The Norris Family: Jane AP World Project

The Maasai

The Maasai are a tribe from parts of northern, central, and southern Kenya and the northern part of Tanzania. They are semi-nomadic people, meaning that they are people who live in portable homes, but they migrate seasonally. Maasai people are very healthy because of all the migrating they do. On safari, my family had the opportunity to visit a Maasai village between the Ngorongoro region and the Tarangire. As soon as we arrived, we dressed in

traditional

Maasai outfits and we danced with them and participated in their jumping ritual! They sang and danced for us, and we got to talk to the locals.

The Maasai tribe faces many challenges, including the change in land ownership, westernization, and the lack of education. Their diet consists of milk, meat, and blood. They eat both cooked meat and raw meat. While I was in the Maasai village, I met all the people and

had the opportunity to go into one of the Maasai houses. The house was tiny and very tight. I had to crouch to get in, and it barely fit my family. We sat in the main room, the living area, and the kitchen. We sat on buckets, which were what they used as chairs.

There were two beds, one for the mother and one for all the children. I could barely fit in the mother's bed, and it was a tarp on top of the dirt. Each wife gets her own house for her and her children.

The husband rotates between the houses as he would like. Their homes are made from grass, twigs, soil, and cow dung. In the tribe I visited, the women made the houses. The women also stay in the huts while the children go to school or work. The school

is a small circular building with a stick roof. The children learn to count in their tribe's language and English at a primary school in their village. The older kids can sometimes attend secondary school if there is

one nearby. However, because they move around so often, it is hard for the kids to have access to schools constantly. We got to visit a school with kids from ages three to five.

Video of school- Here

We saw them sing and

count, and they all gave us hugs, and high fives and took pictures with us.

The tribes speak Maa, but many also learn Swahili, the primary language of their area, and English. The Maasai tribe is known

for its jumping skills and rituals. The men in the Maasai village have a "contest "or a ritual where they all try to jump the highest. They are showing off for young dads who are going to have children or who have young girls. The fathers want their daughters to marry the best jumper because it shows status. The fathers arrange the marriage many years before the daughter is old enough to get married. The Maasai tribe strongly believes in polygamy, and they have continued to practice it up

to this day. At the village I visited, our guide, who was Maasai, came from a family where his father had 17 wives and 82 children. In his immediate family, he had ten siblings, and he was the youngest. He had three wives and seven children. He told my father he would purchase my oldest sister, Kate, for 20 cows. He explained that the men must buy their wives with cows because cows are so important to the Maasai culture. The Maasai depend on cows for food, clothing,

and shelter. They eat cow meat and drink their milk. They make much of their clothing and accessories out of cow hyde. They also use cow dung to start fires. They believe that the cows are their tribe's property, and their culture is built around the importance of cows. Maasai men spend most of their lives gathering and herding cows. Maasai men's status and wealth are based on how many cows he owns. Boys are initiated into the tribe between the ages of 15 and 30. The transition from boy to man occurs

when they receive warrior status and become a protector of the tribe. The Maasai tribe also has a history of hunting lions. The Maasai practiced lion hunting to show a young man's bravery and prove

personal achievement. Solo hunting was prevalent in the past. However, group hunts are more common now because the lion population has dropped so much. In Maasai law, warriors are not allowed to kill a lion suffering from drought, poison, or caught in a snare. They believe female lions are the bearer of all life for every species, so it is prohibited to hunt a lioness unless a warrior is in danger or if the lioness has tried to get their livestock. At the end of our visit, we got to go to their village store, where they had many tables set up filled with many gifts. They had handmade beads, jewelry, masks, key chains, and other fun souvenirs.