The Displaced Maasai

TUESDAY, July 30

On the street near our guest house

About two hours south of Arusha along rutted, dusty roads is the remote displaced Maasai village of T (names and places are purposefully redacted to protect the community). It's a dry and dusty landscape - the town is much less developed than anywhere else we'd been, with dirt roads and several abandoned buildings. But T is an important center for local trading and community activities; about 2,500 – 3000 people live in the main town, with about 7,000 in the surrounding area known as the village. 

The Maasai are an indigenous ethnic group that originated in the Nile Valley and settled in the Great Rift Valley region of central Kenya and northern Tanzania in around the 16th century. Their culture centers heavily on cattle, leading to a semi-nomadic lifestyle and a reliance on the land. In the late 19th century, the German and British began to colonize East Africa, leading to a loss of traditional Maasai land. The  Kenyan and Tanzanian governments after colonial independence promoted agriculture and villages, further eroding the pastoralist way of life. The Maasai have been able to maintain their cultural identity and heritage despite the necessity to adapt and diversify.

The market lot

We drove into town in the late morning after a very bumpy ride. The large lot where the weekly market is held was empty, save for wooden poles sticking out of the dirt that would be used to hold up the market stalls. These are actually live acacia branches - a much more sustainable building method. Fences and protective barriers such as the ones in the bomas are also alive, so that they wouldn't need to be replaced.

P, explaining the
layout of the bomas

We met with P, the chairman (ie head) of the village who took us on a tour of the surrounding region to see different areas of the community. 

Our first stop was along a dirt road in the middle of a field – On one side of the road was a corn field, the land turned to agriculture because the Maasai now need to adapt to the change in lifestyle. Since they now have a need to pay taxes, much of their crops is sold to produce an income; the land is also rented out to others to farm. On the other side of the road, the field was left alone: pastureland kept for their livestock to graze. It is shared by the community and is important because livestock is the traditional way of life for the Maasai people. 

There are several scattered pasturelands around the vicinity, and depending on the season, the livestock rotate around so the land stays healthy. Maasai don’t incorporate much vegetables or meat in their diet; instead, they rely on their livestock while it is alive – by milking the cattle, drinking its blood, and eating the fat - they traditionally don’t slaughter their cattle for food. They also keep sheep, goat, and chickens, but this is a more recent practice used for economic reasons. Chickens and eggs are sold for money to pay taxes; for special occasions, they may slaughter and eat goat.

Those white flowers are an invasive type of morning glories that have taken over the landscape in recent years.
It only thrives in very arid environments - a sign that the climate is getting drier.

Replanting trees

P also took us on a walk around town, showing us how their attempts at reforesting and cleaning up the streambeds have led to a steady flow of water - important in this era of climate change, where we could see tangible evidence of an increasingly arid environment. 

One way to protect the streambed - having designated areas for crossing 

While we were talking, the local schoolchildren who were using the crossing to go home all gathered to stare at the strange group of outsiders who were staring at the stream...

I loved visiting the small boma community in the pastureland where around 30 people live communally. This was not a commercialized destination, set up to pander to tourists; while I know the village was compensated for their time, we were not approached to buy anything.

The sheep/goat pen in the center of the boma

The Maasai boma is a traditional homestead made up of several huts set in a circle, with acacia-thorn pens in the middle of a ring of homes to keep their livestock at night. In this way, the goats, sheep, donkeys, and cattle that are vital to their culture are protected from wildlife – mainly hyenas and lions.

Preparing the goat

When we arrived, the community elders were preparing to slaughter a goat, and we were allowed to watch the process (no, I won't include the photos here, but it was fascinating to watch!)

Cooking the goat

After the goat was killed, one of the elders reads the insides of the goat to make predictions about the community – in the next year, they could expect a good harvest and plenty of rains, there would be four children born to the community – three boys and a girl, and the livestock were all healthy. According to them, this was also checked by looking at the stars, which gave similar prediction results.

Running around the community were about 30 children, all under the age of about 8. They were initially tentative to approach us, but soon began crowding around to see what we were doing. We started taking photos and they were so entranced with seeing themselves, as well as playing with our smartwatches – they had clearly been shown them before, since they knew how to swipe around to get different screens!

