The Maasai (Kenyan English: [maˈsaːɪ]) are a Nilotic ethnic
group inhabiting southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. They are among the best known local
populations due to their residence near the many game parks of the African Great Lakes, and their distinctive customs and dress. The Maasai
speak the Maa language (ɔl Maa), a member of the Nilo-Saharan family that is related to Dinka and Nuer. They are
also educated in the official languages of Kenya and Tanzania, Swahili and English. The
Maasai population has been reported as numbering 841,622 in Kenya in the 2009
census, compared to 377,089 in the 1989 census.
The Tanzanian and Kenyan governments
have instituted programs to encourage the Maasai to abandon their traditional
semi-nomadic lifestyle, but the people have continued their age-old
customs. Recently, Oxfam has suggested that the lifestyle
of the Maasai should be embraced as a response to climate change because of
their ability to produce food in deserts and scrublands. Many Maasai
tribes throughout Tanzania and Kenya welcome visits to their villages to
experience (for a non-trivial fee) their culture, traditions, and lifestyle.
History
The Maasai speak a Nilo-Saharan language. They inhabit the African Great Lakes region and arrived via the South
Sudan. Most
Nilotic speakers in the area, including the Maasai, the Samburu and
the Kalenjin, are pastoralists, and are famous for their fearsome
reputations as warriors and cattle-rustlers. The Maasai and other groups
in East Africa have adopted customs and practices from
neighboring Cushitic-speaking groups,
including the age set system of social organization, circumcision, and vocabulary terms.
Origin, migration and assimilation
According to their oral
history, the Maasai
originated from the lower Nile valley north of Lake
Turkana (Northwest
Kenya) and began migrating south around the 15th century, arriving in a long
trunk of land stretching from what is now northern Kenya to what is now central
Tanzania between the 17th and late 18th century. Many ethnic groups that had
already formed settlements in the region were forcibly displaced by the
incoming Maasai, while other, mainly Southern Cushitic groups, were
assimilated into Maasai society. The Nilotic ancestors of the Kalenjin and
Samburu likewise absorbed some early Cushitic populations.
Settlement in East Africa
The Maasai territory reached its largest
size in the mid-19th century, and covered almost all of the Great Rift Valley and adjacent lands from Mount Marsabit in
the north to Dodoma in the south. At this time the Maasai, as well as
the larger Nilotic group they were part of, raised cattle as far east as
the Tanga coast in Tanganyika (now mainland Tanzania). Raiders used
spears and shields, but were most feared for throwing clubs (orinka) which
could be accurately thrown from up to 70 paces(appx. 100 metres). In 1852, there was a report of a concentration of
800 Maasai warriors on the move in what is now Kenya. In 1857, after having
depopulated the "Wakuafi wilderness" in what is now southeastern
Kenya, Maasai warriors threatened Mombasa on the Kenyan coast.
Because of this migration, the Maasai are the
southernmost Nilotic speakers.
The period of expansion was followed by
the Maasai "Emutai" of 1883–1902. This period was marked by epidemics
of contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, rinderpest (see 1890s African rinderpest epizootic), and smallpox. The estimate first put forward by a
German lieutenant in what was then northwest Tanganyika, was that 90 percent of cattle and half
of wild animals perished from rinderpest. German doctors in the same area
claimed that "every second" African had a pock-marked face as the
result of smallpox. This period coincided with drought. Rains failed completely
in 1897 and 1898.
The Austrian explorer Oscar Baumann travelled
in Maasai lands between 1891 and 1893, and described the old Maasai settlement
in the Ngorongoro Crater in the 1894 book Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle ("Through the lands of the
Maasai to the source of the Nile"): "There were women wasted to
skeletons from whose eyes the madness of starvation glared ... warriors
scarcely able to crawl on all fours, and apathetic, languishing elders. Swarms
of vultures followed them from high, awaiting their certain victims." By
one estimate two-thirds of the Maasai died during this period.
