The Maasai people of Kenya and Tanzania
The Maasai people of Kenya and Tanzania : A Nilotic ethnic group, the Maasai (Swahili: Wamasai) live in northern, middle, and southern Kenya as well as northern Tanzania. Because of their proximity to the several wildlife parks of the African Great Lakes and their particular traditions and attire, they are among the local communities that are most well-known internationally. The Nilotic language family, which also includes the Dinka, Kalenjin, and Nuer languages, is home to the Maa language, which is spoken by the Maasai. The majority of Maasai people speak Swahili and English, the official languages of Kenya and Tanzania, with the exception of a few elderly individuals who reside in rural areas.
The Maasai are a people who originated in South Sudan and now live near the African Great Lakes. The majority of Nilotic speakers in the region, such as the Maasai, Turkana, and Kalenjin, live as pastoralists and are well-known for their dreadful reputations as livestock rustlers and warriors. The Maasai and other East African ethnic groups have incorporated traditions and practises from nearby Cushitic-speaking peoples, such as circumcision, an age-set system of social organisation, and language phrases.
The Great Rift Valley and surrounding regions from Mount Marsabit in the north to Dodoma in the south were almost entirely covered by the Maasai realm by the middle of the 19th century, when it was at its biggest. The Maasai and the broader Nilotic tribe they belonged to at the time reared cattle as far east as Tanganyika’s Tanga coast. Raiders utilised spears and shields, but were feared for their precision club throwing, which extended up to 70 paces (about 100 metres). A group of 800 Maasai warriors were said to be on the march in what is now Kenya in 1852, according to a report. Maasai warriors threatened Mombasa on the Kenyan coast in 1857 after they had cleared the “Wakuafi wilderness” in what is now south-eastern Kenya of all human life.
In the 1940s, the Maasai were driven out from the fertile highlands around Ngorongoro, the majority of the fertile regions between Mount Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro, and Tanganyika (now mainland Tanzania). Amboseli National Park, Nairobi National Park, Maasai Mara National Reserve, Samburu National Reserve, Lake Nakuru National Park, and Tsavo in Kenya, as well as Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tarangire, and Serengeti National Park in what is now Tanzania, all required the taking of additional land. The Maasai people are made up of subdivisions known as ‘nations’ or ‘iloshon’ in the Maa language: the Keekonyokie, Ildamat, Purko, Wuasinkishu, Siria, Laitayiok, Loitai, Ilkisonko, Matapato, Dalalekutuk, OK, Ilkaputiei, Moitanik, Ilkirasha, Samburu, Ilchamus, Laikipiak, Loitokitoki, Larusa, Salei, Sirinket and Parakuyo.
Maasai Culture
The Maasai’s traditional way of life revolves around their livestock, which are their main source of sustenance. Cattle and children are used to gauge a man’s wealth; wives or other female relatives are included in this calculation. 50 cattle is a fair number, and the more the better. A man is said to be poor if he has an abundance of one but not the other. Cattle provide all of the food the Maasai people require. They consume their flesh, milk, and occasionally even their blood. On exceptional occasions and during religious rites, bulls, goats, and lambs are killed for their meat. One misunderstanding about the Maasai is that every young man must kill a lion before becoming circumcised and becoming an adult. Although lion hunting has been outlawed in East Africa, it continues to happen when lions attack Maasai livestock. But killing a lion gives considerable value and famous status in the neighbourhood
Ear piercing
The Maasai, like other tribes, frequently extend and pierce their earlobes, and both sexes wear metal hoops on their widened lobes. Women wear various types of beaded ornaments in both the ear lobe and smaller piercings at the top of the ear. Among Maasai males, circumcision is practised as a ritual of transition from boyhood to manhood.
Hair
The kid is given a name when they turn three “moons” old, and their heads are shaved clean save for a tuft of hair that runs from the nape of the neck to the top of their forehead and resembles a cockade. The only Maasai who wear long hair, which they weave in finely braided strands, is a warrior. At a great meeting called Eunoto, a warrior is promoted to the rank of junior elder. Elders must have short hair; past warriors’ long hair is chopped off. At the Eunoto gathering, particular honour is given to warriors who refrain from engaging in sexual activity with women who have not undergone the “Emuatare” ceremony.
Boys who will be circumcised have their heads shaved two days prior. The long plaited hair of warriors who pass through the Eunoto and become seniors is shaved off.
Music and Dance
Maasai music typically consists of a melody sung by a song leader, or olaranyani, and rhythms delivered by a chorus of vocalists singing harmonies. The Maasai use drone polyphony more frequently than most other African cultures.
Women perform praise songs for their sons and lullabies to them. Women’s singing is characterised by nambas, the call-and-response rhythm, repetition of incomprehensible words, monophonic melodies, repeated phrases that are sung in descending order after each verse, and vocalists responding to their verses. Maasai women sing and dance among themselves when large groups of them congregate.
The warrior’s coming-of-age event, known as Eunoto, can last ten or more days and include singing, dance, and ritual. Along with the Adumu, or aigus, which is frequently referred to as “the jumping dance” by non-Maasai, the soldiers of the Il-Oodokilani execute a sort of march-past. (The Maa verbs “to jump” (adumu) and “to jump up and down in a dance” (aigus) both mean “to jump.”
The Maasai Diet
Raw meat, raw milk, raw honey, and raw blood from cattle made up the Maasai diet. It’s important to understand that Maasai cattle are Zebu breeds.
The majority of the milk is consumed as fermented milk or buttermilk, a leftover from the production of butter. By any measure, milk consumption statistics are extraordinarily high.
The most coveted cattle as well as goats, sheep, particularly Red Maasai sheep, are herded by the Maasai. Fruits are a significant portion of the food consumed by youngsters, women caring for cattle, and morans in the wilderness, despite being eaten as snacks.
The Maasai Clothing
Maasai dress represents belonging to an ethnic group, leading a pastoral lifestyle, and one’s social standing. They can choose the roles they play for the tribe based on this. Jewellery can also reveal a person’s age, gender, and marital status. Young men, for instance, wear black for several months after their circumcision as a symbol of mourning. Maasai traditional attire also serves as a way of tribe identification and symbolism.
In the 1960s, the Maasai started switching from sheep and calf skins to commercial cotton textiles. The Maa word for sheets is shuka, and they are typically used to cover the body. Usually red, although occasionally incorporating other hues and designs. Kangas, which are one-piece outfits in Swahili, are typical. Near the seaside, Maasai people may wear kikoi, a sarong-like garment that comes in a variety of colours and fabrics.
