Why Kenya’s Maasai have a most intriguing culture

When I got the invitation of Kenya Airways, Northern Executive, Mr.  Abiola Bakare,  to be part of a farm trip to Kenya, the images that flashed through my mind were the opportunity to see the many exotic animals like lions, cheetahs, monkeys, and many others in their natural habitat. A quick search on the internet […]

When I got the invitation of Kenya Airways, Northern Executive, Mr.  Abiola Bakare,  to be part of a farm trip to Kenya, the images that flashed through my mind were the opportunity to see the many exotic animals like lions, cheetahs, monkeys, and many others in their natural habitat.
A quick search on the internet on places of attraction also did not fail to emphasis the wildlife and beautiful beaches in Mombassa. Every search engine subtly suggested that there are even many homes in Kenya that have wild monkeys living in front and back yards.  Many times you are able to play with some of the exotic animals
Once we arrived the East Africa country with coastline on the Indian Ocean, which encompasses the savannah, lake lands, the dramatic Great Rift Valley, mountain highlands and abundant wildlife, the Kenyan Airways crew immediately deployed us on a safari visit to the Maasai Mara reserve, known for its annual wild beasts migrations, and Amboseli National Park, offering views of Tanzania’s 5,895m Mt. Kilimanjaro.
The six hours journey by road from Nairobi to Maasai Mara was as exhausting as it was exiting. Sooner had we left Nairobi, did we arrive at the Great Rift Valley,  the divergent plate boundary which extends from the Afar Triple Junction southward across eastern Africa, and is in the process of splitting the African Plate into two new separate plates.
The Maasai Mara National Reserve also known as Maasai Mara and by the locals as the Mara, is a large game reserve in Narok County, Kenya. It is named in honour of the Maasai people (the ancestral inhabitants of the area) and their description of the area when looked at from afar: “Mara,” which is Maa (Maasai language) for “spotted,” an apt description for the circles of trees, scrubs, savannah, and cloud shadows that mark the area.
We arrived Maasai Mara and true to the hype, we saw all the glamour the reserve had on offer. We had the good fortune of seeing four of the “Big Five,” they are among the most deadly mammals in Africa. We were told the term was originally invented by big game hunters based on how difficult each animal was to hunt.  The expression is still used by tourist and wildlife guides. So we saw the lions, elephants, rhinos and buffaloes with the exception of leopards. Safari is a game of luck and four out of five is definitely a great score any day.
Then came the visit to a typical Maasai village, which changed everything about the farm trip. We were attracted to the archetypal appearance of the Maasai people who bear overwhelming semblance with the Fulani people of Nigeria in their traditional environment, co- habiting with their cows and sheep.
The Maasai occupy a total land area of 160,000 square kilometres in southern Kenya, with a population of approximately half a million people. 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
We visited a small village called Orbama, some 20-minutes’ drive from the farm camp. And we were received with such honour as we were accorded very important personalities’ status. The locals performed a dance usually done in celebration by Maasai warriors whenever they  kill a  lion.
Orbama village has 350 people who are brothers and sisters and therefore do not inter-marry. While the people may freely tell you about the total number of villagers, they would often hesitate to tell you the number of children they have because they strongly believe that counting children results to death.
This attitude of the Maasai also applies to government censuses and stories abound of how they consider it as government meddling in their private lives and often miscount their numbers to census takers
At the fore ground of the village, we were welcomed by the chief of Orbama, a 94-years-old who neither uses a walking stick or eye glasses.  The son and heir apparent did all the talking with us. They demanded and collect 1000 Kenyan shillings (N20,000) from every visitor which is  put together to send children to school and to feed them.
Bryan introduced himself to us, a Maasai who had the good fortune of been educated amongst a few others, usually serves as the guide and interpreter for visitors. He is 24-years-old and has three wives for the ‘time been,’ he said.
We observed that each family  lives around a clustered accommodation, Kraals arranged in a circular fashion, built with elephant dunk and clay in a cycle form. The roof is built with thatch and nylon leather to prevent water from penetrating.  The cows live in the middle of the hut, while the calf and lambs live inside the four metre quarters for protection from stampede. The hut also provides warmth for the young animals as every hut provides some camp fire.
