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1.1 The Maasai -
East Africa’s Most Celebrated Indigenous Peoples
Meat, milk and blood form a substantial portion
of the Maasai diet. They rely on cattle, goats and sheep for
this. Using a bow, a blunt arrow is shot at a live cow’s
jugular to extract blood. Animal fats, honey, porridge and
recently maize meal, vegetables and tea are also consumed.
Circumcision - emurata –is the most significant
ceremony in the early years of a Maasai’s life, as it
marks the transition from childhood to adulthood. The night
before the main ceremony, the boys sing and play their childhood
away. Those who undergo circumcision at the same time henceforth
belong to the same age-set.
An age-set is formed every seven to ten years,
accommodating boys of 7 to 14 years of age. On the morning
of the ceremony, each boy is bathed in stinging-cold water
to deaden his nerves. He is draped in a purple piece of clothing
and is presented with a special pair of shoes made from dry
cowhide. In a public ceremony, in the chill of the morning,
the foreskin of his penis is knifed off. During this ritual
the boy must not show the slightest sign of pain, not even
the twitch of a muscle.
Girls undergo an excision of the clitoris
– clitoridectomy, which is performed when they are much
older in the privacy of their mother’s house. To stop
profuse bleeding, a paste of cow dung and milk fat is applied
on the raw wound. It is believed that this infamous practice
helps keep the girls’ sexual desires in check.
The girl after healing is considered eligible
for marriage and any worthy suitor may now ask for her hand.
The Maasai bride is usually never part of the dowry negotiation
or wedding arrangement. Sometimes it is a childhood engagement.
After payment of dowry, at an agreed date, the groom accompanied
by his best mate arranges to pick his betrothed.
After various ceremonies, she is clothed in blue to symbolise
her new status. As a married woman, she will now always walk
behind her husband.
After the boys heal, initiation into junior
warriorhood follows in a colourful ceremony known as emurano.
The boys move from home and set up warriors’ camps –emanyatta,
away from family where they live wild and begin to grow their
hair. The age-set chums are now taught and prepared to be
true warriors- morani. Matters of herd and community security
now rest in their youthful hands.
The morani are eager to justify their new
status by raiding cattle belonging to non-Maasai communities.
It is at this stage that they also learn the art of lion hunting.
The authorities today take a very dim view of lion hunting
and the Maasai grumble that those caught in the practice are
punished.
During this period, the junior warrior is
allowed to engage in sexual relations with uncircumcised girls,
provided no pregnancy results. He shares his girlfriends with
his age-set mates as they are bound by oath for life and share
in everything. They are prohibited to eat in the presence
of women or when unaccompanied by their age-set friends. They
also must carry their weapons at all times; a spear –
with
a pale coloured handle, a club and a shield.
Junior warriors must be on the ready to fight
fearlessly, at any time. If they prove themselves, they are
promoted to senior warrior –ilingeetiani, through a huge
ceremony known as eunoto, which is performed every ten to
fifteen years. The ilingeetiani cease to be front-liners in
battle
and prepare for elderhood. They are allowed to accumulate
wealth, marry and start families. At the transition ceremony,
they are handed new spears with ebony handles to signify their
seniority. They can now eat outside the camp but still not
in the company of women. Here, they identify and choose their
age-set leader.
The warrior graduates to become a junior elder
at an emotional, meat roasting ceremony -olngeher. Crying
and wailing, he mourns the end of his youthful years. He downs
his weapons and is honoured with an elders’ chair. The
chair becomes his companion till death or until it breaks.
On this chair his eldest wife shaves his head clean. If he
has no wife, his mother does the honours, and a wife is very
soon found for him.
Days later, the ceremony comes to an end when
there is no more meat to roast. Now as elders, they must move
out of their father’s homesteads and establish their
own. They begin to involve themselves in deliberating other
concerns of the community. With time they become senior elders-
revered wise men, and assume responsibilities of clan administration.
Death - enkeeya is the inevitable end of a
Maasai’s life journey. To the horror of Christian missionaries,
Maasai traditionally mourned their dead then left the body
in the wild for animals to eat. The common practice now is
to hold a small ceremony, after which a grave is dug and the
body buried. Stones are then piled upon the grave, but without
any tombstones or no markers.
Today, an approximately 450,000 Maasai live
in Kenya, with a similar number estimated to be living in
Tanzania. You can meet the Maasai, when on a Kenya
or Tanzania safari:
where they live in the neighbourhood of some
of leading game reserves. Maasai regions such as Serengeti,
Ngorongoro, Maasai Mara, Amboseli, and Tarangire are abundant
with the wild game that makes safari tourism such fun.
In these areas conflicts occasionally arise
between the interests of the Maasai and those of wildlife.
The Maasai complain that though their animals are sometimes
attacked by wildlife, any retaliation results in punishment
by the authorities. Though they are allowed to graze animals
in game reserves, this is not allowed in national parks such
as Amboseli, limiting available pasture for their beloved
cattle.
The loss of communal Maasai lands to agricultural
and commercial utilisation has further piled up pressure on
the Maasai traditional lifestyle. Though they have survived
through the last century, the pressure to adapt modern lifestyles
is relentless. They have stuck to their arguably antiquated
customs with an obstinacy that defies all understanding.
Though some are yielding, many continue with the ways of the
past.
Their way of life puts them at a severe disadvantage
in the modern world that surrounds them. The Kenyan and Tanzanian
governments - and the colonial administrators before them,
have failed to woo the Maasai away from their traditional
lifestyle. In 1988, warriorhood customs were banned in Kenya;
a few other practices have also been prohibited but are still
practiced in secret. Female circumcision remains the greatest
battle ahead, which the Maasai – especially the older
women refuse to abandon.
The Maasai appear poor on account of their
simple lifestyle, so lacking in modern conveniences. Some
have however huge cattle herds worth a substantial amount.
But they rarely sell the cattle, and the accumulation of cattle
wealth is almost an end in itself.
The Maasai have resisted modern education,
and to integrate in the cash economy. In Kenya, Maasai literacy
rates are below 20%, and fall as low as 5% among clans pursing
a purely nomadic lifestyle. Due to their semi-nomadic ways,
it is not easy to provide essential services such as safe
drinking water, healthcare, education facilities, electricity
and telephones. But some have taken with relish to mobile
telephony, so well
suited to their mobile ways.
In recent years efforts have been made to
accommodate the Maasai in eco-tourism activities, including
revenue sharing in “group ranches”. With a Maasai
guide, you can tour the villages, meet the people and get
to know how they live. From their guests, they expect respect
for their privacy and environment, and sensitivity about their
culture. Filming
and taking pictures without consent is considered disrespectful.
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