An international border cut Maasailand clean in half. The Maasai lost 60% of their pre-colonial land almost overnight.
This article covers African pastoralism, focusing on the Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania and how colonial rule reshaped their world.
🏛️ Must Know
Pastoralism Across Africa
- Half the World’s Pastoralists Over half the world’s pastoral population lives in Africa, with over 22 million people depending on pastoral activity.
- Many Communities African pastoralist communities include the Bedouins, Berbers, Maasai, Somali, Boran, and Turkana, mostly in semi-arid or desert land.
- The Maasai’s Range Maasai cattle herders live primarily in east Africa: about 300,000 in southern Kenya and 150,000 in Tanzania.
📘 Good to Know
Maasailand Cut in Half
- A Colonial Boundary In 1885, an international border split Maasailand between British Kenya and German Tanganyika.
- 60% of Land Lost The Maasai lost about 60% of their pre-colonial lands, confined to a small, arid zone with uncertain rainfall.
- Land Became Game Reserves Grazing land was also turned into reserves like the Serengeti, created over 14,760 square kilometres of Maasai grazing land.
✅ Test Yourself
🌟 Great to Know
Borders, Reserves and Trade Bans
- Confined to Reserves Pastoral groups across colonial Africa were forced into special reserves, unable to move out without hard-to-get permits.
- A Kaokoland Complaint In 1949, Kaokoland herders in Namibia said borders left them “imprisoned,” unable to reach Ovamboland’s markets.
- Trade Restricted Pastoralists were barred from white-area markets, though colonists still depended on black labour for mines, roads, and towns.
Elders, Warriors and Colonial Chiefs
- Two Social Groups Pre-colonial Maasai society had elders, who ruled through councils, and warriors, who defended the community and raided cattle.
- Colonial Chiefs Appointed The British appointed chiefs over Maasai sub-groups and restricted traditional raiding, weakening both elders’ and warriors’ authority.
Exam Point of View
When Pastures Dry: Drought Deaths
- 1930 Cattle Count A 1930 enquiry found the Maasai in Kenya owned 720,000 cattle, 820,000 sheep, and 171,000 donkeys.
- Half the Herd Died In just the two drought years of 1933 and 1934, over half the cattle in the Maasai Reserve died of starvation.
- Why Nomadism Mattered Confinement to a fixed reserve meant the Maasai could no longer move their herds to find pasture during droughts.
Rinderpest: The Cattle Plague That Broke African Herds
- Arrived via EritreaRinderpest reached Africa in the late 1880s, carried by infected cattle imported to feed Italian troops invading Eritrea.
- 90% of Cattle KilledThe disease swept west “like forest fire,” killing 90% of cattle along the way and reaching the Atlantic coast by 1892.
- A Tool of ConquestPlanters, mine owners and colonial governments monopolised the scarce surviving cattle, using this control to force Africans into wage labour.
Wealthy Chiefs, Poorer Pastoralists
- Chiefs Grew Wealthy Colonial-appointed chiefs accumulated wealth, lent money to poor neighbours, and survived droughts through non-pastoral income.
- The Poor Lost Everything Poor pastoralists depending only on livestock often lost everything in war and famine, becoming labourers in towns.
- A New Divide Maasai society developed a new wealth-based division between rich and poor, alongside its older elder-warrior distinction.
The Trap Examiners Set on the Maasai
- Why Students often confuse the 1885 Maasailand partition with later independence-era borders. It happened decades earlier, during the “Scramble for Africa.”
- Instead “Elders” and “warriors” are sometimes treated as fixed castes. They were age-based categories, and men moved from warrior to elder status over time.
- Takeaway Game reserves like the Serengeti are often framed purely as conservation success stories, obscuring that they were carved from Maasai grazing land.
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