MASAI PEOPLE'S LIFE

 

The Maasai are a tribe of people who live in parts of Tanzania and Kenya and are known as tall and fierce warriors.

•  They can be recognised by the special red cloth they wear which 
is called a Shuka. 


•  Maasai people live a nomadic life, which means they move from 
place to place with their animals. 


•  They rely on their animals for food (including milk, meat and 
animal blood) and walk for many miles with their animals to find fresh food and water. They get all the other foods they need by trading (swapping) with other Maasai people. 


•  Maasai men herd cattle and carry spears to protect their cattle from wild animals such as lions. 


•  The Maasai women are responsible for cooking, collecting sticks for the fire and building the home. 


How do they live?

For the Maasai, cattle are what make the good life, and milk and meat are the best foods. Their old ideal was to live by their cattle alone other foods they could get by exchange but today they also need to grow crops.

They move their herds from one place to another, so that the grass has a chance to grow again; traditionally, this is made possible by a communal land tenure system in which everyone in an area shares access to water and pasture.

Nowadays Maasai have increasingly been forced to settle, and many take jobs in towns. Maasai society is organised into male age groups whose members together pass through initiations to become warriors, and then elders.

They have no chiefs, although each section has a Laibon, or spiritual leader, at its head. Maasai worship one god who dwells in all things, but may manifest himself as either kindly or destructive. Many Maasai today, however, belong to various Christian churches.

 Where do the Maasai people live? 

In Kenya most Maasai people live in the Maasai Mara Reserve, which is a large park in the South West of Kenya. It is named after the Maasai people who live there and the Mara River, which cuts through the park.

•  The Maasai live in shelters called manyatta, which are built from branches and grass. 


•  Maasai homes do not have windows or chimneys so it is dark and smoky inside. 


•  Animal skins are laid on the floor and are used for warmth. 


•  There is no electricity or running water. 


•  When food and water run out the Maasai pack up their homes and walk 
across the land to a place where there is food and water for their animals. 


What problems do they face?

One of the most immediate threats to the Maasai comes from game hunters in the Loliondo region of northern Tanzania. Here, Maasai villages have been burnt to the ground by the authorities, and thousands have brutally evicted to provide a company, Otterlo Business Corporation Ltd (OBC), with more access to land for game hunting.

The Loliondo Maasai are now homeless, and without access to water and grazing land their cattle are dying.

Most of what used to be Maasai land has already been taken over, for private farms and ranches, for government projects, wildlife parks or private hunting concessions. Mostly they retain only the driest and least fertile areas.

The stress this causes to their herds has often been aggravated by attempts made by governments to ‘develop’ the Maasai. These are based on the idea that they keep too much cattle for the land.

However, they are in fact very efficient livestock producers and rarely have more animals than they need or the land can carry. These ‘development’ efforts try to change their system of shared access to land.

While this has suited outsiders and some entrepreneurial Maasai who have been able to acquire land for themselves or sell it off, it has often denuded the soil and brought poverty to the majority of Maasai, who are left with too little and only the worst land.

The most immediate threat to the Maasai is against those from Loliondo, an area in northern Tanzania. Here, Maasai villages have been burnt to the ground, and thousands have been evicted, allegedly to provide a safari hunting company, Otterlo Business Corporation Ltd (OBC), with easier access to hunting land.

Why is the Maasai Mara Reserve so important?

The Maasai Mara Reserve is a large protected park and is important because

•  Many famous animals including: lions, rhinos, giraffes, zebras, 
warthogs and buffaloes live there. 


•  The animals are protected by the Government of Kenya so nobody can 
go and hunt them. 


•  Many tourists from other countries visit the area to see the animals in 
their natural habitat. A habitat is a place where a plant or animal usually lives. Tourists go on a ‘Safari’; Safari is the Swahili word for journey. This brings lots of money to the country. 


•  All of the animals and plants in the reserve are part of a special ecosystem. An ecosystem is an area where plants and animals live in balance with the environment.