Starting with a 1904 treaty, and
followed by another in 1911, Maasai lands in Kenya were reduced by 60 percent
when the British evicted them to make room for settler ranches, subsequently
confining them to present-day Kajiado and Narok districts. Maasai in Tanganyika
(now mainland Tanzania) were displaced from the fertile lands between Mount Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro,
and most of the fertile highlands near Ngorongoro in the 1940s.[20][21] More land was taken to create
wildlife reserves and national parks: Amboseli National Park, Nairobi National Park, Maasai
Mara, Samburu National Reserve, Lake Nakuru National Park and Tsavo in Kenya; and Lake
Manyara, Ngorongoro
Conservation Area, Tarangire and Serengeti National Park in what is now Tanzania.
Maasai are pastoralist and have resisted the urging of
the Tanzanian and Kenyan governments to adopt a more sedentary lifestyle. They
have demanded grazing rights to many of the national parks in both countries.
The Maasai people stood against slavery and lived
alongside most wild animals with an aversion to eating game and birds. Maasai
land now has East Africa's finest game areas. Maasai society never condoned
traffic of human beings, and outsiders looking for people to enslave avoided
the Maasai.
Essentially there are twelve geographic sectors of the
tribe, each one having its own customs, appearance, leadership and dialects.
These subdivisions are known as clans: the Keekonyokie, Damat, Purko,
Wuasinkishu, Siria, Laitayiok, Loitai, Kisonko, Matapato, Dalalekutuk,
Loodokolani and Kaputiei.
Genetics
Recent advances in genetic analyses have
helped shed some light on the ethnogenesis of the Maasai people. Genetic genealogy,
a tool that uses the genes of modern populations to trace their ethnic and
geographic origins, has also helped clarify the possible background of the
modern Maasai.
Autosomal DNA
The Maasai's autosomal DNA has been examined in a
comprehensive study by Tishkoff et al. (2009) on the genetic affiliations of
various populations in Africa. According to the study's authors, the Maasai
"have maintained their culture in the face of extensive genetic introgression". Tishkoff
et al. also indicate that: "Many Nilo-Saharan-speaking populations in East
Africa, such as the Maasai, show multiple cluster assignments from the
Nilo-Saharan (red) and Cushitic (dark purple) AACs, in accord with linguistic
evidence of repeated Nilotic assimilation of Cushites over
the past 3000 years and with the high frequency of a shared East
African–specific mutation associated with lactose tolerance."
Y-DNA
A Y
chromosome study
by Wood et al. (2005) tested various Sub-Saharan populations, including 26
Maasai males from Kenya, for paternal lineages. The authors observed
haplogroup E1b1b in 50% of the studied Maasai, which is indicative of
substantial gene flow from more northerly Cushitic males, who possess the
haplogroup at high frequencies. The second most frequent paternal lineage
among the Maasai was Haplogroup A3b2, which is commonly found in Nilotic populations, such as
the Alur; it was observed in 27% of Maasai males. The third most frequently
observed paternal DNA marker in the Maasai was haplogroup E-V38 (E-P1),
which is very common in the Sub-Saharan region; it was found in 12% of the
Maasai samples. Haplogroup B-M60 was
also observed in 8% of the studied Maasai, which is also found in 30%
(16/53) of Southern Sudanese Nilotes.
mtDNA
According to an mtDNA study by Castri et al. (2008),
which tested Maasai individuals in Kenya, the maternal lineages found among the
Maasai are quite diverse, but similar in overall frequency to that observed in
other Nilo-Hamitic populations from the region, such as the Samburu. Most of
the tested Maasai belonged to various macro-haplogroup L sub-clades, including L0, L2, L3, L4 and L5. Some maternal gene flow from North and Northeast Africa was also
reported, particularly via the presence of mtDNA haplogroup M lineages in about 12.5% of the Maasai samples.
Culture
Maasai society is strongly patriarchal in nature, with elder men,
sometimes joined by retired elders, deciding most major matters for each Maasai
group. A full body of oral law covers many aspects of behavior. Formal execution is unknown, and normally payment
in cattle will settle matters. An out-of-court process is also practiced called
'amitu', 'to make peace', or 'arop', which involves a substantial
apology. The monotheistic Maasai worship a single deity
called Enkai or Engai. Engai has a dual nature: Engai Narok
(Black God) is benevolent, and Engai Na-nyokie (Red God) is
vengeful. There are also two pillars or totems of Maasai society: Oodo
Mongi, the Red Cow and Orok Kiteng, the Black Cow with a subdivision of five clans
or family trees. The "Mountain of God", Ol Doinyo Lengai,
is located in northernmost Tanzania and can be seen from Lake Natron in
southernmost Kenya. The central human figure in the Maasai religious system is
the laibonwhose roles include shamanistic healing, divination and prophecy, and ensuring success in war or
adequate rainfall. Today, they have a political role as well due to the
elevation of leaders. Whatever power an individual laibon had was a function of
personality rather than position. Many Maasai have also adopted Christianity and Islam. The Maasai are known for their
intricate jewelry and for decades, have sold these items to tourists as a
business.
