The Maasai community: Living in the past

The Maasai are a herding culture tribe in Kenya and Tanzania, Africa. Their lifestyle reflects the harsh environment in which they live, with unpredictable rainfall and difficult agricultural conditions.

The Maasai keep zebu as their primary cattle, but the also farm cows, sheep and goats, and occasionally chickens. Because of the wet and dry seasons- as oppose to summer and winter- they often have to graze their herds far from their settlements to find water and vegetation. This job falls to the men.

The only other important job that is carried out by the men of the tribes is making decisions, for example which tribe will graze where during the wet and dry seasons. Jobs such as cooking, milking the cattle, gathering wood and water and close herding fall to the women of the tribe.

The cattle eat from the sparse vegetation in the area, whilst the people eat rice, dairy products, beans and ugali- a maize-based product. The Maasai do not eat their animals except on special occasions, they only trade them for crops, as they do not grow crops themselves. However, the Maasai drink the blood of their animals to get important nutrients for their bodies, although they are careful not to kill the cattle, as their wealth is measured in the number of animals they keep.

Both the people of the tribes and their cattle get their water from the same sources, mainly waterholes, wells and other natural sources such as rivers. However, neither the people nor the cattle can drink from the so called “soda lakes”, as they are polluted by volcanic ash.

To find enough vegetation, and in order to profit from the relief rain in the high mountain ranges of Kenya, the Maasai move their cattle to higher terrain- mostly above 2000 metres- throughout the dry season. In the wet season, they then return to sub 2000 metres, as there is enough water to go around. They also have to move around a lot, as it takes the vegetation longer to recover with the dry, hot climate.

Inclusive in the shifting nature of this culture are, sadly, many problems. Over-grazing is a common problem, as the Maasai have to share a restricted area to graze their cattle in each season. This leads to lack of water and disease spreads easily, as the animals are living in close quarters. These problems result in rising tensions between tribes and tribe elders.

The final problem that arises is a result of all other factors. Namely, desertification. The over-grazing leads to erosion of the ground, and the vegetation does not recover well after the cattle leaves. All in all, this means that the Maasai area is becoming a victim of desertification.

As a solution to these problems, the Maasai has formed the aforementioned “council of elders”, which makes decisions as to which tribe will graze where and when, to avoid over-grazing and the destruction of the land. However, this is only a short-term solution.

The Maasai culture is slowly being lost to the dominant, over-developing “Western” culture. This can be seen in the increasing amount of western clothes found in their tribes, and also the modernising of houses and the use of plastic containers and storage devises. This is very sad, as the Maasai is one of the few “original” shifting cultures we have left, and we should do all we can to protect it.