Masai Village

Our first stop was to the village of a Masai Tribe

The Masai are a very well known warrior tribe in Kenya and northern Tanzania whose lives center around herding cattle. They live in small settlements of 8-15 huts per kraal. Their settlements are surrounded by a thornbush fence as an added form of protection. The two-inch long thorns of the thornbush are as sharp as barbed wire and the men are responsible for tying branches together to form the fence.

The Masai Jumping Dance

Each young man will jump as high as he can while the others stand in a circle and sing. The voices of the men get higher as the jumping increases. This jumping dance is as familiar to the Western world as the red-clad and beaded Masai warriors themselves. In the Masai language, this dancing competition is called the "adumu".

Though the jumping dance is the most unusual and best known, there are plenty of other traditional dances that the Masai perform. Masai dances are very structured and are performed for certain occasions.

There are dances for celebration when a lion is killed by the warriors, a dance for the blessing of cattle, and dances performed at wedding ceremonies. Most of the Masai dances are pretty simple, and consist of a lot of bending, but with the feet staying still on the ground.

The huts take seven months to build by the women of the village. They are built of branches, twigs, grass, and cow dung and urine formed into a plaster and applied to a branch frame. When the mixure dries in the sun it is as strong a cement and does not smell. Generally they cannot stand up inside and the only openings are that of the doorway and a small opening in the roof or wall which allows smoke from a continually smoldering fire inside to escape. The fire is used on which to cook and to keep the family warm during the rainy season. Dried cow dung is used as the fuel for the fire.

The goals of the Maasai's indigenous education were to maintain a cohesive society and ensure the survival of their migratory lifestyle. Thus, the elders socialized the children with the Maasai's cultural values of collective ideology, tribal cohesion, positive relations with others, respect for elders, and conformity to tribal norms and rituals. Collective ideology and tribal cohesion emphasize teaching practical skills for effectively contributing to a group. For example, children learn about cattle tending, health care, and defense of their clan, as well as how these roles are interdependent. One of the benefits of this indigenous education is that children learn at their own pace, not on an arbitrarily determined time line.

"This education transcended all economic considerations and was not concerned with teaching the individual to make a living. It was a socio/economic/ cultural institution that enhanced the dignity and strength of the tribe". Thus, Maasai education goals do not focus on individuality (i.e., each member's personal ambitions, goals, and achievements), as is commonly done in Western cultures. Instead, members focus on what is in the best interests of the family, clan, tribe, religion, and tradition. For millennia, the Maasai have promoted "cooperative learning" and "communities of learners"--goals that, interestingly, are currently being touted in Western schools.

Maasai children's education revolves around learning tasks related to various roles or jobs to be performed in the Maasai society. For example, elders begin preparing 4- to 5-year-olds for the job of herding cattle by directing them to look after young lambs and calves. At age 5 to 7, the children can look after older cows and accompany adults in herding cattle across pastures. Eventually, boys are entrusted to migrate long distances with the cattle. The girls are expected to help their mothers in drawing water, hewing wood, and plastering houses.

The fiercely independent Maasai have long seen public education as a trick designed to rob them of their culture. Now many see the schools as a key to survival -- and as a way to change some aspects of their culture that need changing, especially for women.

Public schools are at the center of nearly every struggle over cultural identity. Governments everywhere use schools to instill common values, to prepare young people to contribute economically, to create citizens. But minority groups often see the schools as machines designed to strip their people of their language, their traditions, their beliefs.

Until recently, that was the prevailing view among the Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania. The Maasai are cattle herders who follow their animals on seasonal migrations. When the British ruled East Africa, the Maasai used passive resistance to ensure that their culture remained intact -- refusing to take up agriculture, to settle in towns, or to send their children to school.

Now the Maasai are finding that resistance isn't enough. Agriculture and urbanization have eaten up much of their grazing land. Communications and roads have exposed young Maasai to the temptations of the outside world. Many are now questioning traditional practices such as polygamy, early marriage and female circumcision.

In this Masaii classroom (kindergarden) that we visited, children recited the ABC's and numbers.  This may have been more the tourists visiting their village since English is not their primary language.

The Maasai speak the Maasai language, an Eastern Nilotic language closely related to Samburu (or Sampur), the language of the Samburu people of central Kenya, and to Camus spoken south and southeast of Lake Baringo. The Maasai, Samburu and Camus people are historically related and all refer to their language as Maa, although they acknowledge mutual cultural and economic differences. Most Maasai also speak Swahili, the lingua franca of East Africa.

Inside, the family sleeps on beds of woven branches cushioned with dry grasses and animal skins.

In some huts, small animals are brought into the hut in the evening to help protect them from larger and more dangerous animals as well as the cold.  They stay in a area close to the front door.

The only evidence of western man in a Masai hut might be a iron cast fry pan, a tin drinking cup or a piece or two of western clothing.

 

Masai women and girls have a variety of chores besides building the dung hut. They are expected to milk the cows and fetch water, however far that may be (perhaps 36 miles in some cases). They must pick calabashes or gourds from vines and clean the insides of the gourds as well as decorate them with leather and beads. Milk, blood, water, honey and cornmeal are stored inside the gourds. The Masai drink milk from the cow or goat every day and when they don't have enough milk, they mix cow's blood with the milk. In order to get the blood, men shoot an arrow in the jugular vein in the cow's neck. The blood spills in a gourd and is stopped with a wad of dung and mud applied to the arrow hole. The Masai believe the blood makes them very strong. Women also spend much time doing bead work. They decorate animal hides, gourds, and make beaded jewelry including arm and leg bracelets and amulets.

In the evening, the cattle, goats, and other domestic animals are brought inside the kraal for protection against wild animals.

The image most people have of the Masai warrior is one of a tall and lean man clutching a spear in one hand with his red cloth wrapped around his waist or over his shoulders. The life of the traditional Masai revolves entirely around their cattle. They believe God entrusted his cattle to them; consequently, their wealth is measured by the number of cattle they have acquired. As the young Masai boys reach the age of 15, they have their coming-of- age ceremony. This ceremony initiates them into manhood. They make headdresses of ostrich plumes and eagle feathers, shave their heads, are circumcised and become Morani or young warriors. With others of the same age, they then color their skin red and braid their ocher colored hair intricately and set off together to learn survival techniques. Traditionally in order to pass into manhood, they were to hunt a lion with only a spear. The young Masai warriors live together in one boma or circle of huts until they have passed on to manhood (generally 5-7 years). Then they will marry (probably having a number of wives) and continually live together raising their families and tending their cattle. Basically people of like age live together in bomas. Therefore, the elderly will all be together, but will come to the younger bomas to help teach traditions and skills to their grandchildren. The elderly are responsible for organizing and leading the celebrations and ceremonies.

Group picture of those of us from Camp Lemonnier and Masai tribe.