The Laikipiak Maasai

 

Paul Naiputari and his beautiful wife on their wedding day 
- in most cases nowadays young men chose who they would like to marry;
 his parents then begin the marriage negotiations. 

Paul Naiputari, the Community Development Officer and Liason Officer at Loisaba, talks to us about the Laikipiak Maasai, of which he is a member, and the challenges of combining a modern life with a traditional culture.

“The Maasai are pastoralists who inhabit a wide area of central and southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. As the name suggests, Liakipiak Maasai live in the County of Laikipia although traditionally all Maasai were nomadic. They’re probably the most well-known of all Kenyan pastoralist tribes and often featured in programmes about the Masai Mara and Serengeti National Park. There are more than twenty geographic sectors or sub tribes of the Maasai community, known as nations or ‘Loshon’, each one having its own customs, appearance, leadership and Maa dialect. The Samburu – who we featured recently through Moses – are a sub-tribe of the Maasai.”

In 2019, the Kenyan National Census estimated that there were about 1.2 million Maasai in Kenya but this may be an underestimation because of their nomadic lifestyle. From early colonialization to date, the British and to some extent the Kenyan Governments have discouraged and at times outlawed the free movement of different tribes but the Maasai have always resisted the pressure to take up a more sedentary lifestyle at the same time as campaigning for grazing rights within the national parks.

Paul adds, “The Laikipiak Maasai have become much more static due to land sub-division and the creation of Group Ranches in the 1970’s which granted title deeds with a particular acreage. More recently these areas have been designated Community Lands.”

“In Laikipia, most land is occupied by registered members so that those members have control over who comes in to look for grazing, particularly at times of drought. Accordingly most Laikipiak Maasai have established more permanent homesteads minimizing movement although stock will still be moved around during periods of drought, returning to their homesteads when the rains come” – luckily 2020 was a particularly wet year.

“I live in the Koija Group Ranch which has an acreage of 7,550 and a population of 3,000 people.”

“Nowadays, most Maasai are either Christian or Muslim, but especially during severe droughts, they still engage in rituals which relate back to their traditional monotheistic worship of the deity known as Enkai. For example, they may make a sacrifice to the Gods to ask for more rain; I still see women going to rivers and do rituals under fig trees however much they attend the churches or the mosque.”

Maasai women singing at the river.
Credit Paul Naiputari

Traditionally Maasai culture centres around cattle, the primary source of their food, which was also a measurement of a man’s wealth. The Maasai diet includes meat, raw milk, honey and raw blood from their Zebu cattle, along with meat from goats and the Red Maasai sheep. More recently with their cattle numbers dwindling and interaction with other tribes, the Maasai have grown dependent on other food such as sorghum, rice, potatoes and cabbage.

“I keep livestock not for prestige – as it used to be – but as a livelihood,” says Paul.

Nowadays, the emerging forms of employment among the Maasai people include farming, business such as the selling of traditional medicine, running restaurants and shops, selling milk products, embroidery and beadwork. Many receive wages as security guards, watchmen, tourist guides and waiters in the hospitality sector, whilst others have moved into commerce and government.

“The Maasai community, as with the Samburu, is based on age-sets. The Maasai have a naming ceremony, normally when a child is one or two years old, when the other children suggests a name for the child which is agreed upon by all and the elders bless the name to the child. Then after some years, when a boy is around 15- 16 years there is Emuratare (circumcision), after circumcision the Moranism life lasts for 13- 15 years. This period is followed by Enkiema (a wedding) where the morans are allowed to marry and become junior wazees (junior elders), and finally there is there is Eunoto (graduation to senior elder). This latter takes place in a big Emanyatta (homestead) with around 50 -100 houses with a ceremony which lasts for 2-3 months.”

Young men shortly after their circumcision ceremony
- note Naiputari's campaign t-shirt. 

Unlike the Samburu, the circumcision ceremony and warriorship of the Maasai does include the killing of a lion – although this is officially banned.

“The experience of hunting a lion allows the Maasai warriors to demonstrate their ability to fight using a non-human target, but over the last several years, due to the decline of the lion population, mainly because of rabies and canine distemper virus, the community have adapted a new rule that encourages warriors to hunt in a group. The group is known as an Olamayio and unlike solo hunting, gives the lion population the chance to grow.”

“There is established education about wildlife conservation now, and most communities have set up conservation areas within their community land – they are also seeing the benefit of scholarships, employment as rangers, tour guides and chefs; the Maasai community understands better than ever the importance of conservation but our culture remains uncertain in the face of modernism, Western religion and environmental changes. We are always under pressure to abandon our way of life and to embrace Western ways of life which are deemed to be more reliable and sustainable than ours.”

Traditionally and controversially, the girls of the Maasai community also underwent a rite of passage which involved excision [FGM] but this too is now illegal and slowly being replaced with an alternative ceremony. Instead the girls and their parents undergo a period of training about the issues concerned and are rewarded with certificates and traditional blessings. This will be described in more detail in a future post.

Young Maasai women at their alternative rite of passage ceremony.
Credit: Paul Naiputari

 
“In Koija, we have had over 300 girls so far who have undergone the training and the alternative rite of passage.”

Leaving behind old traditions, good and bad, is never easy:

“It’s a Maasai belief that ‘It takes one day to destroy a house; to build a new house will take months and perhaps years. If we abandon our way of life to construct a new one, it will take thousands of years.”

The Maasai are known for their melodic rhythmical songs, intricate jewellery, and their pierced and stretched earlobes, as well as their colourful shuka, the Maa words for a sheet traditionally worn wrapped around the body. The warriors are known for their long plaited hair which is coated in red ochre, and the exaggerated ‘jumping dance’ (adumu) that they perform at ceremonies.