Småbønder, der blev forvist fra deres fædrene jord i 2007, lever stadig som flygtninge i lejren, de kalder Sophiatown (ligesom den berygtede af slagsen i apartheid-Sydafrika) – de bor i “huse” af plastic og papir og har ikke til dagen og vejen.
GEITA, 3 June 2013 (IRIN): On the outskirts of the northern Tanzanian town of Geita sits a cluster of makeshift (interimistiske) tents constructed from plastic sheeting and bits of wood and metal.
The area, which resembles a refugee camp and is known by residents as Sophiatown – or colloquially, Darfur – is inhabited by farming families who were displaced in 2007 to make way for one of the country’s largest gold mines.
“One day in 2007 I was attacked by police at 5 am (om morgenen),” Mwajuma Hussein, a 75-year-old farmer from the village of Mine Mpya in Mtakuja Ward, told IRIN, adding:
“They arrested three people and beat them, and then they dumped us here.”
Hussein is one of an estimated 250 people displaced from the village. This camp has been her home for the past six years.
“Look at my house here made of paper,” said John Majebele, an elderly man who lives in a small tent with his wife. “When it rains, the roof leaks, but I do not have the money to fix it,” notes he.
Majebele used to be a farmer, growing maize, beans, bananas and other crops on land he says he inherited from his parents. Now he is no longer self-sufficient; he struggles to find work as a casual farm labourer in order to eat every day.
“I had two acres of my own land and could rely on myself. When I needed bananas, I would just cut, cook and eat them. Now I have to go to the market and pay 1.000 shillings (60 US cent = godt tre DKR) for five bananas, so I look for casual labour. If I do not find it, I don’t eat,” he told IRIN.
The residents of Mine Mypa were evicted by the Tanzanian government to make way for the Geita Gold Mine (GGM), operated by gold mining company Anglogold Ashanti, which is headquartered in South Africa.
In a written letter to IRIN, the company said that the village lay within the mine’s Special Mining License area.
The Sophiatown farmers are just a few of the thousands of Tanzanian families who have been forcefully relocated by mining activity in recent years.
Compensation claims and legal battles
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http://www.irinnews.org/report/98150/tanzanian-farmers-displaced-by-mining-live-like-refugees
