MAASAI

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Picture Courtesy: https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/africa/fortress-conservation-tanzania-now-ineligible-for-european-union-conservation-grant-over-maasai-evictions-96588

Context: The European Commission (EC) has excluded Tanzania from eligibility for an €18 million conservation grant under the NaturAfrica initiative, due to the Tanzanian government's eviction of the Maasai people from their traditional lands.

Details

• Recent actions by the Tanzanian government have involved the forced removal of Maasai communities from areas like Loliondo within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
• Survival International and the Maasai International Solidarity Alliance (MISA) have both welcomed the EC's decision. These organisations have been vocal about the negative human rights impacts of the Maasai evictions, criticising the Tanzanian government for using conservation as a pretext for land grabs.
• The move by the EC follows similar actions by the World Bank, which suspended funding for a major conservation project, and the German Development Cooperation, which halted projects in Loliondo in the latter half of 2023.

About Maasai

• The Maasai are a Nilotic ethnic group inhabiting northern, central, and southern Kenya and northern Tanzania, near the African Great Lakes region.
• The Maasai speak the Maa language (ɔl Maa), a member of the Nilotic language family related to the Dinka, Kalenjin, and Nuer languages.
• The Maasai have maintained their culture despite extensive genetic introgression, showing multiple cluster assignments from the Nilo-Saharan and Cushitic genetic groups.
• The monotheistic Maasai worship a single deity called Enkai, Nkai, or Engai, represented in two forms:
  • Engai Narok (Black God), who is benevolent, and Engai Na-nyokie (Red God), who is vengeful.
  • The central human figure in Maasai religious life is the laibon, who serves as a shamanistic healer, diviner, and political leader.
• Maasai traditional lifestyle centres around cattle, which constitute their primary source of food. They eat meat, drink milk daily, and occasionally consume blood.
• Traditional rites, such as circumcision for boys and genital mutilation for girls, are important cultural practices.
• Piercing and stretching of earlobes are common among Maasai, with both men and women wearing metal hoops.
• Traditional Maasai attire includes shúkà, sheets worn wrapped around the body, and jewellery that signifies gender, relationship status, and age.

Source:

Down to Earth

Wikipedia