Maasai culture and mythology

Broadswordbabe

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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.
 

Beanie5

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Thought they might be jewish can't quite remember the story. ( they jump up a lot and they need a cow before they can marry they might also drink cows blood my memories hazy, its slowly coming back , killing a lion single handed was a thing though that might be fading now)
 
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bombergirl69

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well, if you find a good source, let me know! Spent a month or so hiking around the Masai Mara, the first week with a Maasai, "sopa!" they call out. "Ipa!" is the response. "Olay sere!" (can't spell it!) is goodbye and "ashay olang" is thanks so much. The language is incredibly hard, but, thankfully, most speak swahili which is a million times easier. We used both (but can't remember shit for Maasai!)I do remember the stories of them growing to manhood, and killing a lion is one of the things the men do, but not so much anymore (one did kill a hyena who was pulling someone out of their tent, though) They wear their beautiful red blankets, leaning on their spears - tend to be tall and thin and men and women are gorgeous!! I think still nomadic, traveling with their cattle. And never saw them eat the cattle--they pricked the neck and got blood which they mixed with milk...yum!! < ------ not! They eat a ton of goat, if they can, and use every thing - meat hide, hooves. They live in bomas - enclosures that included their livestock and thatched huts. I suspect you will find lots about the manhood rituals (circumcision, living in the woods and all that) - but they are not Samburu (the guys who jump) They are related though, and as I remember the language is similar. Wish I remembered more so I hope you find (and share!) great resources.

I was in Kenya first with an outdoors group - climbing, hiking, sailing - then when back when my partner (Kikuyu) was doing his doctoral research on the coast, stayed with his fam and traveled - and loved Maasailand

still see them as we hiked - tall, long strides, with their red blankets, and spears - sopa! Ipa! :) Good luck!!! Hope you find good stuff! Whatever you're writing, if it involves the Maasai, I bet it's really interesting!
 

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Hope you find interesting stuff - I myself have a slightly obscure mythology question - & if by any chance I hear anything that might be useful to you, I'll pass it on.
 

Chris P

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A quick search on Amazon turns up quite a few books. I think your challenge might be to find authentic Maasai mythology amid a lot of newer stories based on "things that sound like things they would say." If you're looking for something more scholarly have you tried Google Scholar? These will be thick sociology studies, and therefore quite dry but might be more authentic.

When is your story set, and how real-life do you want to get? In recent years, the Maasai have been widely criticized and are not well thought of by other East Africans (it's claimed they want to benefit from infrastructure advances such as cell phone networks, water projects and highways, but refuse to pay taxes and stick to their traditional lifestyle purely to profit off tourists). We didn't have many Maasai in Uganda where I lived for two years, but they were regarded as "backwards" at best, and heathen criminals at worst. If your story is modern, that could introduce an added depth to the story.
 

Broadswordbabe

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Thanks, everyone! It's fantasy, set in the 1800's, for a Thing. I really just want some authentic details and to avoid doing anything horribly offensive/outright wrong. Bombergirl, that sounds like an amazing trip! And Chris P, thank you for the Google Scholar rec. I didn't (shame on me) even know that was a thing.
 

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Ah, for 1800s, you might look to biographies of David Livingstone (although he was farther south) for a general feel of Africa at that time. I also recently read John Hanning Speke's "Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile." He doesn't encounter the Maasai very much, but he was near their territory in Tanzania. Speke carries his 19th century British worldview with him, so try to weedle some of that out and look for the authentic parts, such as kingdom structure. The Source of the Nile book is free on Gutenberg.org. There were dozens of explorers at that time, and many of their books are probably in the public domain by now. Not recent, like you requested, but first-hand.
 

bombergirl69

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I definitely wouldn't get into judging the Maasai as "backward." They are real nomadic pastoralists and have been forever. Much like Natives here, they have had their lands screwed with by the Brits over and over (< ---- fixing by request of Mod, Natives here were/are screwed by a variety of nationalities, not just Brits, certainly. Sorry that wasn't clear!! :). ) Maasai do not hang on to their traditional ways to "make money off the tourists" but because that's how they've done it forever. tourism, while great in many ways, really jeopardizes their lifestyle. And yes, it's complicated. The parks are terrific and protect the animals (yay!) but were in many cases established without the participation of local folks (Maasai) or consideration for the impact on their lifestyle (not so yay.) And the Maasai have seen great shrinking of their land.

