Question

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

Answer 1

• Almost 60 percent of their pre-colonial lands were lost by Maasai.
• The continuous loss of their grazing lands was one of the problems faced by Maasai.
• Maasailand stretched over a vast area from the steppes of northern Tanzania to North Kenya.
• Different colonies were sliced from the region as the European imperial powers scrambled for territorial possessions in Africa in the late 19th century.
• German Tanganyika and British Kenya were created with an international boundary by cutting Maasailand in half, in 1885.
• Cultivated fields were created by converting pasture lands, as cultivation expanded.
• The Maasai were pushed into a small area in northern Tanzania and southern Kenya, as the best grazing lands were gradually taken over for white settlement.
• The Maasai were confined to an arid zone with poor pastures and uncertain rainfall.
• Local peasant communities were encouraged to expand cultivation, by the British colonial government in east Africa, from the late nineteenth century.
• Both politically and economically, the agricultural neighborhood was dominated by the Maasai pastoralists in pre-colonial times.
• Maasai grazing land of over 14,760 km was converted into Serengeti National Park.
• Serengeti Park in Tanzania, Samburu National Park in Kenya, and the Maasai Mara were converted into game reserves which were large grazing lands of the Maasai.
• Pastoralists could not graze their herds in these areas, they could not hunt animals and they were not even allowed to enter these reserves.
• Very often the regular grazing grounds for Maasai herds were converted into reserve areas.
• The Maasai were confined within a small area of land and it created immense pressure on the water and land resources of the small area.
• The quality of pastures deteriorated drastically due to continuous grazing within a small area.
• Feeding the cattle became a permanent problem as there was a continuous short supply of fodder.