The Maasai

The Maasai, originally uploaded by Benjamin Long.

(I want to be the first to point out that living in Maasailand for two months in no way makes me an expert on the Maasai. I will try to sum up what I have learned from my experiences.)

The Maasai are a cattle people who believe that all the cattle on earth belong to them. Cattle form the basis of their entire culture, being the main form of sustenance, wealth and power. The strong bond formed between the Maasai and their cattle has necessitated a semi-nomadic way of life for them as they follow the seasons in search of grass and water for their herds. This classifies the Maasai as pastoralists. Pastoralism as a whole is under threat from climate change, shifting global markets and increased competition for land and other natural resources. All of these effects are very evident in Longido.

The past few years have been increasingly difficult for the Maasai in Longido. Severe drought killed hundreds of cattle just in the last two years. Electricity is coming to Longido soon. The village is also on the Nairobi road which is becoming a vital connector for trade. With these factors combined, the land prices are rising as the village is growing. You would think that the increase of business would be a good thing but it is not. Currently, every shop, restaurant or food market in Longido is not owned by a Maasai, even though Maasai account for over 90% of the population in the area. Other tribes have moved in to exploit the less business savvy Maasai. The growing village takes up more land and water that are both precious commodities for the cattle.

The main problem taking place today is the traditional beliefs clashing with modern society. Throughout their history, the Maasai have fought to maintain their traditional way of life. Today, however, they can no longer resist the pressures of the modern world. For example, the elders would traditionally drink alcohol heavily. Traditionally, this was accepted because once they become elders their responsibilities become solely advisory. The beer did not cost anything either because it was the local brew. Today, at any given time in Longido you can find numerous elders falling over drunk. The problem arises when the traditional family structure is still enforced today. Traditionally, all of the money a man’s wives and children earn must be handed over to that man. Today, elders are still drinking heavily but beer costs money. I have witnessed a man passed out in a bar only to be wakened up by his wife to give him money to buy more beer. She probably earned this money selling extra milk or jewelry. On any given day, the wives do 95% of the manual labor, the young boys tend to the fields, the morans have to find work as night watchmen (which pays very little), and the leader of the family is often drinking away all of the money being earned by his family.

The survival of the Maasai culture has ceased to be a question, in truth, it is rapidly disappearing. The culture is in a transition phase right now which made it very hard for me to understand it upon my arrival. If you ask five Maasai the meaning of a certain ceremony, you will get five very different answers. Some Maasai have adapted better than others to modern society. Education is the first step which many have finally realized. Noonjuma (the elder that took me to orpul), for instance, has sent every one of his children to school. He pays a moran from a different family to shepherd his goats and cows during the day. This is a relatively new phenomenon that many people are adapting. It is good because the children are in the classroom instead of the fields. It is a start.

A part of me admires the Maasai culture and their conviction to try to keep it intact. I also understand that because of this conviction they have begun to suffer. Maasai boys are forced to leave their homes in search for low paying night watchman positions where there is no hope of promotion. There is some hope for the future and as I said before, education is the first step. Many have realized this and have sent their kids to school instead of the fields. It is a step in the right direction.

My Orpul

The goat meat being stored during the orpul.

originally uploaded by Benjamin Long.

