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Maasai Heritage Culture And Origin

November 23, 2023By admin

Origin, Migration and Assimilation

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.

Settlement in East Africa

The Maasai territory reached its largest size in the mid-19th century, and covered almost all of the Great Rift Valley and adjacent lands, from Mount Marsabit in the north to Dodoma in the south. At this time the Maasai, as well as the larger Nilotic group they were part of, raised cattle as far east as the Tanga coast in Tanganyika (now mainland Tanzania). Raiders used spears and shields, but were most feared for throwing clubs (orinka) which could be accurately thrown from up to 70 paces (well over 100 yards).

Starting with a 1904 treaty, and followed by another in 1911, Maasai lands in Kenya were reduced by 60 percent when the British evicted them to make room for settler ranches, subsequently confining the Maasai to present-day Samburu, Laikipia, Kajiado and Narok districts.

Maasai in Tanganyika (now mainland Tanzania) were displaced from the fertile lands between Mount Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro, and most of the fertile highlands near Ngorongoro in the 1940s. More land was taken to create wildlife reserves and national parks: Amboseli National Park, Nairobi National Park, Maasai Mara, Samburu National Reserve, Lake Nakuru National Park and Tsavo in Kenya; and Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tarangire^[22] and Serengeti National Park in Tanzania.

Maasai are pastoralist and have resisted the urging of the Tanzanian and Kenyan governments to adopt a more sedentary lifestyle. They have demanded grazing rights to many of the national parks in both countries.

Maasai land now has East Africa’s finest game areas. Maasai society never condoned trafficking of human beings, and outsiders looking for people to enslave avoided the Maasai.

The Maasai 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. The Maasai speak the Maa language. Some have become educated in the official languages of Kenya and Tanzania, Swahili and English. The Maasai population has been reported as numbering 841,622 in Kenya in the 2009 census, compared to 377,089 in the 1989 census.

The Maasai people stood against slavery and lived alongside most wild animals with an aversion to eating game and birds.

Bead Working

Done by women, bead working has a long history among the Maasai, who articulate their identity and position in society through body ornaments and body painting. Visitors to the Enjoolata Center can watch and interact with the Maasai women making traditional jewelry and other beaded items.

Before contact with Europeans, the beads were produced mostly from local raw materials. White beads were made from clay, shells, ivory, or bone. Black and blue beads were made from iron, charcoal, seeds, clay or horn. Red beads came from seeds, woods, gourds, bone, ivory, copper or brass.

When late in the nineteenth century, great quantities of brightly colored European glass beads arrived in Southeast Africa, bead workers replaced the older beads with the new materials and began to use more elaborate color schemes. Currently, dense, opaque glass beads with no surface decoration and a naturally smooth finish are preferred.

Shelter

As an historically nomadic and then semi-nomadic people, the Maasai have traditionally relied on local, readily available materials and indigenous technology to construct their housing. The traditional Maasai house was designed for people on the move and was thus very impermanent in nature.

Constructed by able-bodied women, the houses are either somewhat rectangular shaped with extensions, or are circular.

The structural framework is formed of timber poles fixed directly into the ground and interwoven with a lattice of smaller branches, called wattle. The wattle is then plastered with a mix of mud, sticks, grass, cow dung, human urine, and ash. The cow dung ensures that the roof is waterproof. The home pictured – enkaj or engaji – is small, measuring about 10 x 15 feet and standing only five feet high. Within this space, the family cooks, eats, sleeps, socializes, and stores food, fuel, and other household possessions. Small livestock are also often accommodated within the enkaji.

Villages are enclosed in a circular fence (an enkang) built by the men, usually of thorned acacia, a native tree. At night, all cows, goats, and sheep are placed in an enclosure in the center, safe from wild animals.

At the Enjoolata Center, visitors can experience life in a traditional Maasai compound, and see how homes are built today just as they have been for generations.

Music and Dance

Maasai music traditionally consists of rhythms provided by a chorus of vocalists singing harmonies while a song leader, or olaranyani, sings the melody. The olaranyani is usually the singer who can best sing that song, although several individuals may lead a song.

