As grazing land shrinks, Maasai herders make unlikely city dwellers

On the crowded streets of the Tanzanian capital, the sight of groups of men brandishing spears and clubs or hoisting wooden sticks used to herd cattle is no longer unusual.

The men are Maasai, one of northern Tanzania's most recognisable ethnic groups, known the world over for their semi-nomadic lifestyle and distinctive, colorful beads, red robes and distended earlobes.

While Maasai migration to urban areas began in earnest in the 1990s, pastoralist rights activists say a combination of recurrent drought, loss of grazing lands to wildlife reserves and large-scale agricultural investment has forced increasing numbers of Maasai to migrate to cities.

Onesmo Ole Ngurumwa, national coordinator of the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition, said there are more than 5,000 Maasai youth living in Tanzania's capital Dar es Salaam alone.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-tanzania-landrights-migration-idUSKBN18I22Z

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