CONCEPTUAL
FRAMEWORK FOR THE MAASAI WOMEN EMPOWERMENT PROGRAM IN NGORONGORO DISTRICT.
MIMUTIE BASIC FOUNDATION DOCUMENT 001
August 2014
1:0 Introduction and
background information on the overall situation
1: General Overview
about the Maasai situation Ngorongoro.
The Maasai are one of the few
ethnic entities still holding on to the traditional lifestyle in the midst of
globalization. Despite the traditional nature of the Maasai culture, it is not
immune to the change process from internal as well as external forces in
ecological, political, economic and sociological terms. The pace of change has
been slow until the last decade when the effects of the liberalized economy in
Tanzania began to have impact on the Maasai livelihood systems. The speed of
socio-economic change process, among the Maasai of Ngorongoro has been
accelerated by the forces of globalization.
This change process has serious implications for such a traditional
community which has been sidelined by the mainstream development process for
many years since independence. Women are more affected by these processes by virtue of their marginalized
position in the Maasai community where women are relegated to the lowest social
position.
Such implications range from poor participation in the educational
development process in the country which means externalization from
participation in the political arena which has a consequence in poor
representation. The sum total result of which is lack of participation in the
policy formulation processes. Up to now there is no policy on pastoralism which
is the mainstay of the Maasai livelihood system. Reluctance of the government
to recognize and support the pastoral economy of the Maasai has resulted in the
scale up of impoverisation of the Maasai community over the years. This
overview description is applicable to the Maasai community across the board in
Tanzania.
1:2
The context of Ngorongoro District
The context of this proposal is Ngorongoro district which is one of the five Maasai districts in
the country.
This district is unique and different from the other four districts on
one fundamental account, that is conservation of wildlife. The district is part
of the Greater Serengeti Ecosystem and is therefore the home of many species of
fauna and flora. The World famous Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Conservation area
where the Ngorongoro Crater is situated are one of the most visited tourist
destinations in East Africa. These two wildlife sanctuaries have made the government to focus more on
wildlife conservation at the cost of pastoralism without regard to the reality
that the abundance of wildlife in these areas which interfaces with the Maasai
life in the villages is attributable to the nature of the Maasai culture which discourages
use of game meat hence preventing killing of wildlife. Maasailand is the only
place where wildlife have found a safe home and friendly environment. This is
attested to by the peaceful co-existence of wildlife and livestock in the Masai
villages in the district.
Due to this peaceful and friendly co-existence between the Maasai and
wildlife, most of the areas now used for conservation like Serengeti National
Park were carved out from Maasailand, a reality which has caused alienation of
prime land for pastoralism. While wildlife grazes in the Maasai villages,
destroying crops and killing their livestock without any compensation, the
Maasai livestock are never allowed to enter into the Serengeti National
Park for grazing even during very hard
times. This is one of the factors which increase the level of poverty in this
community.
Ngorongoro district is unique and different from other districts because
most of the land in the entire district has been legally declared as wildlife
conservation of one form or the other.
In the Ngorongoro highlands which constitute 59% of the total district,
there is Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority. This area is governed and managed by a government parastatal and
yet there are over 80,000 Maasai living in this area. The Multiple Land Use is
the model of management of this area. To balance conservation of wildlife and
human development in this area remains one of the most challenging job in the
area. The livelihood system of the Maasai in this area is strictly regulated by
the NCA authority, impeding a natural community development process like in the
other villages in Tanzania.
As if this is not enough, the remaining 41% of the district land area is
yet governed by another conservation
legal framework. This area has been declared a Game Controlled Area with its
restrictions on human development activities. This makes the entire district, a
government conservation area where human development is hampered by
conservation laws and policies. The overall impact on the socio-economic arena
of the Maasai pastoralists is acceleration of general poverty.
Against this background, MIMUTIE WOMEN ORGANIZATION commits itself to put
in place a women empowerment strategy to enable women to address challenges affecting
their lives and their economic position in the community. Some of these
challenges are caused by both internal and external factors and forces within
the the Maasai cultural environment.
