Sentinels of Engaruka
A story worth protecting
Imagine a valley of five rivers which has sustained life for that many million years. It sits beneath a mountain called Ol Doinyo Lengai, which means the Mountain of God. On the valley’s plains, wildlife thrives and plants flourish. The rain arrives seasonally, the sun shines all year round, and a community of farmers grows food for themselves.
This was all true in the 1700s. But life in the natural world, as it often does, changes.
The valley of Engaruka still sits in the Eastern Rift Valley of Tanzania. It still sustains life, but perhaps not so easily as it once did. The first people who settled in this valley were known as the Engaruka Community. It’s unclear which tribe they belonged to, but they decided to call this valley their home. The Community built a village and irrigated the land. But one day, these people disappeared from Engaruka. Even now historians are not sure why, though the valley’s rivers also dried from five to one.
Wildlife continued to call Engaruka home, using it as a vital corridor for breeding and migration as it always has done. It was a long time before Engaruka welcomed its next human inhabitants, the Maasai tribe. These pastoralists didn’t cultivate the land, but used its natural pastures to graze their cattle. This allowed for co-existence between the Maasai, their livestock and the wildlife.
In Northern Tanzania over 90% of wildlife habitat is shared with humans. The Engaruka Valley is a delicate template of how they can share resources. But what happens when these resources become unreliable and a snare of competition?
Nature can be unpredictable. Lions roar, but mountains can roar too, like Ol Doinyo Lengai did during its volcanic eruption in 2017. This eruption marked a turning point for the Maasai in Engaruka, as they noticed the rain patterns change. The rains are the rhythms that these people and the valley’s wildlife live by. Wildlife including the Maasai Giraffe, Tanzania’s national icon.
