Why does the Maasai tribe live in East Africa. Masai - the fierce warriors of Africa

The Masai are one of the most amazing and distinctive peoples on earth. A unique combination of originality, fidelity centuries old traditions and striking naturalness in the perception of various manifestations of modern civilization - a characteristic feature of this ancient people living in the savannah in territories belonging to Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.

The Masai are a relatively small ethnic group. Currently, their number does not exceed a million. The exact number of representatives of the tribe is unknown, since the Maasai do not recognize any documents, and therefore do not have passports. At the same time, they move freely across the savannah, moving from place to place, from one country to another, not paying attention to state borders and customs regulations.

Most of the modern Maasai live in the vicinity of Mount Kilimanjaro. This mysterious semi-nomadic people, who have almost completely preserved the traditional way of life, differ significantly from both their appearance and lifestyle.

Unusual dance of the Masai tribe

The Masai are very beautiful in their own way: tall, narrow-hips, broad-shouldered men with a proud posture; slender, stately women with magnificent smooth skin and shaved heads. Many Maasai have not too black skin color, sometimes even bright eyes are found. Their faces do not have features characteristic of the Negroid race.

At the same time, some elements of “Maasai beauty” will seem rather strange to a European: the Maasai consider the absence of one of the front teeth and the earlobes drawn to the shoulders with massive jewelry to be attractive.

Holes in ears still in early childhood are burned with pointed smoldering sticks, and then stretched with pieces of bamboo. The larger the hole in the earlobe, the more respect and honor from fellow tribesmen.

The Masai are staunch polygamists. For each wife, a man builds a separate hut. The man is the owner of all property and livestock, but all the economic work, even the hardest, in the Maasai settlement is performed by women and children. It is believed that men are, first of all, warriors, and therefore it is not appropriate for them to do household chores. In peacetime, men spend whole days talking or going hunting. The only participation in homework that a man can afford is to graze cattle, and this occupation is shifted to the shoulders of children as soon as they reach 3-4 years of age.

Masai traditional clothing- a piece of red cloth wrapped around the naked body with purple, blue or yellow patterns. Many Maasai go barefoot, some in light sandals, by all means white color. Both men and women wear a variety of shiny jewelry: bracelets, beads, rings, necklaces and earrings. The more such "jewellery" - the higher the status in the tribe.

Traditional Maasai food- stew made from cow's blood with milk, sometimes with the addition of flour. Meat is eaten extremely rarely, protecting cows, as main value. Livestock generally plays a fairly important role in the life of the tribe. Cows for the Maasai are not only a source of food, huts are built from dried cow dung, the blood of these animals is used in sacred rituals.

Panorama on the territory of the tribe

By the way, the Maasai believe that all the livestock on earth was donated by God to Ngai precisely to their tribe. Therefore, the theft of livestock from neighboring tribes is not considered something reprehensible and is perceived as a fair return of their "legitimate" property.

The Maasai rarely receive any kind of education. All their training comes down to the transfer of military, hunting and household skills and knowledge from generation to generation.

The character of the Maasai is quite tough, they are a proud and independent people. At the same time, the Maasai are not aggressive, they are happy to host tourists in their settlements. The main entertainment that is shown to guests is traditional dance. This is an amazing spectacle that has no analogues among other nations. Only men dance, the whole dance consists of two movements - high jumps and stomping. To the rhythmic sound of tantams and the singing of women, men line up, holding sticks in their hands. This is followed by a jump to an impressive height and a subsequent stomp landing. This cycle of movements is repeated many times, and the dancers move surprisingly synchronously. Despite the simplicity, even some primitive "choreography", the Masai dance looks very impressive.

The ancestral home of the Maasai is the Nile Valley in Sudan. There is a legend that the Masai are the descendants of a small detachment of ancient Roman warriors, lost in the upper reaches of the Nile hundreds of years ago. If you look closely at the Masai traditional outfits, very reminiscent of Roman togas, weapons similar to Roman pilum spears and short swords, then this version of the origin of this amazing nation no longer seems as ridiculous as at first glance.

The Masai are a unique and popular tribe. It owes its popularity to culture and traditions passed down from generation to generation. Despite the influence of civilization, people are faithful to the old way of life, thanks to which they have become a symbol of Kenyan culture.

Representatives of the tribe on the background of their possessions.

The Masai live along the borders of two countries - Kenya and Tanzania. According to various estimates, their number varies from 900 thousand to a million. They speak the Maa language, which originated in North Africa.