A once high infant mortality rate
among the Maasai has led to babies not truly being recognized until they reach
an age of 3 months ilapaitin. Educating
Maasai women to use clinics and hospitals during pregnancy has enabled more
infants to survive. The exception is found in extremely remote areas. For
Maasai living a traditional life, the end of life is virtually without ceremony, and the dead are left out for scavengers. A corpse rejected by scavengers
is seen as having something wrong with it, and liable to cause social disgrace;
therefore, it is not uncommon for bodies to be covered in fat and blood from a
slaughtered ox. Burial has in the past been reserved for great chiefs, since it
is believed to be harmful to the soil.
Traditional Maasai lifestyle centres around their cattle which constitute their primary
source of food. The measure of a man's wealth is in terms of cattle and
children. A herd of 50 cattle is respectable, and the more children the better.
A man who has plenty of one but not the other is considered to be poor. A
Maasai religious belief relates that God gave them all the cattle on earth,
leading to the belief that rustling cattle from other tribes is a
matter of taking back what is rightfully theirs, a practice that has become
much less common.
All of the Maasai’s needs for food are met by their
cattle. They eat the meat, drink the milk daily, and drink the blood on
occasion. Bulls, oxen and lambs are slaughtered for meat on special occasions
and for ceremonies. [Though] the Maasai’s entire way of life has historically
depended on their cattle... more recently, with their cattle dwindling, the
Maasai have grown dependent on food such as sorghum, rice, potatoes and cabbage
(known to the Maasai as goat leaves).
Influences from the outside world
Maintaining a traditional pastoral
lifestyle has become increasingly difficult due to outside influences of the
modern world. Garrett Hardin's article, outlining the "tragedy of the commons",
as well as Melville Herskovits' "cattle complex" helped to influence ecologists
and policy makers about the harm Maasai pastoralists were causing to savannah
rangelands. This concept was later proven false by anthropologists but
is still deeply ingrained in the minds of ecologists and Tanzanian
officials. This influenced British colonial policy makers in 1951 to
remove all Maasai from the Serengeti National Park and relegate them to areas
in and around the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA). The plan for the NCA was to
put Maasai interests above all else, but this promise was never met.The spread
of HIV was rampant.
Due to an increase in Maasai population, loss of
cattle populations to disease, and lack of available rangelands because of new
park boundaries and the incursion of settlements and farms by other tribes
(this is also the chief reason for the decline in wildlife-habitat loss, with
the second being poaching), the Maasai were forced to develop new ways of
sustaining themselves. Many Maasai began to cultivate maize and other crops to
get by, a practice that was culturally viewed negatively. Cultivation was
first introduced to the Maasai by displaced WaArusha and WaMeru women who were
married to Maasai men; subsequent generations practiced a mixed livelihood. To
further complicate their situation, in 1975 the Ngorongoro Conservation Area
banned cultivation practices. In order to survive they are forced to
participate in Tanzania’s monetary economy. They have to sell their animals and
traditional medicines in order to buy food. The ban on cultivation was lifted
in 1992 and cultivation has again become an important part of Maasai
livelihood. Park boundaries and land privatisation has continued to limit
grazing area for the Maasai and have forced them to change considerably.
Over the years, many projects have begun to help
Maasai tribal leaders find ways to preserve their traditions while also
balancing the education needs of their children for the modern world.
The emerging forms of employment among the Maasai
people include farming, business (selling of traditional medicine, running of
restaurants/shops, buying and selling of minerals, selling milk and milk
products by women, embroideries), and wage employment (as security guards/
watchmen, waiters, tourist guides), and others who are engaged in the public
and private sectors.
