MAASAI PEG HOPES IN 1958 SERENGETI PARK AGREEMENT

The Minister for Natural 

Resources and Tourism, Lazaro Nyalandu balancing a bucket on his head after drawing water from a solar-powered well constructed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Loliondo Division of Ngorongoro District. Left is the Ngorongoro District Commissioner, Hashim Mgandilwa.

By Staff Reporter 

Nearly 60 years after the formation of Serengeti National Park, the official contract which was signed between the Colonial British rulers and the Maasai who formerly resided in the reserve has landed in Tanzania.

Dating back to 1958 the charter document,  contents of which are still to be revealed   in public,  is reported to have some sensitive, previously concealed legal matters that stand  to  affect the future of the country’s second largest and most popular National Park . 

Speaking at Ololosokwan Village, the former area Chairman, Mzee Yohanne Ole Saini revealed that for many years they have been searching for the agreement signed between 12 former Maasai elders and the British Government in 1958, regarding the Serengeti, Ngorongoro and Loliondo areas.

“Maasai are patient people.  We have educated our children to highest levels and now through them the people of Loliondo have managed to find the contract in the United Kingdom and it has just been brought back into the country,” he said. 

 The Minister for Natural resources and Tourism, Mr Lazaro Nyalandu was present when Mzee Saini revealed the   finding of  the previously hidden secret but made no comment over the new development. 

Before becoming a gazetted park, Serengeti, famous for its annual wildebeests migrations, used to be the  residence of the Maasai Pastoralists who were evicted from the so-called ‘endless plains,’ to pave way for the formation of the country’s first ever National Park. The Maasai were later relocated east to the Loliondo Game Controlled Area and South to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority.

But following series of conflicts with investors in Loliondo, the Maasai invested much efforts to secure the original document sealing a contract between them and the then British  colonial rulers over the agreed land-use plans for both Serengeti and Loliondo and the rights that the Maasai pastoralists are entitled. 

The British versus Maasai Serengeti Charter is currently kept safe in some unknown place in Arusha awaiting the day when the local residents will display it to the public and make fresh land claims likely to send shockwaves across the country. 

 Measuring 14,800 square kilometres, Serengeti National Park lying within the Serengeti-Mara covers Mara, Arusha and Simiyu regions and attracting 350,000 tourists annually, is Tanzania’s second popular destination after the Ngorongoro Crater which gets 600,000 visitors per year. 

 Serengeti National Park is famous for its annual migration of nearly 2.5 million white brindled wildebeest and Zebras as well as ferocious Nile crocodiles inhabiting the River Mara which cuts across the Reserve. 

It is not known how much the Park stands to be affected once the 1958 Serengeti Charter reveals new developments for the benefit of the Maasai in Loliondo.

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