The map shows the approximate settlement of the Masai.

History of the Masai tribe

It is believed that their ancestors first appeared in northern Africa, later they migrated south along the Nile Valley and arrived in northern Kenya in the middle of the 15th century. They continued to move south, conquering all the tribes in their path. By the end of their journey, the Masai owned almost all the land in the Rift Valley and the adjacent territories between the mountains of Marsabit and Dodoma. Here they settled and took up cattle breeding.

Gaze at the endless expanses of the savannah.

The amount of jewelry is an indicator of wealth.

Masai traditions

The warrior cult has a very great importance at the tribe. From childhood to adolescence, young boys learn to be men and warriors. The role of a warrior is to protect his livestock from other tribes and wild animals, build the Kraal (Masai settlement) and ensure the safety of his family.

The watch on the left hand proves that traditions are slowly receding before the power of Western civilization.

After going through rituals and ceremonies, including circumcision, the boys are ready to become real warriors. The magnificent ceremony "eutnoto" becomes a kind of graduation, after which the boy turns into a warrior.

In the video, young Masai warriors jump in the traditional Adumu dance. Such jumps allow you to find a mate. The best "horse" will definitely find a girlfriend.

Girls and women have a completely different life. They have to take care of the household: milk the cows, fetch water, do needlework and even build huts. The girl becomes an adult at the age of 14, after the official circumcision ceremony - emorata.

Masai clothing and beauty

Although animal skins are traditional for the tribe, modern Masai preferred a dress made of red sheets (also called shuka) wrapped around the body. All kinds of beaded jewelry on the arms and neck are also very popular. They are worn by both men and women, unisex, so to speak.

Mornings are very cold even in Africa.

The piercing and stretching of the earlobes is also considered an attribute of beauty among the Maasai. Both men and women wear metal hoops in their ears. Women shave their heads and specially knock out the two lower front teeth, which is required by traditional medicine.

The more the earlobes are retracted, the prettier girl. This one is probably worth its weight in gold.

160 km from the capital of Kenya, Nairobi (the most Big city East Africa) the Masai tribe lives in the village, where the ancient way of life of this people is still preserved in its original form.
Since, there most time is unbearable heat, the Kenyan savannas resemble steppes that are not suitable for normal life. Therefore, the soil is not suitable for agriculture and the local population lives off livestock. It is these savannahs, not deserts, that occupy almost half of all of Africa.
This tribe still does not have passports and they determine their age approximately. The tribe is led by a chief. The Maasai village is one big family. About 100 people live here, all of them are relatives. The way of life is strictly patriarchal. The women look after the children and cook. And the men tend goats and cows. The leader of the tribe has three wives. Each of which has a separate house. The way to the leader's heart, like ours, is through his stomach. That wife, who fed tastier, is the one beloved, with that he sleeps that night. So, the leader, each time, can sleep in a new place. In this connection, there is competition between wives, and therefore they always try to cook delicious food.
Previously, with the wife of the leader, any peer of the head of the tribe could sleep, who simultaneously passed the rite of circumcision and, together with the leader, tasted meat and cow blood. But times have changed. Today, even to the savannas, campaign leaflets with stories about AIDS have reached. The Masai have become more cautious, and their morals are stricter. Now, not every leader allows almost everyone to sleep with his wife, which was allowed not so long ago.
Young people of the Maasai tribe - Meran, are circumcised. At this time, they wear special clothes in which they walk for 2.5 - 3 years. Merans live separately and do not go to school - they hunt, walk, dance. Being a Maran is the most happy time Maasai tribe. No worries or responsibilities. After a couple of years, after walking up, they get married, settle down and the Masai everyday life begins. They have many wives, many children. And more cows. Such is it, Maasai happiness - the path to which lies through the wedding
In the Maasai tradition, there is almost no room for love. Often marriages are arranged. Moreover, the parents think here. The bride's father sets a price - the number of cows for his daughter. The groom's family bargains to the last. There are no veils at Masai weddings and wedding rings. The bride's body is rubbed with oil and her face is painted, now the girl is ready to walk down the aisle.
Wealthy Maasai have 2 to 5 wives. Polygamy, can only afford a wealthy Maasai. A prosperous Maasai is one who has many cows. And the one who raised more daughters and profitably married them has more cows. Therefore, the father of the bride always guards the exit from the house during the wedding and decides how much the groom will have to pay.
At first glance, our and the Masai wedding have many similar components - beautiful outfits for young people, many guests and relatives, ransom traditions and, of course, toastmaster. I just want to say: “Wedding, it is also a wedding in Africa!”. But it's not quite like that.
The bride must be, of course, a virgin. First wedding night young people sleep separately. According to the tradition of this tribe, which from a European point of view, can be called a nightmare, the bride does not have the right to sleep with her young husband, but must sleep with a toastmaster, because the young husband should not see her blood. For the Maasai, this is normal. All guests at the wedding contribute money. Anyone who wants to enter the house must give something. Young people pray and drink the main elixir of love - milk in pure and not as usual, milk with blood. The Masai wedding does not involve other drinks. All the money donated by the guests is taken by the mother-in-law. She will live with the young and fulfill the role of the family treasurer.
If in the future, the newly-made husband wants to marry a second time, the first wife finds a second and even fifth wife for her husband.
It is worth noting that 100% of Maasai marriages are strong. Divorces and abandoned wives do not happen here in principle, because having found another, the husband does not leave his former wife, he simply marries again. And if a problem arises in the family, it is decided to solve it at the tribal council.
A Masai home is called a manyatta. The houses here are no different intricacy - it is a sticky wooden frame, plastered with cow dung. Such huts are built, usually by women, for about two months. The cost of such a house costs about 5800 rubles. In such houses there are no windows, and the hearth is located inside, next to a bed of animal skins. The Maasai are nomads by nature, when water comes they leave their homes and move to a new place.

