Tribes: Maasai

The Maasai people of East Africa – a population of around 350,000 – live in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania along the Great Rift Valley on semi-arid and arid lands. Their true origin is unknown although the Nilotic content of their language – Maa – suggests that they most probably migrated south from the Nile Valley of Southern Sudan. The strong Cushitic influence in their culture also suggests an interaction between the Nilotes and the Cushite-speaking tribes of south-western Ethiopia, some five hundred to six hundred years ago, before the Maasai entered present day Kenya.

Maasai society is organised into male age-groups whose members pass, together, through initiations to become warriors and then elders. Each section has a Laibon, or spiritual leader, at its head – there are no traditional chiefs. There are sixteen sections or lloshon in present-day Maasai society. Ildamat, Irpurko, Irkeekonyokie, Iloitai, Irkaputiei, Iirkankere, Isiria, Irmoitanik, Iloodokilani, Iloitokitoki, Irmatatapato and Irwuasinkishu are all based in Kenya. The Ilarusa, Kore, Parakuyu and Irkisonko or Isikirari are based in Tanzania.     

Cattle are central to the Maasai economy. They are rarely killed but are kept as a sign of wealth and traded or sold to settle debts. A boy, when he reaches the age of five, becomes the official carer of his family’s calves. Between the age of twelve and fifteen, after circumcision, a boy will become a junior warrior - morani. Over the next eight to twelve years, he will progress from junior to senior warrior. A warrior’s prime function is to protect the community from predators and other tribes but also to increase their herds. Modern laws and regulations have made cattle raiding illegal but, in the past, young Maasai would set off in groups with the express purpose of acquiring as many cattle as possible – by whatever means.

The E Unoto or ‘coming of age’ ceremony marks the transition from warrior – morani – to elderhood, and is the most important event in the lives of the Maasai men. They are now allowed to acquire cattle – and women. Maasai men are polygamous and will marry as many wives as they can afford. The more wives you have, the larger the network of friends and relatives. The loss of an entire herd to disease or some other misfortune is also a constant fear. A generous number of sons allows the family to split up their animals into smaller groups or herds thereby reducing such a risk.  

Intelligence and wisdom are both qualities prized by the Maasai. Having proved themselves physically, the junior elders now have to concentrate on their mental skills. The elders are the directors of all day-to-day activities and are responsible for the overall welfare of the Maasai society. 

The junior elders can finally take off some time to relax when they take on the role of senior elders. They officiate at important ceremonies: both their knowledge and experience – mental and physical – are highly respected. 

The Inkangitie, or homesteads of the Maasai, are arranged in a circle. They were usually shared by more than one related group but has become increasingly common, under the new land management scheme, to find them occupied by just one family. 

The Maasai houses – Inkajijik – are loaf-shaped and made of mud, sticks, grass, cow dung and urine. Women are responsible for their construction as well as supplying water, collecting firewood, milking cattle, cooking for the family and raising children.

Young girls, like the boys, are initiated into adulthood, by means of circumcision, at around twelve to fifteen years. They are then almost immediately married off to an older man. Until she reaches puberty, a girl is free to live – and to have sex with – the warriors. After marriage, women will often maintain close ties, both social and sexual, with their former lovers. All children, whether legitimate or not, are recognised as the property of the woman’s husband and his family.

The Laibon or spiritual leader is consulted whenever misfortune arises. They also serve as healers, dispensing traditional herbal remedies to treat physical ailments and ritual treatments to cure – or absolve – social and moral transgressions. The Maasai worship one god who dwells in all things, but who may manifest himself as either kindly or destructive. “Meishoo iyiook enkai inkishu o-nkera” is a Maasai prayer – “May Creator give us cattle and children.”

Traditionally, the Maasai have relied on meat, milk and blood from cattle for protein and calorific needs. The Maasai have, recently, grown dependent on food produced in other areas such as maize meal, rice, potatoes and cabbage – known to the Maasai as ‘goat leaves’. People still drink blood, rich in protein and good for the immune system, after circumcision, after birth and during sickness. Hungover elders – ilamerak – also use it to alleviate the worst of their shakes and headaches.

The concept of private ownership was, until quite recently, completely foreign to the Maasai. In pre-colonial times, every community knew the extent of their territory even though there were no legal titles or fences. Sustainable cattle herding required vast expanses of land and the maintenance of a tribe’s borders by its warriors was essential. If, however, the dry season became especially harsh, section boundaries were ignored and the different communities grazed their animals throughout the land until the rains arrived. The Maasai believe that no-one should be denied access to natural resources such as water and land.

In the 1960s and 1980s, a programme of commercialisation of livestock and land was forced on the Maasai initially by the British and later by USAID. Since then, much of their land has been privatised – they have lost a full two thirds – and their economy made increasingly dependent on market forces. This new land management system, dividing what was once available and shared by all into group ranches, schemes and plots, has economically polarised both individuals and communities. While it has suited outsiders and the more entrepreneurial Maasai, who have been able to acquire land for themselves or sell it off, it has not favoured most families or groups.   

The largest loss of land has been to national parks and reserves. Unable to move their herds in traditional ways, overgrazing has led to the degradation of much of their remaining land and the impoverishment of the majority of the Maasai people. Some have moved to towns to find work whilst others have turned to agriculture or even poaching.

The cycle of the Maasai herd movements and land management were dependant upon the rains. The Maasai would burn off the parched vegetation at the end of the dry season. This would rid the area of disease-carrying ticks, control the growth of less desirable grasses and improve the soil with nutrient-ash. Tender young shoots, favoured both by cattle and by wildlife, emerged with the first rains. The Maasai would then move their herds to the more arid areas, giving the naturally richer pastures time to recover until the dry season. The Maasai were forced to overgraze the areas in which they were confined when much of their better pastures were taken for agriculture and parklands. Burning was also regarded as destructive and, therefore, stopped. As a result of that ban, coarser grasses took over leading to the decline in quality of pasture lands. 

It is ironic, after enduring more than a hundred years of displacement and poverty, that many experts now agree that the Maasai and their way of life – pastoralism – which necessitates the preservation of the environment is the most productive system for the savannahs of East Africa. Their indigenous knowledge – once perhaps too easily ignored – is now, at last, gaining respect and credibility.