Many Maasai have moved away from the nomadic life to
positions in commerce and government. Yet despite the sophisticated urban
lifestyle they may lead, many will happily head homewards dressed in designer
clothes, only to emerge from the traditional family homestead wearing a shuka
(colourful piece of cloth), cow hide sandals and carrying a wooden club
(o-rinka) - at ease with themselves.
Social organization
The central unit of Maasai society is
the age-set. Young boys are sent out with the calves and lambs as soon as they
can toddle, but childhood for boys is mostly playtime, with the exception of
ritual beatings to test courage and endurance. Girls are responsible for chores
such as cooking and milking, skills which they learn from their mothers at an
early age. Every 15 years or so, a new and individually named generation
of Morans or Il-murran (warriors) will be initiated. This involves most boys between
12 and 25, who have reached puberty and are not part of the previous age-set.
One rite of passage from boyhood to the status of junior warrior is a circumcision ceremony performed without
anaesthetic. In modern times, boys living close to towns with doctors may
endure the ceremony in safer conditions, but still without anaesthetic because
they must endure the pain that will lead them to manhood. This ritual is
typically performed by the elders, who use a sharpened knife and makeshift
cattle hide bandages for the procedure. The Maa word for circumcision is
emorata. The boy must endure the operation in silence. Expressions of pain
bring dishonor, albeit temporarily. Any exclamations can cause a mistake in the
delicate and tedious process, which can result in lifelong scarring,
dysfunction, and pain. The healing process will take 3–4 months, during which
urination is painful and nearly impossible at times, and boys must remain in
black clothes for a period of 4–8 months.
During this period, the newly
circumcised young men will live in a "manyatta", a
"village" built by their mothers. The manyatta has no encircling
barricade for protection, emphasizing the warrior role of protecting the
community. No inner kraal is built, since warriors neither own cattle nor undertake stock
duties. Further rites of passage are required before achieving the status of
senior warrior, culminating in the eunoto ceremony, the "coming of
age".
When a new generation of warriors is
initiated, the existing Il-murran will graduate to become junior elders, who
are responsible for political decisions until they in turn become senior
elders. This graduation from warrior to junior elder takes place at large
gathering known as Eunoto. The long hair of the former warriors is shaved
off; elders must wear
their hair short. Warriors are not allowed to have sexual relations with
circumcised women, though they may have girlfriends who are uncircumcised
girls. At Eunoto, the warriors who managed to abide by this rule are specially
recognized.
The warriors spend most of their time now on
walkabouts throughout Maasai lands, beyond the confines of their sectional
boundaries. They are also much more involved in cattle trading than they used
to be, developing and improving basic stock through trades and bartering rather
than stealing as in the past.
One myth about the Maasai is that each young man is
supposed to kill a lion before he is circumcised. Lion hunting was an activity
of the past, but it has been banned in Southeast Africa—yet lions are still
hunted when they maul Maasai livestock, and young warriors who engage in
traditional lion killing do not face significant consequences. Increasing
concern regarding lion populations has given rise to at least one program which
promotes accepting compensation when a lion kills livestock, rather than
hunting and killing the predator.Nevertheless, killing a lion gives one great
value and celebrity status in the community.
Young women also undergo excision ("female circumcision", "female genital mutilation," "emorata") as part of
an elaborate rite of passageritual called "Emuratare," the ceremony that
initiates young Maasai girls into adulthood through ritual circumcision and
then into early arranged marriages. The Maasai believe that female
circumcision is necessary and Maasai men may reject any woman who has not
undergone it as either not marriageable or worthy of a much-reduced bride
price. In Eastern Africa, uncircumcised women, even those highly educated
members of parliament like Linah
Kilimo, can be accused
of not being mature enough to be taken seriously. To others the practice
of female circumcision is known as female genital mutilation, and draws a great
deal of criticism from both abroad and many women who have undergone it, such as
Maasai activist Agnes Pareiyo.
It has recently been replaced in some instances by a "cutting with
words" ceremony involving singing and dancing in place of the mutilation.
