The Maasai people live in the Great Plains around Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Kenya. They gave their name to the large reserve of the Maasai Mara (Mara is the river that runs through their territory. The word “Maasai” means “one who speaks the language Maa.” This is to say that they come from the Nile region. They are warriors, and now, especially farmers… Sometimes they raid in neighboring tribes to steal their cattle; because they are convinced that all herds in the land belong to their tribe and that in these remote times they were stolen.

The Maasai society is comprised of sixteen sections (known in Maasai as Iloshon): Ildamat, Ilpurko, Ilkeekonyokie, Iloitai, Ilkaputiei, Ilkankere, Isiria, Ilmoitanik, Iloodokilani, Iloitokitoki, Ilarusa, Ilmatatapato, Ilwuasinkishu, Kore, Parakuyu, and Ilkisonko, also known as Isikirari (Tanzania’s Maasai). There was also once Iltorobo section but was assimilated by other sections. A majority of the Maasai population lives in Kenya. Sections such as Isikirari, Parakuyu, Kore and Ilarusa lives in Tanganyika.

A legend tells that there was indeed a very long time ago, a certain god called Engai who had three children, to whom he made three donations: the first child received an arrow in order to feed himself on the hunt; the second received a hoe to cultivate the land and the third a stick for herding. The third son, however, named Natero Kop, became the father of Maasai and thanks to him they have become proud shepherds.

The Maasai people believe in Engai who, according to them, lived quietly on Earth with all the cattle in the world.

The Maasai tribe lives on milk, butter, honey, meat goats and sheep. Their cattle meat is only consumed on feast days. They come to drink their blood from their animals when they do not have enough milk (This particular blood is collected from a living beast: they pierce the jugular vein of the animal and then the wound is recapped with dung). Their huts are made of branches, grass they clog with a thick layer of cow dung that will retain heat during the rainy seasons.

Children and livestock are two important thoughts return to the Maasai prayers. Over the herd, the more the owner is rich, even if he has no child, he will not be considered really rich. The livestock provides milk, the basis of the Maasai diet. The animals are sacrificed for exceptional events such as the birth of a child, when someone is sick or when the warriors depart/ retire.

For Maasai livestock is what makes life beautiful, meat and milk are the best foods on earth. Their ideal was to live as livestock – other foods could be obtained by exchange – but now they can also practice agriculture. Livestock such as cattle, goats and sheep are the primary source of income for the Maasai. Livestock serves as a social utility and plays an important role in the Maasai economy. Livestock are traded for other livestock, cash or livestock products such as milk and siege. Individual, families, and clans established close ties through giving or exchange of cattle. “Meishoo iyiook enkai inkishu o-nkera”– so goes a Maasai prayer. The English translation of this praye is: “May Creator give us cattle and children. Cattle and children are the most important aspect of the Maasai people.

At present, the Maasai have been increasingly forced to settle in villages and many of them are forced to seek paid work. Their society is organized into male age classes whose members move from one level to another through initiation to become warriors and elders. At the head of each steps, there is a spiritual leader, the Laibon who advices the trainees.

The Maasai worship a god, good or evil; it depends who resides in all things. Today many are Christianized. Since the colonial period, most Maasai land has been monopolized for the benefit of farmers and private spheres of government projects and parks dedicated to wildlife. There was left with only their land more arid and less fertile .

The damage it caused to their herds has often been aggravated by the government’s attempts to ‘develop ‘ the Maasai on the pretext that they would, supposedly, too much livestock capacity of their lands. In reality, they are very efficient farmers.

The Maasai are polygamous, and this is a consequence of high mortality among warriors. They are also polyandrous. A woman marries a man not only, but his whole age. If a visitor comes to his home, a man must leave his bed, but the woman is free to join or not. A child born of this union is considered to be a child of the husband. In case of a bad overtreatment, the woman can return to her father’s house and will face the “kitala,” a kind of divorce which requires traded childcare and the reimbursement of gifts made ​​by the spouses at the request of in-laws.

 

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