My ex's best friend is Maasai (has a Phd, head of some agency over there--hardly considered "backwards" by anyone!) and he also supports many traditional ways, but sees it's a real challenge to integrate them with the demands of modern society. In very arid times (like now, as I recall) things get VERY tense as they hunt for water for their cattle.Their lifestyle--move, let the land recover--is not particularly compatible with tourism (particularly tourism related to animals) and development.

I doubt it will impact your story, but it's not really possible to discuss tribes currently without understanding the political environment (different heads of state come from particular tribes and have certainly pursued policies beneficial to those tribes.) Like I said, I don't know about 1800s, but probably there would have been some conflict between Maasai and their their agriculturalist neighbors (Kikuyu, Luo) They do circumcise and it's a very Big Deal. As I remember, it's 12/13- 16/17 and it marks becoming a man and warrior, proving one's self. The history is that women do this too (differently) but not so much these days. In fact, to speak to the "backwards" thing, some look down on any tribe that does not circumcise (men), considered not clean, not brave.
 
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Chris P

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Just to be clear: these aren't my opinions of the Maasai, but those of some people in the area. Just like any stereotype, it contributes to tensions and perceptions a member of that group might experience. The examples bombergirl69 listed are equally valid and would inform that person's experience just as much, or (hopefully) more.

ETA: There are no experiences, positive or negative, that MUST be included in a story. For example, if I were to write about a white American in Africa, I would not need to include all possible experiences, as I didn't experience everything other white Americans in my group experienced. Make your character experience what he or she needs to experience for the story :)
 
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bombergirl69

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Right. I was just pointing out that I don't think "most East Africans" view Maasai as either "heathen criminals" or "backwards." Could some? Sure. But that is not a common view and not in the social communities with which i'm familiar (which are not white communities, so maybe that's the issue? Maybe that's how whites in Uganda view them?). I didn't even know there was much of a Maasai presence in Uganda.

Definitely go with what a story needs but the Maasai have a very proud history. They have been seen as fierce. Warriors are revered. I would think (for sure, research it!) in the early-mid 1800s that would still be quite true (brits started screwing them later 1800s) They have always lived with the land and have lost so much of it (and suffered all sorts of shit - rinderpest, various illnesses and so on) and yet, they are survivors (and have a terrific sense of humor! :) )

Just adding that again, I am NOT familiar with Uganda! I have no idea how things are perceived there--only familiar with (a little) Kenya and (a little) Tanzania.
 
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Chris P

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It was certain pro-development voices among the Ugandans who voiced these opinions. You're right, the Maasai are rare in Uganda. The Karamojong, on the other hand, are pastoral cattle herders in the northeast, and are held in low regard by those who also disparage the Maasai. I think there might be an ancestral connection between the Karamojong and the Maasai, but I can't say that for sure. Their detractors believe such groups hold back development. The Karamoja region is the least developed in Uganda, receives the least government aid, and some whisper that this is on purpose to drive them all into Kenya and South Sudan.

Not fair and not right, no more valid than any criticism of any group, and well off the OP's topic. But an interesting discussion no less. :)
 

Broadswordbabe

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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.
 

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I can weigh in some here on the local conditions. I'm not trying to sound like a smarty pants, but I love any opportunity to reflect on the experience.