The olaranyani begins by singing a line or title (namba) of a song. The group will respond with one unanimous call in acknowledgment, and the olaranyani will sing a verse over the group’s rhythmic throat singing. Each song has its specific namba structure based on call-and-response. Common rhythms are variations of 5/4, 6/4 and 3/4 time signatures. Lyrics follow a typical theme and are often repeated verbatim over time. Neck movements accompany singing. When breathing out, the head is leaned forward. The head is tilted back for an inward breath. Overall the effect is one of polyphonic syncopation. Unlike most other African tribes, Maasai widely use drone polyphony.

Women chant lullabies, humming songs, and songs praising their sons. Nambas, the call-and-response pattern, is repetition of nonsense phrases and monophonic melodies. Repeated phrases following each verse are sung on a descending scale, and singers responding to their own verses are characteristic of singing by females. When many Maasai women gather together, they sing and dance among themselves.

Visitors to Basecamp will have several opportunities to observe and enjoy these traditional songs and dances, performed by Maasai men and women.

Preserving the Culture of Cattle, Sustainably

Traditionally a Maasai man’s wealth and status was determined by his number of cattle and number of children. We are training herders about grazing practices so that grazing is sustainable and the eco-system is healthy. We are also encouraging better cattle genetics, with herders attaining same value with less cattle. The improved quality means cows can be sold directly to safari camps for meat. These efforts help to preserve and sustain the core of the Maasai culture, which is cattle.

COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT AND DEVELOPMENT

Controlling Female Genital Mutilation During Holidays

November 9, 2023By admin

Female genital mutilation is a practice deeply rooted in cultural traditions around the world. The World Health Organisation defines it as comprising all procedures that involve removal of parts of the external female genital organs for non-medical reasons.

The cut is practised for various reasons. Some communities use it as a rite of passage. Some see it as a way of enhancing hygiene and aesthetics, sexual maturity, marriageability and social belonging.

In Kenya, girls are mostly subjected to the cut during the school holidays. They have a long period away from school and hence perceived to have time to heal from the procedure without scrutiny. There is an increased risk for girls during the long holidays as schools in Kenya have closed for about two months, from 25 November 2022 to 23 January 2023.

Female genital mutilation was officially recognised as a form of violence against women and a violation of human rights in the 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women. Ending it contributes to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal targets. In 2012, the UN General Assembly designated 6 February as the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation.

Kenya is a party to, and has ratified, the convention on female genital mutilation, alongside others that focus on the rights of women and children. The country has enacted the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act of 2011. This law has provided a good environment for programmes and development of policies for 22 hotspot counties.

The Kenya Demographic and Health Survey puts the prevalence of female genital mutilation in Kenya at 21% of women aged 15-49 in 2014. The prevalence is higher among the Somali (94%), Samburu (86%), Kisii (84%) and Maasai (78%).

In 2019, former president Uhuru Kenyatta pledged to put an end to female genital mutilation in Kenya by 2022 and concerted efforts executed by government and other stakeholders have advanced the fight to end this vice. The COVID pandemic slowed the implementation of intervention programmes to end the practice.

Amref Health Africa (and its associated Amref International University) has for a number of years worked to end female genital mutilation through community-centred interventions and evidence generation. One of its promising interventions is the community-led alternative rite of passage which supports girls to undergo the transition without being cut.

To investigate the effectiveness of this alternative rite of passage, we commissioned an impact study in 2019. The study focused on the Maasai of Kajiado County in Kenya – one of the female genital mutilation hotspots – where this intervention was tried for 10 years.

The study found that the intervention had a positive impact. It contributed to reducing the prevalence of female genital mutilation. Early and forced marriage of children, as well as teenage pregnancies, also dropped.

Amref hopes this evidence will help to accelerate efforts towards abandonment of the practice and especially among communities that practice it as a rite of passage, from childhood to adulthood.

Alternative rite

The alternative rite was designed and created by teams which include community gatekeepers, cultural and religious elders, reformed cutters and administrative officials of counties. Women and men are also involved.

Community members are involved in the alternative rites to ensure that:

the initiative is community-driven
only girls who have not been exposed to female genital mutilation are selected
positive aspects of the ritual are included
the girl child is protected.

