Masai People

The Masai Tribe is the Most Idealized of the Kenya Tribes

The Masai people are nomads that live in parts of the Rift Valley Province in Kenya as well as northern Tanzania. Despite the fact that the Kenyan Masai only comprise an estimated 1.4 percent of the Kenya population, they are best known and most loved of the Kenya tribes.

Language

They speak Maa, a Nilotic language which is closely related to Sampur, the language spoken by the Samburu people of northern Kenya. Although there is a Masai Bible and dictionary, Maa is hardly used in print.

Food

The Masai staple food is a mixture of raw cattle milk and blood.

The blood is obtained by piercing a bull's jugular vein and draining some blood into a gourd. The wound is then massaged shut with some warm ash. Each Masai drinks about 1 liter of milk a day.

Beef and mutton are only eaten occasionally - during special ceremonies such as rites of passage into adulthood or weddings.

The Masai are generally averse to fish eating.

In recent decades though, because some Masai have taken to maize and wheat farming, ugali, the most common Kenya food is increasingly finding its way into the tribe's cooking pots.

Resplendent Dressing

The Masai people's preferred color is red. Hence, they dress in red checkered sheets - called shukas - that they wrap around their shoulders.

They sometimes smear their entire bodies with okra, a red soil, during special occasions.

Ornaments are key components of the Masai dress. Both men and women wear bangles and earrings in torn and elongated ear lobes. Women in addition, wear elaborate beadwork particularly around their necks.

Masai wear simple sandals with crisscrossing straps at the front. These are mostly made from old vehicle and motorcycle tires.

These unique Masai shoes have inspired the invention of the "anti-shoe" by the Masai Barefoot Technology.

Elegant Music and Dance

Verses of Masai songs are often sung by soloists as a group concurrently chants humming rhythms...

The verses are often followed by call and response intervals.

Masai music consists exclusively of vocals and is largely unaccompanied by instruments. However, the beads and metallic ornaments the Masai men and women wear clink when they dance.

Men do virtually all the vigorous dancing. Dances begin with the Masai men moving around in a circle and culminate when they take turns to leap into the air...

The higher and more frequently one is able to leap while keeping his feet together, the better a dancer he is regarded.

Masai Culture

The Masai people boast an inimitable non-acquisitive culture that has made them the envy of people around the world.

As nomadic pastoralists, their life revolves around cattle and Masai wealth is measured, not in terms of money but by how many heads of cattle one owns.

Circumcision is a vital component of the Masai culture. Every boy must undergo circumcision - which is performed without anesthetic - when he reaches puberty in the full view of the village elders...

He is then initiated and becomes a Masai warrior or Moran. In the past, a moran was expected to prove his manhood by killing a lion either with a spear or his bare hands...

This though has been outlawed in order to protect the country's considerable but dwindling African lion species.

Girls too undergo circumcision - more appropriately dubbed "female genital mutilation" - when they become adolescents...

Although some Masai communities have replaced this detrimental practice with a symbolic rite of passage where girls are taught about sexuality and HIV-AIDS, Masai attitudes towards FGM are only changing very slowly.

A well-stratified division of labor exists among the Masai tribe. Boys herd cattle and goats while warriors defend the homesteads at night, keeping both wild animals and defending the community against rival tribes.

Women and girls bear a disproportionate burden and are responsible for looking after children, milking cattle, constructing houses (from poles, twigs, grass and cow dung), collecting water and fuelwood and cooking.

Elders make all the policy decisions of the community although they themselves look to laibon, the spiritual leaders for guidance...

The most famous laibon of all time are Batian, Nelion and Lenana after whom Mount Kenya's 3 highest peaks are named.

Want to See the Masai People?

The Masai tribe is well spread out in part of the Rift Valley Province so they can be seen herding cattle or walking by the roadside there. This though will not give you a meaningful glimpse into the enduring culture of these proud people.

It is therefore recommended that you visit any of the Masai villages adjacent the following wildlife parks:

• Masai Mara National Reserve, which is the best of the Kenya national parks. This coveted distinction is thanks in part to the annual wildebeest migration. Every year, over 2 million wildebeest cross the Mara River into the Masai Mara from neighboring Serengeti, to the delight of the countless predators which inhabit the park.

• Amboseli National Park rewards visitors with picture-perfect views of huge elephant herds ambling at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain and the highest freestanding mountain in the world.

While in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, your best bet for seeing the Masai people in their traditional regalia is the Bomas of Kenya, Nairobi's cultural center although it is nowhere as authentic as visiting a Masai village.

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