Being Maasai, Becoming Indigenous: Postcolonial Politics in a Neoliberal World

5. “If We Had Our Cows”: Community Perspectives on the Challenge of Change

5 X “If We Had Our Cows” Community Perspectives on the Challenge of Change We all work very hard, no one is sleeping. Everyone is trying very hard to do everything they can to survive , to make a living. Especially the Kurianga and Landiss [younger male age sets]. Many go to town to work, usually as guards. But then they use the money to build houses, buy cattle, and build better lives. No one is just sitting there with their arms folded [he folds his arms] waiting for it to rain. Some work from morning to night. —old Maasai man in Emairete So, more than twenty years later, what has the development of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), community-based organizations (CBOs) and, now, civil society organizations (CSOs) meant for the everyday lives of pastoralists, especially Maasai men and women? Has the decision of Maasai organizations to reposition their struggles from discourses of indigenous rights to pastoralist livelihoods, from international to national advocacy, and from calling themselves NGOs to CSOs changed their relationships with their constituents? How are these organizations perceived by the people they are supposed to be representing, helping, empowering, and advocating for? To explore these and related questions, this chapter draws on a broad survey of Maasai areas that I conducted in 2005 and 2006, opportunistic individual and group interviews with Maasai men and women of all ages and backgrounds, and available statistical data to compare the current situation of Maasai with their lives, experiences, and perspectives in the mid- 182 Being Maasai, Becoming Indigenous 1980s. Although data is never collected by ethnicity or principal livelihood in Tanzania, and what data exists is still fairly unreliable, comparing selected data from the districts inhabited primarily by pastoralists (“the pastoralist districts,” which include those in Arusha Region, Monduli, Ngorongoro, and Longido, and those in the new Manyara Region, Kiteto and Simanjiro) with national data suggests some disturbing disparities and trends (URT 2005c). Together, the interviews, observations, and statistical data present a complicated portrait of a resilient people struggling to survive in difficult times, frustrated by their inability to secure a better life for their children, and ambivalent about the assistance (and lack of assistance) they have received from the government, religious organizations, and NGOs. Although clearly neither stark improvements nor significant declines in their situation can be directly attributed to the interventions of NGOs, the evidence suggests that the presence of these organizations has, in general, helped some community members diversify, secure, and improve their livelihoods in modest ways, but done little to help them address the structural inequalities (such as lack of sufficient quality schools and healthcare facilities) impeding their collective progress. Pastoralists Today Like many states in the Global South, Tanzania has fiercely embraced the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a broad set of country-specific statistical goals (such as infant mortality and gender ratios in education) designed in consultation with the United Nations to improve the well-being of people in the Global South.1 Moreover, the state has proposed an even more ambitious set of social and economic goals in two key policy documents: Tanzania Vision 2025 (which outlines a “new economic and social vision for Tanzania,” including good, quality lives for all; good governance; and a competitive, neoliberal economy) (URT 1997); and MKUKUTA (the latest poverty reduction strategy proposal, discussed in the previous chapter) (URT 2005b). Although both discuss the need to direct resources and thought toward overcoming pervasive economic inequalities among Tanzanians, neither addresses the specific social, cultural, or economic needs of pastoralists (except, as noted in chapter 4, for a brief mention in the MKUKUTA of the need to strengthen “pastoralist livelihoods ”). More troubling, both documents reflect the strong neoliberal assumptions and goals of the Tanzanian state, which is intent on “reforming” “If We Had Our Cows” 183 economic and political sectors to meet global demnds for increased competition . To date, the government has privatized key industries, revised land regulations to encourage the sale and alienation of land, promoted large-scale commercial agriculture, expanded the highly profitable wildlife tourism and big-game hunting sectors, instituted service fees for healthcare (primary school fees were instituted then revoked), withdrawn support for education and other social services, and encouraged pastoralists to replace transhumant pastoralism with more “productive” and less “environmentally harmful” modes of livestock “farming” (as opposed to “herding”), such as ranches. As a result, there has been increased alienation of pastoralist lands (especially drought and...