I took a 2-day safari with an organization called MEDA giving out vouchers for malaria nets. We covered about 250km in two days on dirt roads and sometimes no road at all. It was eye-opening and I soon realized that Longido was a very large town rather than a tiny town which was my first impression. We visited six Maasai villages in the Longido district and many were extremely poor. Most of the have never seen a Mzungu (white person) or many cars so we drew a crowd. I was very happy to be back in Longido to start my orpul.
As you can see by my previous posts, I have been fascinated by orpul. I decided that I wanted to participate. I went to three different morans and they all laughed at me when I asked if I could orpul with them. I then asked an elder named Noonjuma. He agreed after many hours of discussion with his son as a translator. I agreed to buy a goat (a cow was too expensive) and he agreed to take me. I knew it was either a really good idea or a really bad one but I was excited.
I arrived in Longido at 5PM from the safari and headed straight for the mountain. I knew which valley my orpul was in but that was all. I wandered around and finally found them. Noonjuma and two morans, Kilusu and Daniel, had already constructed the kraal (a circular structure made of cut branches and bushes to serve as protection from wild animals) around a tree that provided protection from above. They started cooking the meat upon my arrival. It was dark soon after my arrival. I knew that I did not want to drink or eat many of the things they gave me so I strategically placed myself in the darkest corner in the kraal. Good decision. I quickly learned my goat was a male as they cook the testicles for me to eat. I discarded quietly. Then came a cup of goat blood and again, I discarded quietly. They were amazed that I would eat and drink these things but I was soon worried about the morning when my gig would be up.
Four layonis joined up during the night. I slept on a cow-hide with two morans and a layoni. I did not get much sleep. A hyena came in the middle of the night to scavenge the bones left outside. I awoke with Noonjuma already tending to the fire to scare off the hyena. I really didn’t get much sleep after that.
The day was spend eating, sleeping, eating some more and then sleeping again. They made a soup called Mtori many times. It was dreadful. I did not have the cover of darkness to discard so I had to refuse after taking a small sip. Mtori is made from water, olvera root, juices from a boiled piece of meat, blood and lots of goat fat (The used pieces of the stomach like a balloon to store the fat and to cook it) Mtori was basically boiled fat, blood and water. They each drank gallons throughout the day. I stuck to my bottled water.
News quickly spread throughout the ridges that there was a Mzungu at an orpul and all of the young layonis herding goats came to see for themselves. At one time, there were over 5 layonis with over 300 goats around our orpul. We gave all of them meat and Mtori which they devoured. We finished the goat by the end of the day. I had never eaten so much meat in all of my life. Goat meat is very bland and chewy. I learned to like it after eating it for 24 hours straight.
Living on the mountain for a day gave me a new perspective of the Maasai and their culture. I have been constantly thinking of how backwards these people are and how they can’t survive in modern society. I thought I was getting the hang of things by the end of the second day. I was using a sharpened stick to eat the meat and was getting along pretty well. Noonjuma was constantly laughing at me as I would occasionally drop a piece of meat on the ground. I drop two pieces of meat in a row and he finally took the stick from me. He sat down with his machete and a piece of firewood. In five minutes, he carved a wooden spoon for me to eat with. I learned very fast that in the bush I am the one that cannot survive. I can’t build or make anything without detailed instructions from the industrial manufacturer. The Maasai live in an arid, unfriendly environment with some of the biggest predators on the planet. I grew to respect the culture during my orpul.

Orpul (Olpul)

orpul, originally uploaded by Benjamin Long.

The orpul (also spelled olpul) is a Maasai traditional ceremony where morans (warriors) basically just eat meat. I have been to three orpuls and they have all been very different. My first orpul took place during the wedding, another on the mountain and my third was at the circumcision ceremony. The orpul is carried out by morans with a few layonis (boys not yet circumcised) present to do most of the work. An orpul can be with 2 men or 30 depending on how long the orpul will be and how many cows (Traditionally the Maasai always use cows to orpul but as the Maasai culture is changing, so are the ceremonies. Goats are sometimes substituted for cows in an orpul today.) are slaughtered. The reason for an orpul traditionally is to prepare the morans for raiding other tribes for their cattle or therapeutic reasons. The Maasai soup that is drank at an orpul is a a mixture of water, honey, and different combinations of 45 various herbs and roots grown in the area. I tried some at the big orpul on the mountain and it tasted aweful. The Maasai believe eating meat and drinking the Maasai soup with cure any illness. I have been told by my fellow teachers that the orpul can cure gonorrhea, syphilis, malaria and many other illnesses. These are men that have been to school and are considered educated telling me this. I was dumbfounded and tried to logically explain this could not be true but they just laughed at me. I asked them about aids and they conceded that it does not cure aids. They did believe it cured aids originally, but they admitted people continued to die so it was not a cure.
The big orpul that I visited was with 6 morans and 2 layonis, The morans each took one cow so there was one cow for each of them to eat. When I visited, the morans had already been in Orpul for a month and were eating their last cow. They tried to get money out of me to eat meat and to go into the orpul. I was so fed up with everyone asking me for money that I repeatedly said no. I then told them that I had cattle in America. They were amazed but I was even more amazed at theri next question. One moran replied, “Do you know 50 cent (the rapper).” I said, “Yes, I have met him.” I then started singing a 50 cent song and he was so happy and excited that he let me go in for free.(50 cent is HUGE in Africa. So big that some children are just called 50) I was trying not to laugh but it was very hard.
To break the orpul I visited down to a basic explanation: 6 men take 6 cows and 2 boys to a random point on the mountain, kill the cows, find the herbs and roots to put in water, and just eat meat. When I ask, “What do you do here for month?” They just look at me confused and say “We eat meat!” The men will stay there and not leave until they have finished eating all of the meat from all 6 cows. It is believed to make them strong in order to carry out their duties as a moran. Today, the morans no longer raid other tribes or take care of the cattle. As with most Maasai traditions, the orpul is mostly ceremonial.

