Masai land under threat from luxury wildlife hunting

Olosho, produced by the Masai community is a powerful video highlighting the land-rights struggle against global companies and the Tanzanian government

The film was created by six members of the Maasai community, from Loliondo, Tanzania who have been battling over twenty years to protect their pastoral land from global land poachers. The community’s land – sandwiched between the famous and biodiversity rich Serengeti, Maasai Mara and Ngorongoro – is under threat from foreign companies and the Tanzanian government. Maasai people are being evicted and their land grabbed for luxury hunting of the world’s most valuable wildlife. There are reports that wealthy tourists from countries like China, UK go to the game reserve for hunting wild animals, like lions and leopards, facilitated by safari tourism companies.

This is their story in their own words. The Masai documentary crew has been trained by Insightshare, that empowers communities to use participatory video making as a tool. Mainstream coverage of the news at a global level has a short life while their struggle continues for decades. Whenever, a pressure is built on this land grabbing, the government of Tanzania assures to undertake measures to protect the communities land but does not follow through in implementation; and instead use coercive measures on protesters to quieten them.

A Swedish environmental activist Susanna Nordlund, trying to expose the dealings was arrested in June 2015 by the Tanzanian government and deported to Kenya. The blog View from the Termites Mound shares intriguing details of the struggle of the Masai people and the oppression from the state. An online campaign has received over 2 million signatures to save the Maasai of Loliondo.