The Masai earn their money by selling goats and sheep. One Maasai cow costs about 12,000 rubles. Instead of a bank account, among the Maasai, it is customary to have a herd and the larger it is, the higher the status and position in the Masai society.
The Maasai have many children. They are on their own. Maasai children educate themselves from childhood, mastering the occupation of herding livestock and living in harmony with nature.
The Maasai fire is still mined in a primitive way, despite the fact that matches can be purchased in the city. Such is the Masai reality.

Masaev without exaggeration can be called the "titular nation" of Kenya. Interesting fact- not all Kenyans, of course, are ethnic Maasai, but many prefer to present themselves as such. Even though, with the development of Kenya's national park structure, the Maasai have lost a fair amount of their lands and are forced to follow the inevitable limitations of civilization, they still have the glory of desperate and harsh warriors, which was greatly facilitated by the uprising of the 1960s that brought Kenya to independence. About a million Maasai live in Kenya today.

Maasai - beautiful and unsuitable for slavery

famous Karen Blixen, a writer who lived for 20 years in the vicinity of Nairobi, and known for the bestseller "Out of Africa", testified that the Maasai occupy a special position among the tribes of Kenya, they are distinguished by their own "style" in behavior, even some arrogance and impudence, and at the same time very faithful, decent and persistent. Karen Blixen noted that the Maasai are grateful and they remember good things for a long time, but also resentment. She mentioned that the Maasai are warriors to the very core of their being, and weapons are an integral part of the Maasai. The writer generally emphasized the beauty of the Maasai - “... faces with high cheekbones and sharply defined jaws, smooth, without a single wrinkle. They have strong muscular necks that give them a menacing look - such a neck is found in an angry cobra, leopard or bull. She also testified that the Masai were never slaves: even if one of these people fell into captivity, he died very quickly, unsuitable for the yoke.

Karen Blixen said that morani- young Maasai, recently initiated into warriors, "feed only on blood and milk." This is an exaggeration - but both are really included in their diet. The fact is that cows are not just “sacred animals”, they are the meaning and basis of life for the Maasai.

Life and life of the Maasai

God's gift - cows

Indeed, the most important thing for the Maasai is their cows. By and large, the entire combat experience of this people is aimed at protecting their livestock from encroachment and trying to take possession of someone else's. The Maasai quite seriously (and to this day) believe that Ngai, the lord of the rain and the main deity, created cows specifically for the Maasai. Therefore, all the cows in the world that do not belong to them are considered stolen from the Maasai!

Cows near Masai, Kenya

Cows (to be fair, it must be clarified that the local breed looks more like a zebu) are the basis of Maasai life. Dry manure holds the walls of their huts together, and children and teenagers really drink the blood of animals - bottles of long gourds are adapted by the Maasai for this, just like dairy ones. In order for the animal to live and be healthy, because the Maasai take care of their livestock, a special “milking” has been developed: with the help of an arrow from a bow at close range, a hole is made in the animal’s neck vein, the blood is collected, and the hole is then sealed with a special dung cake.

