The Maasai

The Maasai are an extraordinary people with an even more extraordinary culture. They have lived in areas of Tanzania and Kenya for hundreds of years and continue to graze their precious cattle in both countries as they have for more than 500 years. Wherever you go on the East African safari circuit of southern Kenya and northern Tanzania, the Maasai people are a near-constant presence.You’ll see the brightly colored reds, blues and purples of their shúka (sheets worn wrapped around the body, one over each shoulder, then a third over the top of them) standing out vividly against the landscape, whether in small mud-thatched villages, more modern towns or the vast open spaces on which they continue to graze their cattle,

History

The Maasai are a Nilotic people indigenous to the African Great Lakes region, with roots that can be traced back to South Sudan.

According to their oral history, they began migrating south from the lower Nile Valley north of Kenya’s Lake Turkana sometime in the 15th century, ultimately arriving in their current range between the 17th and late 18th century.

Many of the ethnic groups that had established settlements in the area were either displaced or assimilated by the Maasai, who also adopted certain customs from them (including ritual circumcision and social organization focused more on age set than descent).

By the mid-19th century Maasai territory included the entire Great Rift Valley as well as the lands that surrounded it, and its people had become as well known for their strength as warriors (using spears, shields and clubs that could be thrown accurately from up to 70 paces) as they were for their cattle-herding.

Threats to Maasai Way of Life

Problems between the Maasai people and government authorities date back more than 100 years, to when a pair of treaties with the British reduced Maasai land in Kenya by 60% to make room for ranches for colonial settlers. In Tanzania in the 1940s, the pastoralists were displaced from the fertile lands around Mount Meru, Mount Kilimanjaro and the Ngorongoro Crater.

Much of the land taken from the Maasai was used to create many of the world’s most famous wildlife reserves and national parks, including Kenya’s Amboseli, Masai Mara, Samburu and Tsavo and Tanzania’s Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro, Tarangire and Serengeti.

More recently, the Maasai have resisted the urgings of the Kenyan and Tanzanian governments to adopt a more sedentary lifestyle and send their children to government-approved educational facilities. This may be in part because the Maasai believe that most people go to school to learn how to become rich, and they believe that they are already wealthy due to the richness of their culture and lifestyle.

Non-profit organizations are currently working with tribal leaders to help the Maasai regain grazing rights to their historic lands and resist government efforts to force them to adapt to modern notions of “progress.” With more than 1 million Maasai estimated to live in these popular ecotourism hotspots, here’s hoping their rich, distinctive culture and lifestyle continues to thrive for many centuries to come.

The Naserian Foundation’s development priorities are driven through direct consultation with their Maasai host communities and with the deepest respect for their long-held traditions.