As a native of temperate climates, I was surprised at how penetrating the sun was. You can feel it soak in! I lived five miles north of the Equator, and the sun rises a bit before 7 am and sets about 7 pm all year long. The onset of darkness doesn't change very much through the year but the sun angle does. This changes the farther you get from the Equator. I'm sure Weather Underground or something can give you sun rise/set times for whichever location you choose. It also gets dark fast because unlike farther north or south, the sun doesn't skirt along the horizon; it just goes straight down. The mornings were still and humid, then breezier and less humid from about 10 am to just before sundown, when it becomes still again. It can get dusty during the dry season, but they don't usually have dust storms unless there is a drought or in the deserts. Maasai live in grassier areas, so dust isn't likely a problem, especially in the 1800s before large-scale agriculture came in (which the Maasai didn't adopt anyway). Depending on elevation, it can get downright cold. Lake Victoria where I lived is at about 3700 feet, so it never got hot-hot (rarely much over 30 C), and I occasionally needed a jacket in the morning. Karatu District in Tanzania, not far from Maasai country, at 5000 feet it was uncomfortably chilly some mornings in June when I was there. The rain usually comes in downpours lasting no more than an hour, and it hailed a few times. There isn't often much wind in the rain (except in the hail cases) and some lightning and thunder but not like I saw growing up in the Midwest. There were usually white puffy clouds, and only rarely overcast or rarely completely clear. For the smells, it was usually nondescript plant/grassland/woods smells, or slightly metallic dustiness. In settlements, it mostly smelled like wood smoke due to the cooking fires. As for food, I'll defer to the historic first-hand accounts, as the ugali (corn meal mush) Tanzanians and Kenyans eat today is from corn, a New World crop that might not have made it over there or been common by the time your story takes place. Swahili (more properly Kiswahili) wasn't a lingua franca in Tanzania until the 1960s with Julius Nyerere, so although the traders spoke it, it was probably less known than it is today. Obviously, the Maasai would have spoken their tribal language at home (as they still do) and the neighboring groups would have spoken theirs (as they still do) instead of Kiswahili (sorry, this is a trope I HATE: that everyone across Africa speaks Swahili). At the time your story takes place, the locals would have practiced local animist religions or Islam; evangelization to Christianity came in with the Europeans most typified by David Livingstone.

Let me know if there are other details you'd like to know.
 

Beanie5

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Kilamanjaro is a great setting.
 

bombergirl69

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I will try to dig out some pics if I can. Again, not familiar with Uganda at all but the Maasai Mara (and Maasai land in general)is very arid. There are broad, broad vistas of open country, dotted with acacia trees. The dirt is red. It is very, very dry and dusty. There is dust everywhere, on every thing. As one gets a little higher, there are rolling hills/foothills, where, if there have been rains, it could be lusher. We hiked up into the mountains (no cows up there) and it was jungle like, but on the plains, where the Maasai tend their animals, dry and arid. I have a million images of the deep blue sky, and red road before us, with here and there pairs of Maasai, in their blazing red blankets, coming towards us - Sopa! Ipa!

As far as language, it's true that not everyone on the continent of Africa speaks Swahili, but it is definitely the lingua franca of East Africa - Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Research this, but as I remember Swahili started on the coast (traders - lots of Arabic word in Swahili AND Bantu), and was brought inland, I think, largely by missionaries (and traders) So by the 1800s, it might be reasonable, if there were missionaries, to think that Swahili might be introduced. Not sure but certainly today everyone (almost all) speak Swahili (as a second or third language to their tribal languages.) And not unreasonable that they speak a little of other tribal languages as well - my ex spoke Kikuyu, Kamba, Kiswahili and English (and a smattering of a few others) His Maasai friend spoke five or six.

Also for helplful images, you might look up Narok, or Loitoktok, both in Maasai land and can give you a general sense of that red dirt and acacia trees. As I mentioned circumcision is a Very Big Deal, which you might research. While they didn't eat any cattle that I saw (they do mix the blood and milk for a drink), they eat goat, but use the skin and hooves - the whole animal. Goat meat is very popular. The ugali is basically thick boiled corn meal, flavorless, and served with a stew of some kind. Of course, chapatis (their bread) is now popular as well but not sure of it's history!

Also for your story, you might research Maasai and Kikuyu, or Maasai and Luo and see what their relationships have been (two neighboring tribes, and there are others)

I'll see if I can find pics but there are images under Narok and Loitoktok! :)
 
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M Louise

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I liked what Bombergirl said and some of it echoeswhat I experienced while going to school in Nairobi and staying on the coast in Malindi, travelling around Kenya. But cultural tourism or expat experience isn't enough here. Maasai culture is changing as the younger generation move to cities and newer understandings around semi-nomadic pastoral practice and eco-conservation are implemented. Some of the ethnic 'mythology' conjectures given above are not just outdated and wrong but culturally offensive and I wouldn't go near a subject like this with only Western or expat versions of such a complex culture: the Kenyan writer Henry Ole Kulet is from a Maasai background and has written about the struggle of the Maasai to embrace modernity in post-independent Kenya.

It's worth remembering too (*sensitivity alert*) that exotising and projecting Western fantasies onto Africa is not acceptable in contemporary fiction. Anyone who wants to write about Africa should start with Binyavanga Wainaina's satiric How to Write About Africa and then do some immersive reading in Kenyan novelists and thinkers writing about their own country's history and present.
 