The teams select girls to undergo the alternative rite of passage. The ceremony takes four to five days. This model offers an alternative to ritual cutting but seeks to retain the positive aspects of cultural rituals and celebrations around womanhood.

The new ritual combines aspects of the traditional ceremony with educational components of sexual and reproductive health, human rights and gender norms.

The programme supports girls’ self esteem and ability to exercise their power.

Positive impact

To date alternative rites of passage ceremonies have been held for over 20,000 girls.

The female genital mutilation prevalence rates declined by 24.2 percentage points, from a mean of 80.8% before the alternative rite rollout, to 56.6% afterwards (between 2009 and 2019). In addition, the intervention contributed to an increase in schooling years for girls by 2.5 years, from an average of 3.1 to 5.6 years.

The study shows that the rate of forced marriages – which was growing at an average rate of 1.2% – has now declined by 6.1%, representing an overall drop of 7.3 percentage points.

Similarly, teenage pregnancy – which was rising by 1.5% annually, has declined by 6.3% over the last 10 years. This represents a 7.8 percentage point drop.

Through this intervention, Amref is able to create an enabling environment that promotes girls’ protection against the cut. It also reduces teenage pregnancies and child marriage while increasing girls’ chances of getting a formal education.

Amref is now collaborating with the Maasai community in redesigning and strengthening the alternative rite.

The digital tracking tool

As a result of consultative meetings with communities and stakeholders, the need arose to ensure that the girls remained protected and uncut. Amref has developed and piloted a digital tool to keep track of the alternative rite’s girls. It enables Amref to follow up on the health, education and socio-economic welfare of the girls, working closely with community health workers and teachers.

The tool has already provided some preliminary data on young girls tracked retrospectively, to be monitored up to the age of 25 years. It will keep being improved for wider rollout in the future too.

Creating a database of the alternative rite beneficiaries and their families is useful. This enables us to follow up on their progress after the training and thereby ensuring child protection through ensuring that they remain in school and are not subjected to the cut. This way, we are able to provide psychological support and engage the girls for community activities such as school clubs and inter-generational dialogues.

ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE

What Impact is Climate Change having in Kenya

October 17, 2023By admin

Widespread warming has been observed over Kenya since 1960. There is little precipitation data available for Kenya, but there is some limited evidence for decreasing precipitation between 1960 and 2003, the period for which some data is available.

Climate scientists use complex computer simulation models to predict what the likely effect of rising global average temperatures might be on specific regions. It is very hard to predict accurately as there are lots of factors that can influence climate and local weather, but these studies can help to provide some indication of future trends.

General trends predicted in Kenya

• Decreased yields of the most important staple crops, maize and beans.

• Increased food security problems over the next 40 years.

• Future water availability is uncertain:

• There may be increased rainfall in the rainy season leading to flooding.

• Some models predict an increase in summer rainfall across East Africa as a whole and others predict a decrease in summer rainfall in Kenya particularly.

Climate impacts on the environment

Climate change in Kenya and across East Africa has led to more frequent droughts. These have caused wild animals, such as lions and elephants, to wander further in search of water and food. Lions have then come into conflict with humans when they kill sheep and goats in the villages near the national parks.Elephants have also been known to trample food crops when searching for food and water.

Climate impacts on society

Climate change is affecting the traditional way of life of some of the semi-nomadic tribes in Kenya, such as the Maasai and Samburu. These people keep livestock, such as cattle, goats, sheep and camels. During the dry season the Maasai and Samburu men take the animals away from the homestead in search of fresh pasture. Climate change has caused the dry season to begin earlier and extend longer than usual, meaning the men and animals are away from home for even longer periods of time. This makes it harder for the women and children left behind to feed themselves with the animals gone.

Climate impacts on the economy

If climate change endangers wildlife it could damage Kenya’s tourist industry, since wildlife safaris are a major part of country’s appeal for many tourists. On a local scale, reduced yields of staple crops, such as maize and beans will damage the local economy. When farmers cannot produce any surplus crops to sell they cannot afford to buy other provisions, such as clothes, food or fuel and so other small businesses will suffer too.