A recent initiative by Orkonerei FM Radio has empowered Maasai women in Tanzania to fight for their rights, challenge gender inequality, and take control of their economic futures. The project, supported by the Indigenous Community Media Fund, focused on training women in leadership, human rights, and legal procedures while using radio programs to spread awareness.
By Nailejileji Asia Tipap, Executive Director IWDA
By Dev Kumar Sunuwar (Koĩts-Sunuwar, CS Staff)
In Tanzania, the Maasai, one of Africa’s most iconic Indigenous Peoples, are relentlessly struggling to protect their ancestral lands, cultural heritage, and way of life. Despite facing challenges such as forced evictions, environmental degradation, and systemic marginalization—often justified under the guise of conservation and tourism development—there is still hope for dialogue and constructive solutions.
The focus of Indigenous Women Development Affairs is on a developed Indigenous community and sustainable livelihoods and excellence. The objective is to work towards better living standards for Indigenous women through the delivery of good quality socioeconomic services, hygiene and sanitation, education, climate change action, and gender equity.
Media Aid for Indigenous and Pastoralists Community was formed by a journalist to empower Indigenous and pastoralist communities, who have suffered historical injustices as a result of colonization and dispossession of their lands, territories, and resources. These injustices have prevented them from exercising their rights to development in accordance with their own needs and interests.
Orkonerei FM was formed primarily to improve the lifestyle of the Indigenous Maasai community through information, communication, and education on development issues. It also supports the community in coordinating and organizing local economic development initiatives and facilitates community participation, inclusion, and engagement in a wide range of community development issues.
Content Note: The content discussed below, and/or some of the web pages we link to, contain text and images documenting physical violence against Maasai people.
Content Note: The content discussed below, and/or some of the web pages we link to, contain text and images documenting physical violence against Maasai people.
By Katya Yegorov-Crate (CS Intern)
Reports from the Maasai community of Loliondo in Ngorongoro District, Tanzania, indicate that people are being forcefully evicted from their ancestral lands and territories, starting on 10 June 2022. The ICCA Consortium strongly condemns this inexcusable violence against the Indigenous Maasai.
URGENT ADVISORY FROM A GROWING CULTURE
[Please reach out for sources at josh@agrowingculture.org, Signal +1-647-987-2912]
February 1, 2022 Press Release from Peasant and Indigenous Press Forum
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.
