Young men and women are educated by their elders. There is not a formalized educational system in the Maasai tribe. Recently there have been efforts to bring formalized education to the tribe. Private and public donors from outside of Kenya fund the efforts.
Are Maasai people educated?
Across the world, education is considered a fundamental human right. However, access to education for girls and women can sometimes conflict with cultural norms. Such is the case in many Maasai communities, where girls’ access to education continues to be limited, if available at all.
In school, Maasai children learn English and Swahili, but their native language, Maa, is spoken at home. Young boys are responsible for tending livestock as part of their daily chores. Since cattle are so important to the Maasai people, this job is highly honored.
What is unique about Maasai?
The Maasai are known for their physical beauty”not just their lithe, graceful physiques but for their unique garb and body ornamentation.
Most outsiders considered the Maasai to be wealthy, as many of them kept large herds of cattle (Tignor, 1972). However, the large herds were owned by many individuals and, oftentimes, the distribution of livestock among members of a community was highly uneven.
How many wives can a Maasai man have?
There is nothing unusual about this ” in fact, three wives for a wealthy man like Mr Ntokot is considered not at all excessive, and unless you are Muslim, Kenyan men can marry as many women as they like. The Maasai accept polygamy as a way of life and these women grew up with fathers who had married several wives.
What type of marriage do the Maasai practice?
The pastoral Maasai people live in the grasslands of Kenya and Tanzania. Their society is structured around rites of passage, one of which is marriage. Young men in the senior warrior stage may not marry but can search for an appropriate bride and gain her family’s favor in order to arrange a future marriage.
What language is spoken by the Maasai?
The Maasai, Samburu and Camus people are historically related and all refer to their language as Maa or “l Maa, although they acknowledge mutual cultural and economic differences. Most Maasai also speak Swahili, the lingua franca of East Africa.
How long do the Maasai live?
With a life expectancy of only 45 years, Maasai women live with many physical discomforts and live under a man and family that they did not personally choose. Denied the right to education, Maasai women do only what they know to do”follow the rules of tradition.
What do the Maasai do for fun?
They love singing and dancing: If you have a chance to visit some of Kenya’s major restaurants and game reserves including the Nairobi National Park and many other tourist destinations away from the city, you will most probably meet some Maasai men and women singing and dancing as they usher you in.
How tall are Maasai warriors?
They are considered one of the tallest people in the world with average height of 6 ft 3 inches according to some reports. Traditionally, the Maasai diet consisted of raw meat, raw milk, and raw blood from cattle.
How do the Maasai make money?
Traditionally, the Maasai do not have money. Instead, their economy has been based on cattle. They have used them in place of money. Cattle have been bartered for many kinds of things.
Why do Maasai wear red?
Red is the most important color; symbolizing courage, bravery, and strength. The Maasai also believe that red scares off predators like lions even at long distances. Red also represents unity within the Maasai culture because livestock are slaughtered when communities come together in celebration.
Do Maasai still hunt lions?
Maasai lion hunting. The Maasai people have traditionally viewed the killing of lions as a rite of passage. Historically, lion hunts were done by individuals, however, due to reduced lion populations, lion hunts done solo are discouraged by elders. Most hunts are now partaken by groups of 10 warriors.
What religion are the Maasai?
Maasai Religion: The Maasai people are monotheistic, and their God is named Engai or Enkai, a God who is mostly benevolent and who manifests himself in the form of different colors, according to the feelings he is experiencing.
Why do Maasai drink blood?
The Maasai, an ethnic group of semi-nomadic people who inhabit in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania, drink cow blood on special occasions ” circumcision of a child, the birth of a baby and on the occasion of a girl’s marriage. It also is given to drunken elders to alleviate intoxication and hangover.
How do Maasai circumcise?
The Maasai tribe in Tanzania and Kenya practice traditional circumcision termed the “button-hole procedure. This technique pulls the glans of the penis through an incision in the foreskin, leaving a portion of foreskin hanging as a permanent appendage.
Are the Maasai healthy?
The surprising results of the field study show that the Maasai are in a good health status in spite of a limited diet. Blood tests showed that there is a high content of healthy omega-3 fatty acids in their erythrocyte membranes, the cell walls of the red blood cells, even though these acids are not ingested.
How many husbands can a woman have in Kenya?
Kenya. In August 2013, Kenyan witness polyandry when two men decided to be husbands to a woman they both love. It is noteworthy that Kenyan laws don’t explicitly forbid Polyandry and legal action can’t be taken against people who practice it.
What food do the Maasai eat?
The Maasai heavily depend on cattle for nutrition. The traditional Maasai diet consists of six basic foods: milk, meat, fat, blood, honey, and tree bark. Both fresh and curdled milk are drunk. Fresh milk is drunk in a calabash (gourd) and is sometimes mixed with fresh cattle blood.
When can Maasai men marry?
Marriage in Maasai culture is one of our most important traditional activities. A man has to be married as soon as he undergoes the circumcision ceremony. A Maasai murran is not able to choose whom he is going to marry.
Are Maasai circumcised?
The type of circumcision that the Maasai perform is called clitoridectomy, in which the entire clitoris or part of the clitoris, and at times the adjacent labia, is removed. The primary reason female circumcision is practiced among the Maasai is that it is considered a rite of passage.
How do you say hello in Maasai?
