The word Pastoralist is not new to any living human being who is subjected to hearing. In Tanzania they are associated with normadic life, where they move with their livestock searching for good pasture and water. For Tanzanian educated and non educated and specifically crop farmers and deep ecologist, they label pastoralist as harsh and rude people and unfriendly to environment. This group of people are normally Maasai and Sukuma whom their mother land has been confiscated by investors, government itself under big name of National Park, Conservation and Game Controlled Areas and more so by Farmers who are eager to expand areas for cultivation and tend to slash down big trees to more open land.
Pastoralist are denied they right of living, it is buzz word now even in Parliament session where one of the MP puzzling and asking where are the Pastoralist come from? Is that a question to be asked by MP?.
Pastoralist mode of production is at crossroad due to; unfriendly land laws and issuing of title deeds, poor policies that govern land resources, changes of pastoralist grazing areas for other uses eg Basutu in Hanang, climatic changes, lack of joint and strong pastoralist NGOs, lack of market and credits (loans), and poor infrastructure. These challenges lead pastoralist to migrate with their animals from their areas of origin to other places mostly occupied by crop farmers and investors for example Kilosa, Kilombero/Ulanga, and Ngorongoro Districts respectively.
