“Women are gathering and demonstrating because without land there is no life for them,” explains Maanda Ngoitiko, Executive Director of the Pastoral Women’s Council (PWC). “They’ve been empowered over the years, and have deep knowledge about what is happening and are therefore are not willing to sit quietly as their livelihoods are stolen away from them.”
“Women take care of livestock, milking them, treating them, building them shelter and so on,” explains Edward Loure, Executive Director of UCRT. “If land is lost, cattle have nowhere to graze and it is ultimately the women and children who suffer because it is easy for men to go to town looking for employment elsewhere, but women don’t have that option.”
"We don't belong to a party, our party is our land"
The 2,000 women who gathered in Magaiduru have collected – and are continuing to do so – membership cards fo CCM (the ruling political party in Tanzania) in protest against the party that they feel is stealing their land and whom they no longer can trust. “We don’t belong to a party, our party is our land,” says Paraketo, one of the women protesters who has joined from Ololosokwan village, one of the villages on the disputed land.
For twelve days the women organized food and transport and are pooling funds in hopes that they can gather more women to join their effort and also to take their message to the parliament in Dodoma.
The government is claiming that this decision is conservation-driven; however, many, including the women in Loliondo feel this is just an excuse for their actions because the communities have been co-existing with wildlife in this area for hundreds of years.
WITHOUT LAND, NO PASTORALISM
Project Officer Sinandei Makko from African Initiatives' partner the Ujaama Community Resource Trust (UCRT), explains why land is such a vital pillar o the pasroalist - and Maasai - way of life.
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