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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. My partner was doing a lot of work out of Garissa (very scary when I was there--right on the Somalia border) Spent time in Malindi and Mombassa (and south as well) and yes things are indeed changing --- > a whole complicated concept in itself (is "development" a plus? For some? Not for others? Should they be sacrificed? The Orma--near the Tana River--come to mind) Probably not related to how it was in the 1800s but still relevant for anyone who's been/loves the place! :)
 

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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 was there in December and I am an extreme lover of the sun. Even so, I was surprised by just how SUN it was...even for me. I stayed in Massai Mara for a few days and was fortunate enough to have our plane (a 6 seater) make a detour landing because it was National Independence day and air traffic to Nairobi was shut down during the festivities...so I got to spend an extra day in a Massai village. It was 2009 and they said they were having a drought at the time. It was hot and dry. It actually registered over 40 on a few of the days I was there. It was very dusty...when I was on safari, you can see signs of animals and other vehicles for miles, because of the dust. And it always gets dark early. And it doesn't casually get dark...it's a harsh transition. It's light/it's dark. And the dark is a different dark. It's complete. I remember we did a poetry reading on the island of Manda. We had this forehead lamplight thing...and we were like, why would we need this. It went from one reader not needing it to the next reader absolutely positively requiring it. The whole time I was in Kenya, from the moment I landed in Nairobi, there was this god-awful smell every now and again. I knew it was one of the trees, but I also knew nobody I asked could tell me which one. Because once you're in it for a bit, the smell becomes you and you stop noticing it. In Maasai it smelled lovely almost all the time, but I do not know what caused the smell. I just thought of it as the smell of the area...the way it smelled. Sorry, I can't help you there. It smelled fragrant and I knew I would miss the smell forever. In the Maasai village I was in, it smelled like smoke and dung and maybe soap? In the village I visited on the day our plane was grounded...the villagers spoke in their tribal language, but they could also speak English and Kiswahili. At the time, I had picked up enough Kiswahili to struggle badly but passably with it...but they were like people in every other country I ever visited...obliging and attempting to go English to bridge the gap. In Maasai Mara, I always felt like I could see forever...even when the horizon was in front of me. It was just so vast. My favourite sound was the running of hooves when a group of animals got spooked and ran. There were herds and herds of everything all about me on safari. They said it was a harsh drought and that they had lost many herds...but I couldn't imagine more animals than what I witnessed.
 
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bombergirl69

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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) :)
 

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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) :)

We were taken to an outdoor restaurant in the Ngong Hills...Olepolos Country Club. It was fantastic. We were served goat from the outside in. First round was meat with bones in...second round was all the insides...more adventurous, but I throw caution to the wind when travelling and try every single thing. Also went to Carnivore. I found a lot of the food across Kenya was either familiar or not too unfamiliar. There was a lot of Ethiopian cuisine.
 

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Hi bombergirl, yes I have been to Lamu many times, extraordinary place and also changed and changing.

I don't want to come across as discouraging imaginative fiction about travel to East Africa or Latin America or Asia. But it's important to be aware about Othering and the context of so many Western tropes. And it is so easy to get it wrong, to show disrespect to a culture, to turn people from another culture into caricatures, even unintentionally. Indepth understanding can't be Googled.
 

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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.

I went to Lamu. And Matondoni. I absolutely fell in love with Lamu. Its coordinates are tattooed on my back, along with the phrase PolePole. It was a magical place to spend Christmas.
 

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oh you're hardly discouraging! And "othering" is/can be so complex. Would a white person have been able to write, say, Fool's Crow (an outstanding historical novel about the Blackfeet)? Tropes are tropes. And of course, to use the Montana example, there ARE ranches (and presumably widows and sad cowboys!) so is it NEVER okay to write about, or...?

I can think of at least two white writers who I know plenty of (nonwhite) Kenyan friends found really offensive. One writes mostly about S Africa (lots of swashbuckling epics but the non white characters are really, really, REALLY stereotyped) and the other wrote about Kenya's Mau Mau uprising (but an older book) bt there are those who do get it better (Nadine Gordimer would be one I think, I don't know how Doris Lessing, older, is perceived)

And I very much agree that expat/experiences in East Africa are not the same!

I am really enjoying the discussion (although I suspect we've wandered a bit from 19th c Maasai!!) and will likely contact my ex and his family (we're still friends!) Loved my time there, although there plenty of "cultural moments" some funny and some not.