Question

Give reasons to explain why the Maasai community lost their grazing lands.

Answer 1

The Maasais lost their grazing lands due to the following reasons:

• In 1885, Maasai land was cut in half by an international boundary between British Kenya and German Tanganyika.
• The best pastures were reserved for white settlements, and the Maasai tribes were given arid zone with uncertain rainfall and poor pastures into a small area in South Kenya and North Tanzania.
• The British colonial government in East Africa also encouraged local peasant communities to expand cultivation. As cultivation expanded, pasturelands were turned into cultivated fields.
• Large areas of grazing land were also turned into game reserves where pastoralists were not allowed to enter.
• This lack of good grazing lands and a two-year drought led to losses of almost 60% cattle belonging to the Maasai tribes.

Thus, with the expansion of British colonization, the Maasai community lost their grazing lands.