Maasai
The Maasai are a semi-nomadic ethnic group residing primarily in Kenya and northern Tanzania, particularly near the Great Rift Valley. Traditionally, they have maintained a livestock-centric lifestyle, coexisting with local wildlife, and their culture is characterized by vibrant customs and attire, including the distinctive shuka garment and intricate beadwork. With an estimated population between 500,000 to 1 million, many Maasai continue to uphold their ancestral way of life despite the pressures of modernization. Historically, the Maasai trace their origins to the Nile River Valley and have migrated south over centuries, becoming a significant presence in the region by the 19th century. However, the late 19th and early 20th centuries brought considerable challenges, including disease outbreaks and land dispossession due to colonial treaties that reduced their territory by over 60%.
The Maasai community is known for its rich oral traditions and has a strong spiritual belief in communal living and cattle as sacred. Despite some adopting modern practices like formal education and urban employment, many still engage in traditional roles and rituals. In recent years, the Maasai have faced new challenges, including displacement due to conservation efforts and tourism development, leading to ongoing discussions around their rights and cultural representation in contemporary society.
Maasai
The Maasai live in Kenya and Nairobi on the eastern side of the African continent. Traditionally, they have lived a seminomadic lifestyle, raising livestock in territory shared with African wildlife, such as lions, rhinos, and warthogs. While some have accepted modernization, many of the estimated 500,000 to 1 million Maasai continue to live much as their ancestors have for centuries. The Maasai have piqued the interest of Westerners on African safaris, who hope to catch a glimpse of them as they live and work in the African wild. However, their name, images, and fashions have since been used to promote products in the Western world, which has led to an effort to help the Maasai regain control over their intellectual property.
Background
The Maasai speak a language known as Maa. Maasai means "people who speak Maa." They are sometimes known as the Masai, but this is an incorrect designation that came about when the British military encountered the Maasai in the 1890s.
The Maasai are categorized as a Nilotic people, meaning they originated in the Nile River Valley and speak one of the many languages in the Nilo-Saharan language family. The Maasai would eventually live the farthest south of any of the Nilotic tribes.
Most of what is known about the Maasai's background is limited to the oral history passed down by members of the tribe. According to this history, the Maasai originally lived in the Nile River Valley near the area known as Lake Turkana. As a seminomadic people, the Maasai moved along with their livestock as needed to find food and water. During the fifteenth century, this nomadic wandering began to move them south. By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, they reached Tanzania and Northern Kenya.
The Maasai civilization was at its peak during the nineteenth century, when their warriors' prowess with spears and the orinka (a type of club) made them a fearsome adversary. According to the Maasai's religious beliefs, their god gave them the right to all cattle, so they raided cattle across a large area of Kenya. By 1852, the Maasai were spread throughout most of Kenya, posing a threat to other local tribes.
Things became much harder for the Maasai at the end of the nineteenth century. Beginning in 1883, they faced multiple smallpox epidemics, and a disease known as contagious bovine pleuropneumonia ravaged their cattle. Both the Maasai's livestock and the wild animals in the region fell victim to a disease called rinderpest, a viral infection that claimed nearly 90 percent of the Maasai's cattle. Before these bouts of illness ended in 1902, the Maasai also faced a two-year drought that began in 1897. The Maasai call this time the Emutai, or "the wipe out."
As difficult as this time was, the Maasai faced an even greater challenge to their way of life from the British, who settled in the area in the 1890s. The British convinced several small groups of Maasai to sign treaties in 1904 and 1911 that essentially gave away more than 60 percent of the territory held by the group at that time. They were forced out of an area that contained fertile ground and grazing lands, much of which was turned into nature reserves and national parks.
Overview
Despite the loss of much of their land, the Maasai, for the most part, have staunchly resisted efforts to modernize. Many of them still live in loaf-shaped or round Inkajijik, or mud houses. Women usually make the houses, which are fashioned out of wood, mud, and grass. The walls are coated with cattle dung and smoothed with cattle urine. The homes are usually windowless and dark inside, with a floor formed by layers of animal skins.
A fence that usually includes the thorny branches of the acacia tree encloses the home to help keep away predators, such as lions. The fence also helps protect the Maasai's cattle, which are central to their lives in a nearly religious way. In addition to using the cattle and other livestock, such as sheep and goats, for trade, the Maasai get much of their meat from the cattle. They also drink their milk and, occasionally, their blood. Blood drinking used to be more common among the Maasai, but it is now mostly used in rituals and special ceremonies celebrating circumcisions and women who have given birth.
The Maasai diet also incorporates food items that they have traded for with neighboring tribes. In contemporary times, this includes rice, potatoes, cabbage, and maize meal. The Maasai belief system does not approve of farming because it takes away land that could be used for grazing, so they grow little to no food of their own. The Maasai believe in communal living and share land and resources with their neighbors, though some have begun to subscribe to the concept of land ownership, as introduced by the government beginning in the 1960s.
There is a strict division of labor among the Maasai. The girls and women make the houses, gather water and firewood, milk the cows, and prepare meals. The boys tend the livestock while the men build and tend the fences and serve as warriors.
While some Maasai have begun to work in cities and wear contemporary attire, many of the Maasai still wear the bright red sheet-like garments known as shuka, accented with many pieces of brightly colored beaded jewelry that they make themselves. Many engage in piercing and stretching their earlobes. Both sexes go barefoot or wear simple sandals made of cowhide. The women often shave their heads and remove two lower front teeth as part of ritual.
Traditionally, the Maasai worship a single god who is sometimes good and sometimes vengeful. However, in contemporary times, many Maasai have become Christians. A few follow the Muslim faith.
With their adherence to traditional dress and customs, the Maasai present a living example of a bygone era in modern Africa. Because of this, they have become a subject of fascination for many Westerners. This has resulted in some companies coopting the Maasai name and traditional style of clothing for commercial purposes. Efforts have been undertaken to help the Maasai gain royalties from this usage.
Bibliography
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"The Maasai." Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust, maasaiwilderness.org/maasai/. Accessed 12 June 2017.
"Maasai." Survival International, www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/maasai. Accessed 12 June 2017.
"The Maasai People." Maasai Association, www.maasai-association.org/maasai.html. Accessed 12 June 2017.
"The Maasai Tribe." Kenya Information Guide, www.kenya-information-guide.com/maasai-tribe.html. Accessed 12 June 2017.
"The Maasai Tribe, East Africa." Siyabona Africa, www.siyabona.com/maasai-tribe-east-africa.html. Accessed 12 June 2017.
"Who Are the Maasai?" Royal Geographic Society, www.rgs.org/NR/rdonlyres/D9849C29-4CA5-4A0B-ACB5-6B58B08ECE66/0/F5WhoaretheMaasaiFactSheet.pdf. Accessed 12 June 2017.
Young, Sarah. "Maasai People of East Africa Fighting against Cultural Appropriation by Luxury Fashion Labels." The Independent, 7 Feb. 2017, www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/maasai-people-cultural-appropriation-luxury-fashion-retailers-louis-vuitton-east-africa-intellectual-a7553701.html. Accessed 12 June 2017.