MIMUTIE WOMEN ORGANIZATION strategically empowers the women through the
following interventions through interventions in the areas of;
·
Cultural development of the Maasai pastoralists.
·
Improvement of the natural resource management
through the use of the strategy of Community Based Natural Resource Management
enshrined in the cultural framework.
·
Economic empowerment
by focusing on women empowerment and education of girl children.
This proposal is meant to enable ECEPA to implement the last component of
its program.
2:0 PROBLEM STATEMENT
2:1
Cultural Context
It is not
possible to understand the concept of community based development process in the Maasai community
without a fair understanding of the
cultural context .
The social organization system of the
Maasai is based on the age-set system.
Boys of one age group are initiated into one age set and undergo cultural
training during the entire period of their worrioship which is ten years. At
the end of this period, they become fully knowledgeable about their own
culture. This is therefore the way cultural values are passed and perpetuated
across generational lines. This applies only to boys only.
Women are
not part of this ceremonial arrangement of cultural training. Girls are not grouped into age-sets like boys. As
they get married, they take the status of
the age-set of their respective husbands irrespective of the age.This is
where the social marginalization of women begins in the Maasai society.
The
patriarchal nature of the Maasai culture relegates women to the lowest social
status and this marginalizes them from ownership of property and control of the
same. This male dominated social arrangement works against women development.
As a consequence of this, few girls are sent to school as compared to boys.
This accounts for the highest level of illiteracy among women compared to men.
This has been proved by various studies.
2:2
MARGINALIZATION OF WOMEN FROM EQUAL PARTICIPATION IN DEVELOPMENT
By virtue
of the partriarchal social organization of the Maasai society, women have had
few opportunities to access formal education. Hence illiteracy remains a major
problem which also externalizes women from participating in leadership and decision making processes in the
socio-economic development arena. This
also accounts for poor participation of women in the political representation.
In the
socio-economic arena, decisions in terms of planning and implementation of
development activities are carried out by men. This whole process is
responsible for the current social status of women which is characterized by
economic poverty and political powerlessness.
2:3 POOR PERFORMANCE OF GIRL CHILDREN IN THE
FIRST LEVEL OF EDUCATION
Statisticts
demonstrate that in the standard 4 and
standard 7 national examinations, girl children perform very poorly and in most
cases drop out of school. The reasons for this can be listed as follows;
·
Poor
status of the mother who in most cases takes care of the needs of her
daughter.Fathers in most cases are not willing to support their daughters who
are sent to school under the government pressure. For them, they want their
daughters to fail so that they can be married off as soon as they come out of
school.
·
Girl
children who are mostly day scholars go back to their respective bomas where
the cultural system encourages them interact with boys and participate in
traditional dances. This makes them think less of education and do not even
bother to do their homework.
·
Distance
between school and the village can be 7 kms and children get tired walking to
and fro without lunch. This discourages them to continue with schooling. They
see this as the source of suffering rather than the source of happiness and
hope.
·
Poverty
of parents is also a factor. Some parents my wish to educate their daughters
beyond the first level or even through the third level of education but they
are constrained by poverty.
·
Poor
quality of teaching environment in its entirety---few teachers, inadequate
teaching materials, lack of books, etc.
There are
many more reasons for this problem but these are the most fundamental ones.
2:3 THE PROBLEM OF WATER
The
Maasai community practices transhumant pastoralism
which
means seasonal mobility of livestock to access water and grazing in a context
where land is communally owned and used for pastoral production. For the
pastoral economy to be productive, availability of adequate water is a
necessity. But up to now, the problem of water ranks as one of the most
important and critical problems which constrain socio-economic development of
the pastoralist Maasai in the Ngorongoro district. This problem takes a high
toll on the livestock during the dry season every year. Human beings share the same
water with livestock and wildlife in many areas. The amount of calories and
time expended by women who trek long distances to fetch water for their
families are immense. More than 80 % of the people have no access to clean
water. Safe water does not exist at all.