The first wife of a Maasai man is chosen by his parents while he has the liberty to choose whatever number he wishes to marry afterwards, depending on the number of his cows. A Maasai pays 10 cows as dowry for one wife. Maasai girls get married at the age of 16 and boys at the age of 18 and the men have to get to age 18 to be circumcised.
As with some cultures in northern Nigeria, each wife builds’ her house, takes care of the children and the home. “The men take care of security, watch the cows and make babies,” Bryan said with such pride about his masculine responsibility.
Bryan took us on an inspection of the lodge of his first wife. The hut barely riches four feet in height, which makes it impossible for anyone above four feet to stand upright inside it.  The hut has four chambers, which comprises two bedrooms with strong dried woods, nested to serve as a bed with hides from cows as the bed sheet for the woman of the house and the man and the second section for kids below three years of age.
Each shelter is designed to house seven people. The hut has a very small opening that serves as a window for ventilation at both ends for the children and the parents. The opening is so tiny that a sachet of water sold on Nigerian streets cannot pass through the opening. Every hut is identical both in design and usage.
 To our amazement, we discovered that the Maasai people do not eat vegetables, such hard meal as yam, cassava or any kind of cooked meal and also do not cultivate any of them. Maasai believe that tiling the land for crop farming is a crime against nature. Once you cultivate the land, it is no longer suitable for grazing.
Bryan said:  “What we feed on are raw blood from cows and raw cow milk. We mix both and simply drink, we don’t cook. We also roast cow meat and eat and we believe that, that is why we are healthy and do not have pot bellies” in what appears an apparent jest on most men in my farm group with protruding stomachs.
Maasai people drink blood on special occasions. It is given to a circumcised person (o/esipolioi), a woman who has given birth (entomononi) and the sick (oltamueyiai). Also, on a regular basis drunk elders (ilamerak) use blood to alleviate intoxication and hangovers. It is generally believed that blood is very rich in protein and is good for their immune systems.
Bryan explained that the Maasai do not kill to get blood, the tie the neck area and shot a special arrow which causes injury and allow for blood to gush out. Once the quantity is sufficient, the cow is released and allowed to heal.
As a result of global warming, droughts are becoming severe in East Africa, forcing the Maasai to seek out alternative livelihoods. Herds are smaller than ever before, and most people are relying on relief food.
This has become even more so as the younger generation of Maasai is drifting from the blood and milk food tradition because of their exposure to Western education. The community is now adopting maize porridge as an alternative meal for children between zero and 10 years.
The Maasai predominantly wear red attires which serve as protection from wide animals. They said, it is a warning sign for wide animals to keep away while the cows are trained to follow the red.
Bryan said: “It is proven. The Europeans tell us that red signifies danger to the buffalo but if we wear a white attire, we are 100 percent going to be chased by the buffalo, lion and elephant. We cohabit in this place and we have to tolerate each other and we do so by putting on red.”
The Maasai are known to have co-habited with wild animals for their entire lives and most of the time, they are forced to eat their cow meat because the cow may have been attacked by a lion or hyena with little chances of survival.
Bryan said: “The lion attack is becoming largely infrequent but the hyenas attack every other day. A team of local warriors keep vigil every day to wade off those kinds of attacks. The injuries you find on my colleagues are often from confrontation with wild animals that attack our resources”
Lepapa Ole Loonkushu, another educated Maasai who serves as a guide at the hotel camp of the farm group had a candid discussion with me on the threat posed to the continuous existence of the Maasai people and culture by climate change
A sober Lepapa said: “The truth is that, the future of cows is coming to an end, it is very unfortunate because once that happens, it also means that the Maasai way of living is also in doubt.
“Living the way we do has become increasingly difficult, one thing that will aid this end is that we have introduced division of land which is also fenced and has restricted grazing to say around 10 archers which is barely sufficient for a 100 cows. In another 20 years, things would have changed completely and the Maasai would have become like anyone else in Kenya.”