However, the practice remains deeply ingrained and valued by the culture. The
Maa word for circumcision, "emorata," is used for both female and
male genital mutilation. Female genital cutting is illegal in both Kenya and
Tanzania. These circumcisions are usually performed by an invited
'practitioner' who is often not Maasai, usually from a Dorobo group. The knives and blades which
make the cut are fashioned by blacksmiths, il-kunono, who make their weapons
for the Maasai do not make their own:(knives, short swords (ol alem or simi or
seme), spears, etc.). Similar to the young men, women who will be circumcised
wear dark clothing, paint their faces with markings, and then cover their faces
on completion of the ceremony.
Married women who become pregnant are excused from all
heavy work such as milking and gathering firewood. Sexual relations are
also banned and there are specific rules applied to pregnant women.
The Maasai are traditionally polygynous; this is thought to be a long-standing
and practical adaptation to high infant and warrior mortality rates. Polyandry is also practiced. however, today
this practice is usually abandoned. A woman marries not just her husband but
the entire age group. Men are expected to give up their bed to a visiting
age-mate guest, however, today this practice is usually abandoned. The woman
decides strictly on her own if she will join the visiting male. Any child which
may result is the husband's child and his descendant in the patrilineal order of Maasai society.
"Kitala", a kind of divorce or refuge, is possible in the house of a
wife's father, usually for gross mistreatment of the wife. Repayment of the
bride price, custody of children, etc., are mutually agreed upon.
Music and dance
Maasai music traditionally consists of
rhythms provided by a chorus of vocalists singing harmonies while a song
leader, or olaranyani, sings the melody. The olaranyani is usually the singer
who can best sing that song, although several individuals may lead a song. The
olaranyani begins by singing a line or title (namba) of a song. The group will
respond with one unanimous call in acknowledgment, and the olaranyani will sing
a verse over the group's rhythmic throat singing. Each song has its specific
namba structure based on call-and-response. Common rhythms are variations of 5/4, 6/4 and 3/4 time
signatures. Lyrics follow a typical theme and are often repeated verbatim over
time. Neck movements accompany singing. When breathing out the head is leaned
forward. The head is tilted back for an inward breath. Overall the effect is
one of polyphonic syncopation. Unlike most other African tribes, Maasai
widely use drone polyphony.
Women chant lullabies, humming songs, and songs
praising their sons. Nambas, the call-and-response pattern, repetition of
nonsense phrases, monophonic melodies repeated phrases following each verse
being sung on a descending scale, and singers responding to their own verses
are characteristic of singing by females. When many Maasai women gather
together, they sing and dance among themselves.
One exception to the vocal nature of
Maasai music is the use of the horn of the Greater
Kudu to summon
morans for the Eunoto ceremony.
Both singing and dancing sometimes occur around
manyattas, and involve flirting. Young men will form a line and chant
rhythmically, "Oooooh-yah", with a growl and staccato cough along
with the thrust and withdrawal of their lower bodies. Girls stand in front of
the men and make the same pelvis lunges while singing a high dying fall of
"Oiiiyo..yo" in counterpoint to the men. Although bodies come in
close proximity, they do not touch.
Eunoto, the coming of age ceremony of the warrior, can
involve ten or more days of singing, dancing and ritual. The warriors of the
Il-Oodokilani perform a kind of march-past as well as the adumu, or aigus, sometimes referred as "the jumping dance" by
non-Maasai. (both adumu and aigus are Maa verbs meaning "to jump"
with adumu meaning "To jump up and down in a dance" Warriors are well known for, and often
photographed during, this competitive jumping. A circle is formed by the
warriors, and one or two at a time will enter the center to begin jumping while
maintaining a narrow posture, never letting their heels touch the ground.
Members of the group may raise the pitch of their voices based on the height of
the jump.
The girlfriends of the moran (intoyie) parade
themselves in their most spectacular costumes as part of the eunoto. The
mothers of the moran sing and dance in tribute to the courage and daring of
their sons.
Body modification
The piercing and stretching of earlobes is common among the Maasai as with
other tribes. Various materials have been used to both pierce and stretch the
lobes, including thorns for piercing, twigs, bundles of twigs, stones, the
cross section of elephant tusks and empty film canisters. Fewer and fewer
Maasai, particularly boys, follow this custom. Women wear various forms of beaded
ornaments in both the ear lobe, and smaller piercings at the top of the
ear. Amongst Maasai males, Circumcision is practiced as a ritual of
transition from boyhood to manhood. Women are also circumcised (as described
above).
