Hi folks - haven't been active in a while - sorry to jump right in with a request for help! I'm looking for good, preferably recent, sources on Maasai culture - particularly mythology.
Thanks so much for all this. I've already found some interesting stuff. Bombergirl, if you'd be willing to talk a bit about your physical experiences of the landscape, or if you could point me to a really good written descriptions that would be fab. I've seen film, but I've never been to that part of the world and have no idea of what it sounds/smells/feels like.
I disagree a tiny bit 9not that it matters) with the How to write about Africa. Totally agree about tropes and obviously, the more you know, the better! And I know y ex got really peeved when people talked about "Africa" like it was one place ("I was in Africa and here's how they... In Africa, they...) Yes, like anything else, keeping it about what one knows is good advice!!!
But, there ARE places on the continent that are rolling grassy hills! (and of course, plenty that aren't) There can be very big red sunsets. People do eat goat (and cheeseburgers and whatever else but in rural areas, goat was/is really popular, so popular that my ex and his friends used to have goat roasts in the US, got the goat, dispatched it, the whole deal) there ARE nightclubs, (Carnivore in N'bi comes to mind, but plenty of them around outside N'bi as well) Those things ARE real.
experiences.
It certainly brings up writing about "other" (if in fact, one is) My husband is Blackfeet and has plenty of thoughts about how people write about Natives (and Montana, f or that matter--make sure you have a-very attractive-widow losin' the ranch and a gorgeous--but troubled--cowboy, Natives are warrior studs who speak broken English but have a mystical understanding of all things natural, etc)
Malindi! Did you get up to Lamu (was my most favorite place on the planet!!!) spent a lot of time there and in a very small village called Matondoni.