Development, demarcation and ecological outcomes in Maasailand

Abstract

AbstractThe article begins by setting out the position of the Maasai, their territory and social organisation at the advent of the colonial period. It documents the progressive erosion of territory and the imposition of new boundaries on the Maasai from the 1880s to the present. It then uses the author's studies of the current Maasai land use and production system in Tanzanian Maasailand, together with comparative material from Kenyan Maasailand, to show how Maasai communities have dealt with these constraints. Data on livestock performance, wealth holdings, settlement size, diet and nutritional status are used as direct ecological indicators of the effects of boundary formation. It discusses the nature and extent of the response of the Maasai communities, whether in circumventing imposed boundaries, exploiting and in some cases attacking the resources the boundaries were designed to protect, or in developing strategies to incorporate and use to good effect the opportunities that boundaries can present.