The removal of deciduous canine tooth buds in early childhood is a practice that has been documented in
the Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania. There exists a strong belief among the Maasai
that diarrheoa, vomiting and other febrile illnesses of early childhood are
caused by the gingival swelling over the canine region, which is thought to
contain 'worms' or 'nylon' teeth. This belief and practice is not unique to the
Maasai. In rural Kenya a group of 95 children aged between six months and two
years were examined in 1991/92. 87% were found to have undergone the removal of
one or more deciduous canine tooth buds. In an older age group (3–7 years of
age), 72% of the 111 children examined exhibited missing mandibular or
maxillary deciduous canines.
Diet
Traditionally, the Maasai diet consisted
of raw meat, raw milk, and raw blood from cattle. Note that the Maasai cattle are of
the Zebu variety. In the summer of 1935 Dr. Weston A. Price visited
the Maasai and reported that according to Dr. Anderson from the local
government hospital in Kenya most tribes were disease-free. Many had not a
single tooth attacked by dental caries nor a single malformed dental
arch. In particular the
Maasai had a very low 0.4% of bone caries. He attributed that to their diet
consisting of (in order of volume) raw milk, raw blood, raw meat and some
vegetables and fruits, although in many villages they do not eat any fruit or
vegetables at all. He noted that when available every growing child and every
pregnant or lactating woman would receive a daily ration of raw blood. Dr.
Weston A. Price also noted the government efforts back in 1935 to turn the
Maasai into farmers. An ILCA study (Nestel 1989) states: "Today, the
stable diet of the Maasai consists of cow's milk and maize-meal. The former is
largely drunk fresh or in sweet tea and the latter is used to make a liquid or
solid porridge. The solid porridge is known as ugali and is eaten with milk; unlike the
liquid porridge, ugali is not prepared with milk. Animal fats or butter are
used in cooking, primarily of porridge, maize, and beans. Butter is also an
important infant food."
Studies by the International Livestock
Centre for Africa (Bekure et al. 1991) shows a very great change in the diet of
the Maasai towards non-livestock products with maize comprising 12–39 percent
and sugar 8–13 percent; about one litre of milk is consumed per person daily.
Most of the milk is consumed as fermented milk or buttermilk (a by-product of butter making).
Milk consumption figures are very high by any standards. The needs for protein
and essential amino acids are more than adequately satisfied. However, the
supply of iron, niacin, vitamin C, vitamin A, thiamine and energy are never
fully met by a purely milk diet. Due to changing circumstances, especially the
seasonal nature of the milk supply and frequent droughts, most pastoralists,
including the Maasai, now include substantial amounts of grain in their diets.
The Maasai herd goats and sheep,
including the Red Maasai sheep, as well as the more prized
cattle. Electrocardiogram tests applied to 400 young adult male Maasai
found no evidence whatsoever of heart disease, abnormalities or malfunction.
Further study with carbon-14 tracers showed that the average cholesterol level
was about 50 percent of that of an average American. These findings were
ascribed to the amazing fitness of morans, which was evaluated as "Olympic
standard".
Soups are probably the most important
use of plants for food by Maasai. Acacia nilotica is the most frequently used soup plant. The root or
stem bark is boiled in water and the decoction drunk alone or added to soup.
The Maasai are fond of taking this as a drug, and is known to make them
energetic, aggressive and fearless. Maasai eat soup laced with bitter bark and
roots containing cholesterol-lowering saponins; those urban Maasai who don't have
access to the bitter plants tend to develop heart disease. Although
consumed as snacks, fruits constitute a major part of the food ingested by
children and women looking after cattle as well as morans in the wilderness.
The mixing of cattle blood, obtained by nicking the
jugular vein, and milk is done to prepare a ritual drink for special
celebrations and as nourishment for the sick. However, the inclusion of
blood in the traditional diet is waning due to the reduction of livestock
numbers. More recently, the Maasai have grown dependent on food produced in
other areas such as maize meal, rice, potatoes, cabbage (known to the Maasai as
goat leaves) etc. The Maasai who live near crop farmers have engaged in
cultivation as their primary mode of subsistence. In these areas, plot sizes
are generally not large enough to accommodate herds of animals; thus the Maasai
are forced to farm.
