How do they live?





What problems do they face?

One of the most immediate threats to the Maasai comes from game hunters in the Loliondo region of northern Tanzania. Here, Maasai villages have been burnt to the ground by the authorities, and thousands have brutally evicted to provide a company, Otterlo Business Corporation Ltd (OBC), with more access to land for game hunting.

The Loliondo Maasai are now homeless, and without access to water and grazing land their cattle are dying.

A Maasai woman in Southern Kenya. © Adrian Arbib/Survival

Most of what used to be Maasai land has already been taken over, for private farms and ranches, for government projects, wildlife parks or private hunting concessions. Mostly they retain only the driest and least fertile areas.


However, they are in fact very efficient livestock producers and rarely have more animals than they need or the land can carry. These ‘development’ efforts try to change their system of shared access to land.


The most immediate threat to the Maasai is against those from Loliondo, an area in northern Tanzania. Here, Maasai villages have been burnt to the ground, and thousands have been evicted, allegedly to provide a safari hunting company, Otterlo Business Corporation Ltd (OBC), with easier access to hunting land.

How can I help?

  • Click here to donate to Survival.
  • Click here to write a letter to your MP or MEP (UK).
  • Write to your local Kenyan high commission or embassy, click here to find out the address.

How does Survival help?

Since 1993 Survival has assisted several Maasai groups in their struggle for their land. In Kenya we found funds for a programme of consciousness-raising against land sales, and supported the people of Iloodoariak and Mosiro, who are resisting the theft of their land through a legal fraud.

In Tanzania, we have backed the demand of the Maasai of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area for a proper say in its administration, and supported attempts to defend the sacred hill Endoinyo Ormoruwak (‘hill of elders’).

Survival is supporting the Loliondo Maasai’s demand to return to their lands in Loliondo and their call for an independent investigation in to the recent violent evictions.