Land conflicts and the livelihood of Pastoral Maasai Women in Kilosa district of Morogoro, Tanzania

Abstract

This summary of my PhD thesis analyses conflicts around land in relation to pastoral Maasai women livelihoods in Tanzania. Issues of pastoralism and land use conflicts in Tanzania are well documented in literature. However, a gendered analysis of conflicts around land in relation to land reforms (changes in the use and ownership of, and access to land and land resources), prolonged climate variability and change, and food insecurity, hardly exists in the literature. Of particular concern is the rudimentary analysis of these conflicts as it relates to pastoral Maasai women, the primary and secondary users of land in pastoral livelihoods. Data analysed in this report were collected in Kilosa district, located in Morogoro, Tanzania, one of the renowned hotspots for pastoral-farmer conflicts in Tanzania. Within Kilosa, data were collect in pastoral Maasai settlements [villages] of Twatwatwa, Kiduhi, Ngaiti, and Mabwegere, and pastoral Maasai women were central focus. Through ethnographic research methods namely focus group discussions, interviews, and participant observations, I have found that vulnerabilities to conflicts around land are gender differentiated, and that pastoral Maasai women experience climate change, food insecurity, and land reforms differently from men. An overall conclusion in this report is that, conflicts around land in Kilosa are intricate in nature and cannot be analysed from a single narrative, and pastoral Maasai women by virtue of their specific gender roles and the gender relations are hit hard. I therefore argue that, (1) for secure land reforms, the political, economic, and social structures through which land access is mediated must also be reformed; (2) there should be a holistic conflict mitigation approach and strategies in resolving conflict around land in Kilosa. The approaches should focus at engaging pastoralists and pastoralist women in particular, and their institutions and making them an integral part of the solutions. (3) Decisions dealing with climate change mitigation strategies such as the Kilosa eviction of 2009 should also involve pastoralist women whose livelihood depends directly and/or indirectly on climate sensitive resources; (4) the introduction of forage crops production [such as grasses and legumes] in Kilosa is imperative. This will assist in increasing pasture production, which eventually will boost livestock production [livestock, the main preferred food source among the pastoral Maasai]. Equally, availability of forage crops within pastoralists reach reduces unplanned herd mobility, and at the same time lessens challenges that pastoralist women face in their responsibilities as default food managers. Key words: Bantu languages, Ubangian languages, contact langues, documentations, reconstructions, classifications