Hamming it up for the camera

They loved seeing themselves on screen!

It was a lovely visit, and I appreciated getting a peek into the traditional ways of pastoral life. 

WEDNESDAY, July 31

We were excited to go birding with Rashid in the mornings because we were in a much more rural and isolated environment. It definitely did not disappoint -  (more on birds in a different post)! 

Early morning walk to school

But the scenery around town was beautiful, and I enjoy the peaceful walks to start each day. With a few more days staying in the village, we were all given a chance to work more closely with community members to learn about their culture and way of life.

Sunflowers are grown throughout the region for seed and oil

Allie, Rubin, and I decided to spend the day learning about beading with some of the local women. We’d had such a good experience with the sewing project in Zanzibar (and particularly with the time we spent just sitting with the women and chatting while we worked) that we wanted a similar experience with this community. We sat with N (our companion from Arusha who was from the Maasai community), who helped to translate since most of the women spoke Maa and not Kiswahili. It was more difficult to have longer conversations, but it was still nice to sit outside for the afternoon working quietly.

A lovely place to spend the day

I learned how to make the circular beaded mandalas that we've seen being sold in shops. Beading has been part of the local culture for generations, with bone, shell, and glass beads found in archaeological sites. Many of their beads were acquired through European, Arab, and Indian traders, though now most beads are plastic.

We learned from N that much of the traditional beadwork has symbolic meaning that is know throughout Maasai society - special colored beads were worn only by village healers, still others were given during important rites of passage, and the beaded belt on leather was a symbol of fertility worn only by women with children. In fact, when N had first gotten married and had trouble conceiving a child, she was gifted a belt from her mother. This belt had been blessed by the local healer and then had been worn by a woman who'd had several children in order to be infused with the power of futility; when it was then worn by N, she soon gave birth to her first child.

I decided to create a beaded mandala with a pattern that symbolized the dichotomy of the fields we saw the day before - on one side, green and yellow represented the fields and harvest of the agricultural side of the road, and on the other, red and white (traditional colors of the Maasai) represented the traditional pasturelands. 

Learning the ropes (and by ropes, I mean wire...) from Koko

I sat with NM, who we called Koko (grandma) - it was amazing how much she could teach us by just showing and speaking in Maa!

THURSDAY, Aug 1

The livestock exchange. Wanna buy a goat?

In the late morning after another great birdwalking session, we went down to the Gulio - the weekly traveling market that had made its way to the village for the day. We arrived fairly early so not all the vendors had finished setting up, but we still got a chance to see the types of goods being sold.

The soles of the sandals that everyone wears are
made from recycled tires!

E, showing off his recycled tire sandals

It was definitely a market for the local people, with staples that they had to plan for since the market only comes through town once a week. And most families don’t have any refrigeration, so food had to either be eaten before it rots, or they had to have things that could be eaten even if they started turning bad. We wandered around the stalls selling beans, housewares, clothing, electronics, and shoes. 

The colorful patterns of Maasai shukas

Being here in T has highlighted the many ways the Maasai have had to adapt from their traditional pastoralist ways of living - down to the ways they have had to change their diet. One thing that our guide E told us was that most Maasai don’t eat a large variety of foods; in fact, they don’t really eat vegetables and only eat meat maybe once a week. Instead, it is common for a family to eat eat ugali, supplemented with milk, nearly every meal. It’s a hard thing for me to wrap my head around, especially since we’ve been eating like kings here (with the BEST fried chicken I’ve ever had in my life, and the most amazing vegetables). When I’m at home, I’ll complain if I have Italian food twice in one week… 

Another thing I've never given much though to is the comfort that I take for granted in my home. The community center where we were staying was comfortable and clean, but I used a shared squat toilet with no running water. Each morning, Mama C would, at around 5:00AM, bring a large bucket of hot water to my door for washing and flushing the toilet. She put so much effort into making sure we had everything we needed, so I felt a bit guilty that I didn't always use the water that she put in so much effort to prepare.

Our local guide E, who helps advocate for
the Maasai community

A special thanks to our local guides, who shared their lives with us!

E came with us each day and helped us with our beading