Traditional Maasai Village

During our time in Maasai Mara we visited a traditional Maasai village. The village was composed of approximately 12 huts all belonging to members of the same family. The huts are made of cow dung and contain a room for the baby cows to sleep in and another one for the people to sleep in. The Maasai people live a very simple life and have little desire for many expensive possessions. They are herders and survive by raising cattle and sheep. The men take the cattle and sheep out to graze during the day while the women build the homes, find water, prepare food, raise the children, make clothing, and do essentially all of the hard labor. When a young man from the village wants to marry he takes a dowry of cattle to a neighboring village to purchase his wife (You can guess how I feel about this). In the past he would kill a lion to demonstrate his manliness and readiness to marry, however, due to conservation efforts that practice has since been abandoned.

The Maasai have been quite successful at maintain their cultural traditions. They still practice many traditional dances, customs, and celebrations. One such custom, female genital mutilation (fgm), still perseveres, despite the fact that it is outlawed in Kenya. Our Maasai guide in the village told us that even though he personally feels the practice should be abandoned it is still important for him to marry a woman who has gone through the Maasai initiation ceremony, in which fgm is the central tenet. This inherent contradiction is a good example of one of the barriers that prevent change.

The villagers we met were very friendly and eager to share information about their culture. They performed traditional dances for us, including the infamous jumping dance. The men were adorned in their Maasai color (red) and ornate jewelry. Some Maasai cut their ears and reshape them over a painful one month process such that there is a flap of outer skin which hangs down and is separated from the rest of the ear. Our guide told us that the process sounded too painful for him.

Nikki didn't throw up in the village so we gave her a gold star.









The Maasai men showed us how they made fire with sticks and elephant dung.