The life of Maasai tribe

The life of the Maasai tribe

   Maasai are the people of eastern Africa, and populate the southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. They belong to the people of the East-Sudanese group of people , the branch of  Nilotic ethnic group.

   Masai are mostly semi-nomadic, shepherd people, who moves his cattle in search for new pastures, but in Tanzania, some groups began to work with agriculture.

Maasai people

Tribal structure

    A fundamental social unit is called ''Kraal'', composed of polygamy families. 20-50 Kraals
form a village, that is also called ''Kraal''. In Maasai tribe, men are classified into three basic groups:

• Young mans
• Warriors(Morans) 
• Old mans

    When he receives the title of warrior, the young man leaving Kraal, and goes to a particular village called ''Manyatta''. In the Manyatta live warriors with their mothers, women and uninitiated ''Women lovers''. Contrary to Manyatta, Kraal, consists of married ''Older mans'' (who are no longer warriors) and their families. A warrior who has a duty to protect the village, must not marry. Only warriors who finish the ''Warrior period'' have the right to get married.

After that, they leave Manyatta, and they move in Kraal. Maasai community is very well organized, primary education in their villages is compulsory, and is funded by charities. Primarily, they learned the Swahili and  English language as well, which is the official language in Kenya and Tanzania. The original language of the tribe Maasai is called ''Maa''. Traditional Maasai religion is a monotheistic, in which they believed in one god called ''Ngai''.
    Their houses look like shelters with beds and a fireplace, and they  make them from materials taken from nature. The houses are built exclusively by women, and they use materials such as gravel, mud, grass,feces and urine from cows and ash.

Example of Massai village

   
   Men wear red clothes and women wear blue clothes, they wear simple sandals that are often made from a motorcycle tires. 
   Their diet consists of milk, meat, potatoes and corn. They are friendly people, and often they make a party of welcome for strangers  with famous Maasai jumps.

    In the past, a man proved his warrior ability by having to kill an adult male lion, today, this custom is no longer practiced because of the law which forbid killing lions! Polygamy and the number of children in the family represent wealth of Maasai people. 

Maasai warriors 

   The tribe Maasai is one of the most famous tribes in the world, and they have a whole range of rituals, where the boy is introduced into adulthood. Every 10-15 years a group of young fighters is formed, and new recruits are aged 10-20 years old. Night before the ceremony, the boys sleep outside in the forest.At dawn they are returning to their camp, where they spend the rest of the day. During this time they drink a mixture of milk, cow blood and alcohol, and eat raw meat.

  The most important part of the ceremony is male circumcision, and after that boy officially becomes a man. During that time the family pronounces ''If you give up, we will curse you'', as long as the wound does not fully heal. During this time the boy must wear black clothes and live in the houses built by women from his village.

 Only after this test passes, the boy becomes a warrior.

Maasai boy in traditional black clothes.

   
 For the next 10 years he lives in so-called warriors villages ''Manyatta''. There they learn warrior skills, but also to raise livestock. 

    After the end of that decade, he sends out special ceremonies to the ranks of older warriors, and he moves to a village called ''Kraal''.Onlly then, one Maasai can be married.