Shelter
As a historically nomadic and then semi-nomadic people, the
Maasai have traditionally relied on local, readily available materials and
indigenous technology to construct their housing. The traditional Maasai house was in
the first instance designed for people on the move and was thus very
impermanent in nature. The Boma (houses) are either somewhat rectangular shaped with
extensions or circular, and are constructed by able-bodied women. The
structural framework is formed of timber poles fixed directly into the ground
and interwoven with a lattice of smaller branches wattle, which is then plastered with a mix of mud, sticks, grass, cow dung, human urine, and ash. The cow dung ensures that the
roof is waterproof. The enkaj or engaji is small, measuring about 3x5 m
and standing only 1.5 m high. Within this space, the family cooks, eats,
sleeps, socializes, and stores food, fuel, and other household possessions.
Small livestock are also often accommodated within the enkaji. Villages
are enclosed in a circular fence (an enkang) built by the men, usually of
thorned acacia, a native tree. At night, all cows, goats, and sheep are placed in an enclosure in the
centre, safe from wild
animals.
Clothing
Clothing varies by age and location.
Young men, for instance, wear black for several months following their
circumcision. However, red is a favored colour. Blue, black, striped, and
checkered cloth are also worn, as are multicolored African designs. The Maasai
began to replace animal-skin, calf
hides and sheep
skin, with commercial cotton cloth in the 1960s.
Shúkà is the Maa word
for sheets traditionally worn wrapped around the body. These are
typically red, though with some other colors (e.g. blue) and patterns (e.g. plaid). Pink, even with flowers, is not shunned by warriors. One
piece garments known as kanga, a Swahili term, are common. Maasai near the coast may
wear kikoi, a type of sarong that comes in many different colors and textiles. However, the preferred style is
stripes.
Many Maasai in Tanzania wear simple sandals, which were until recently made from
cowhides. They are now soled with tire strips or plastic. Both men and women wear wooden bracelets. The Maasai women regularly weave and
bead jewellery. This bead work plays an essential part in the ornamentation
of their body. Although there are variations in the meaning of the color of the
beads, some general meanings for a few colors are: white, peace; blue, water; red, warrior/blood/bravery.
Beadworking, done by women, has a long history among the Maasai, who articulate
their identity and position in society through body ornaments and body painting.
Before contact with Europeans, the beads were produced mostly from local raw materials.
White beads were made from clay, shells, ivory, or bone. Black and blue beads were made
from iron, charcoal, seeds, clay, or horn. Red beads came from seeds, woods, gourds, bone, ivory, copper, or brass. When late in the nineteenth century,
great quantities of brightly colored European glassbeads arrived in Southeast Africa,
beadworkers replaced the older beads with the new materials and began to use
more elaborate color schemes. Currently, dense, opaque glass
beads with no surface decoration and a naturally smooth finish are preferred.
Hair
Head
shaving is common
at many rites of passage, representing the fresh start that will be made as one
passes from one to another of life's chapters. Warriors are the only
members of the Maasai community to wear long hair, which they weave in thinly
braided strands.
Upon reaching the age of 3
"moons", the child is named and the head is shaved clean apart from a
tuft of hair, which resembles a cockade, from the nape of the neck to the
forehead. The cockade symbolizes the "state of grace" accorded
to infants. A woman who has miscarried in a previous pregnancy would
position the hair at the front or back of the head, depending on whether she
had lost a boy or a girl.
Two days before boys are circumcised, their heads are
shaved. The young warriors then allow their hair to grow, and spend a
great deal of time styling the hair. It is dressed with animal fat and ocher,
and parted across the top of the head at ear level. Hair is then plaited:
parted into small sections which are divided into two and twisted, first
separately then together. Cotton or wool threads may be used to lengthen hair.
The plaited hair may hang loose or be gathered together and bound with leather. When
warriors go through the Eunoto, and become elders, their
long plaited hair is shaved off. As males have their heads shaved at the
passage from one stage of life to another, a bride to be will have her head
shaved, and two rams will be slaughtered in honor of the occasion