania (Minority Rights Group, n.d.). They are pastoralists, practicing a semi-nomadic way of life (Minority Rights Group, n.d.). Germans colonized their region and forcefully displaced the Maasai using violence (Minority Rights Group, n.d.). The Maasai in Tanzania have more recently faced violent evictions and human rights abuses by the Tanzanian government (Human Rights Watch, 2023). The government has used lethal violence, such as shootings and stabbings, as well as sexual violence to subject the Maasai people (Amnesty International). These actions have resulted in mass arrests, indiscriminate killings, and the forced eviction of Maasai communities from their ancestral lands (Kabukuru, 2022). These actions have led to clashes between Maasai communities and Tanzanian police forces, raising concerns about human rights abuses and violations of Maasai land rights. The Maasai community in Tanzania is actively resisting the Tanzanian government. The Pan-African lawyer association that has fought against land sales are advocating for the recognition of Indigenous land and territorial rights (Council on Foreign Relationsn, n.d.). Tanzanian authorities have employed lethal violence when evicting the Maasai, prompting ongoing efforts to stop these violent acts (Amnesty International, 2023).

Data Quality: The data quality is rated 3/3 because there is a multitude of evidence that Maasai face lethal violence; the evidence comes from reputable sources.

Sources

  1. Amnesty International. (2023, June 6). Authorities brutally violated Maasai amid forced evictions. Amnesty International. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/06/tanzanian-authorities-brutally-violated-maasai-amid-forced-evictions/
  2. Council on Foreign Relations. (n.d.). Maasai evictions highlight conflict between “preservation” and Citizenship. Council on Foreign Relations. https://www.cfr.org/blog/maasai-evictions-highlight-conflict-between-preservation-and-citizenship
  3. Human Rights Watch (2023, May 1). Tanzania: Maasai forcibly displaced for Game Reserve. https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/04/27/tanzania-maasai-forcibly-displaced-game-reserve
  4. Kabukuru, W. (2022, June 23). Tanzania’s Masaai demand Indigenous rights in UN framework. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/climate-politics-science-united-nations-africa-9f7aa351806e0a97e802a5338f65e27a
  5. Minority Rights Group. (2018, May 15). Maasai. Minority Rights Group. https://minorityrights.org/minorities/maasai/