Maasai cow blood food

The Maasai also use milk, but they rarely eat meat (although they love it) - cows are not at all to kill them. This is a source of food, and a monetary unit, and a dowry, and an indicator of wealth in the community.

House on the back or Semi-nomadic life of the Maasai

Making tours to Kenya, travelers are convinced that the Maasai have preserved their age-old way of life, despite the arrival of European colonialists. The Masai are considered a semi-nomadic people, they move when their herds need new pastures.

Actually, the Maasai also moved to the territory of modern Kenya - scientists are sure that they were from Sudan. Of course, they brought cows with them. Interestingly, although other Africans built cities in the neighborhood, the Maasai never changed their way of life. Today it has become more difficult for them to live up to tradition - after all, protected areas are now located in the places of their original nomads, such as Serengeti in Tanzania and a reserve in Kenya continuing this park. But the Maasai are stubborn.

Tours to Kenya will introduce guests to the country with huts made of branches held together with manure (this is generally the most popular construction material nomads all over the world). The Maasai build their huts in a ring, and around them they make a palisade to protect themselves from predators.

Maasai house, Kenya

Maasai village- This is a small tribal association, up to five families. Entering the house, you can see the hearth in the center and the animal skins that serve as beds for the Masai. Interestingly, although the Maasai are very tall people, you can hardly find someone below 170 cm tall, the ceilings of their huts are a maximum of one and a half meters. When the village wanders, the frame of the hut is disassembled and carried with it, often just on the back.

From childhood to maturity

Like our distant ancestors, age group very important for the representative of the Maasai people. Rights and obligations depend on this. Baby boys, as soon as they start walking, begin to shepherd duties, and girls do all the housework with their mothers and learn how to milk cows. The Maasai have special rituals during which children are beaten quite hard - this should increase courage and patience. Both boys and girls go through a circumcision procedure upon reaching adolescence, which is very painful (you can’t scream at the same time - a big shame). Subsequently, they are considered full-fledged adult members of the community.

Maasai children, Kenya

Boys who wait for the circumcision wound to heal, which takes several months, wear special black clothes and live separately in the so-called. " manyatte". When this period ends, they become " morani”- the young warriors who so admired Karen Blixen.

From this point on, the young Maasai can begin to accumulate property (mostly cows, of course!) and trade. Uninitiated children, according to Masai laws, cannot have their own property - and they are allowed to steal what they need!

Another tradition is connected with the ceremony of initiation of the Maasai into warriors - killing a lion. Now this is much more difficult than before, since wild animals in Kenya are protected everywhere. In addition, the elders complain that with the advent of firearms it became, so to speak, unsportsmanlike. And, nevertheless, the tradition of killing a lion in the process of initiation has not gone away and will obviously not go away among the Maasai soon.

Although killing a lion is illegal in Kenya today, the Maasai must be able to do so. And they really are not even afraid of lions! Masai warriors are not scary in the savannah, so they are often hired to guard camps with tourists.

Kenya. Maasai - good guard

Traditionally, the Maasai - a man can carry 4 items with him (often one of them, but there is always something in his hands):

1. Wand - staff
2. Spear (less common, wand much more common)
3. Large knife in a red leather sheath
4. A special stick with a knob resembling a human femur

Warriors - Maasai, Kenya

It's interesting that funeral rite among the Maasai it is used only for uninitiated children. When a circumcised adult dies, whether male or female, his body is carried into the savannah and left to the wild beasts. It is believed that this is how the cycle of life is maintained.

Maasai marriage traditions

Since the Maasai are desperate warriors, the mortality rate among their men is high. Naturally, the people came to polygamy (polygamy). If a Masai has enough cows that determine his well-being, he can take several wives (the more, the more shelter). At the same time, polyandry among the Maasai is also a normal phenomenon. In fact, a woman who marries marries not only her husband, but also his brothers-in-arms, who at the same time were undergoing an initiation ceremony into warriors. But this does not mean that they can take it when they want: Maasai women choose their own time and partner. However, children are still considered descendants. official husband. The Maasai also know the procedure for divorce - it is called "kitala" and may include the return of the ransom paid for the bride before the wedding.

Masai wedding

By the way, the Maasai have a rather spectacular wedding and in last years they agree to organize their wedding ceremony for guests on tours to Kenya.

Tourist wedding in Masai