1 Month

In Kimokouwa, originally uploaded by Benjamin Long.

It has been over a month now living in Longido. I have learned to appreciate simple pleasures in the absence of the amenities we take for granted in America. There is no running water so a shower is cold bucket of water once a week and toilets are out-houses or wherever you are at the time. It is amazing how good a warm Coke can taste after a long day and if was a bad day then a warm beer. These are a few of the many daily activities that keep me going.
I have been teaching 2nd grade Maasai children mathematics. Teaching children math is hard enough but when you combine the other variables; English is their second language, I am one of the only Mzungus (white people) they have ever seen, I refuse to hit them which is how every other teacher maintains discipline, and the education system itself is backwards, it is a very long morning in the classroom.
The first day the children were trying to add something like 155+270 and after grading their papers, I took a survey of who could add 2+2. Only about 10% knew that 2+2=4. We started all over again and am proud to say that after a month they are much improved in addition and subtraction.
I have good days and bad days. Whenever I think I understand something or have seen everything, I am brought back down to reality very quickly. I was handling the extreme culture shock reasonably well until I had a serious reality check this weekend. I slept in a temporary boma and went to a two-day circumcision ceremony and finally began to understand what was happening around me. I had to leave the boma multiple times to try to hold back tears.
Summation of the month: I have felt my first 7 earthquakes, descended 140m into ruby mines, watched countless African sunsets that are breathtaking, successfully stopped two attempted thefts, fell victim to robbery (from my room and I have since moved), dealt with my first corrupt government immigration official, seen giraffes, zebras, Thompson gazelle, gerenuk, greater kudu, monkeys, ostriches and baboons, seen the night sky in the southern hemisphere where the Milky Way is dominant and shooting stars are very frequent with some so big they end in giant balls of fire, been constantly depressed but quickly bounce back with my amazement and wonder of Africa I have seen and done a lot in a month. I will try to make separate posts for different topics in an attempt to explain everything the best I can. I can’t upload many pictures because the internet is very bad. There are hundreds just waiting on my camera so they will be posted in a couple months.

Everything and I mean everything revolves around COWS!!!

Everything and I mean everything revolves around COWS!!!, originally uploaded by Benjamin Long.

Every aspect of Maassai culture is influenced by cattle. The entire social structure is based on the herding, milking, protection and management of cattle. A Maasai man will have cattle, goats and donkeys. Donkeys are viewed as a "car" as they carry water and sick people, goats are just viewed as meat, and cows are the currency. They do not invest in land, houses, banks, any kind of exchange market or even businesses. If they need money they sell a cow and any extra money goes back into buying more cows. The number of cows represents the man's status within society and his wealth. If a man has 50 cows but a very nice house he is considered poorer than a man with a 100 cows and no house. This is based solely on the number of cattle he owns.
To be considered successful in Maasai culture you must own as many cows as possible. The more cows you have then the more wives you can afford and need. The Maasai are polygamists have usually as many wives as they can afford. The man needs more wives in order to milk all of the cows that he owns because that is a “woman’s job”. A major problem arises because each wife must have many children as it is custom. Most wives will have between 6 to 10 children. The “richest” man in Longido that I have heard of has about 1,000 cows, ??? goats, 10 wives and 80 children. The “richest” man I have heard of in Maasailand has 6,000 cows, 10,000 goats, 15 wives and over a 1,000 children. They are both living the “Maasai Dream.”
All marriages are arranged traditionally with a dowry being paid by the groom-to–be to the bride’s father, of course, in cows. There is no set number of cows paid as the amount is negotiated. Let us say for now the men negotiate 10 cows to be paid as a dowry. There will be a down payment of the negotiated amount of cows. In this case, let use say 5 cows as a down payment. After the bride produces the agreed number of children, the remaining portion of the dowry will be paid. If she does not produce the set number of children, then the remaining cows are not paid or it is again negotiated. The system perpetuates itself with there always being too many children that cannot be supported. So, they run around with a single piece of cloth wrapped around their bodies.
Things are changing slowly with the next generation moving away from some of the traditional beliefs and customs but many still want to be the grandest cattle herder of all with the most wives and children to go along with it.