Let’s start with some conversational basics: Hello! = Sopa! Goodbye! = Ole sere!
How do the Maasai greet each other?
According to a contact in Narok, by the Mara park where the Masai live, when Masai meet they greet each other with ‘sopa’. But that is the start of a long greeting process that can take several minutes. It can include ‘How is the homestead?’ , ‘How is the weather?’
What does the name Maasai mean?
1 : a member of a pastoral and hunting people of Kenya and Tanzania.
What happens to the body when a Maasai dies?
Similar to Ancient Tibetan and Mongolian traditions, the Maasai people leave the body out for scavengers. They consider this a form of green burial to reduce pollution. However, those who practice Christianity may have traditional burials for their loved one.
Why are Maasai so thin?
The Maasai are a very special people who live primarily from farming and livestock activities in Kenya and Tanzania. They have mystified researchers for years. To a large extent, the Maasai live on the milk from their cattle, which means their diet is as full of fats as the diet of people living in the West.
How high can Maasai warriors jump?
Preliminary observations by Dirk Lund Christensen (personal communication) suggested jump heights of more than 50 cm during the repetitive Maasai jumping which is similar to maximal countermovement jump (CMJ) performance in elite jumping athletes in the western world (de Ruiter, Vermeulen, Toussaint, & de Haan, 2007).
Do Maasai still exist?
The most recent records say that there are 841,622 of them in Kenya and 430,000 in Tanzania. Even though the Maasai live a simple life, they still thrive in spite of our quickly developing world. In fact, their population has probably been increasing.
How old are the Maasai?
According to their oral history, the Maasai originated from the lower Nile valley north of Lake Turkana (Northwest Kenya) and began migrating south around the 15th century. They arrived to a long land mass, stretching from what is now northern Kenya to central Tanzania between the 17th and late 18th century.
Why do Maasai jump?
The adamu is part of the Eunoto ceremony, where boys transition to men. The jumping also acts as a way for men to attract brides. The higher he jumps, the more of an eligible bachelor he is, writes Maasai Tribe Facts. In the past, warriors showed their prowess by killing a lion.
How do you become a Maasai warrior?
What problems do the Maasai face?
One threat to the Maasai has come from from game hunters in the Loliondo region of northern Tanzania. Here, Maasai villages have been burnt to the ground by the authorities, and thousands have brutally evicted to provide a company, Otterlo Business Corporation Ltd (OBC), with more access to land for game hunting.
How do you pronounce Masai?
Are Maasai in Zanzibar?
The Maasai of Zanzibar The semi-nomadic pastoral Maasai live mainly in the Kenyan and Tanzanian arid rangelands.
What is the basic unit of Maasai?
Cattle represent the fundamental currency in traditional Maasai society. Families seek to accumulate large herds to demonstrate their wealth and status. They are sold and bartered in many kinds of exchanges involving goods and services.
Are there Maasai in Ethiopia?
The Maasai trace their origin back to the Nilotic strain like the Samburu, the Luo, the Turkana and the Ethiopian populations, and they originated in the Nile Valley region.
What does purple mean in Kenya?
Tea Tuesdays: Kenyan Farmers See Green In The Color Purple : The Salt Kenya has spent 25 years developing a purple “supertea” with high levels of antioxidants. The hope is that the tea will appeal to health-minded consumers and revive the country’s struggling industry.
Are the Maasai from Kenya?
The Maasai (/ˈm’ːsaɪ, m’ːˈsaɪ/) are a Nilotic ethnic group inhabiting northern, central and southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. They are among the best known local populations internationally due to their residence near the many game parks of the African Great Lakes, and their distinctive customs and dress.
Where do the Maasai get their beads?
Beads of the Maasai were traditionally made out of local products ” Bones, clay, wood, copper or brass ” those natural resources got set aside as soon as tiny glass and ceramic beads became available through trade with Europeans. Today, most of them come from the Czech republic!
Are lions afraid of Masai?
These are traditional Masai lands. Naturalist guide Andrew King’Ori who has been with us all through this Wildlife Safari trip around Kenya insists that the Masai are so strong and so skilful that lions are scared of them and will avoid them.
Is killing lions illegal?
Unfortunately, lion hunting is legal in Africa. Kenya is the first country that has banned lion hunt in 1977. But at the same time, the government of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe are the top countries that allowed the people to hunt wild animals.
Should you look a lion in the eyes?
Don’t Stare at Lions, Even From a Distance That’s just how the lions feel. Even with full tummies and half-closed eyes, they are still monitoring their territory. When you suddenly appear and stare at them as if you claim that territory, it will surely annoy them, and they might decide to chase you away or attack.
What do Pokot call their God?
Religion and beliefs The realm above was the abode of the deities: Tororot, lat (rain) and Asis (sun). The two Pokot groups have similar social and political organizational structures. Pokot men are traditionally divided into three groupings; Karachona (boys), Muren (circumcised men) and Poi (old men).
Did the Maasai originate from Egypt?
A semi-nomadic Nilotic group believed to originate from Egypt, the Maasai are predominantly pastoralists but practice small-scale agriculture in some places. They are one of the youngest ethnic groups in Tanzania, having followed the Nile River down through Kenya before reaching Tanzania roughly 300 years ago.
What do the Nandi call their God?
In traditional Nandi religion, there was no pantheon of gods and spirits, but rather a single deity called Asis or Cheptalel, and personified by the sun.