The Maasai are a unique and popular tribe. It owes its popularity to the culture and traditions passed down from generation to generation. Despite the influence of civilization, the people are faithful to the ancient way of life, thanks to which they have become a symbol of Kenyan culture.
Representatives of the tribe against the background of their possessions.
The Maasai live along the borders of two countries - Kenya and Tanzania. According to various estimates, their number varies from 900 thousand to a million. They speak the Maa language, which originated in northern Africa.
The map shows the approximate distribution of the Maasai.
History of the Maasai Tribe
Their ancestors are believed to have first appeared in northern Africa, later migrating south along the Nile Valley and arriving in northern Kenya in the mid-15th century. They continued to move south, conquering all the tribes along the way. By the end of their journey, the Maasai owned almost all the lands in the Rift Valley and the surrounding areas between the Marsabit and Dodoma mountains. Here they settled and took up cattle breeding.
They look at the endless expanses of the savannah.
The number of decorations is an indicator of wealth.
Maasai traditions
The warrior cult has a very great value at the tribe. From childhood to adolescence, young boys learn to be men and warriors. The role of a warrior is to protect his livestock from other tribes and wild animals, build the Kraal (Maasai settlement) and ensure the safety of his family.
The watch on his left hand proves that traditions are slowly retreating before the power of Western civilization.
After going through rituals and ceremonies, including circumcision, the boys are ready to become true warriors. The magnificent “etnoto” ceremony becomes a kind of graduation, after which the boy turns into a warrior.
In the video, young Maasai warriors jump in the traditional adumu dance. Such jumps allow you to find a mate. The best "horse" will definitely find a girl.
Girls and women have completely different lives. They must take care of the household: milk cows, fetch water, do handicrafts, and even build huts. A girl becomes an adult at the age of 14, after an official circumcision ceremony - emorat.
Masai clothing and beauty
Although the tribe traditionally wears clothing made from animal skins, modern Maasai prefer a dress made from red sheets (also called shuka) wrapped around the body. All kinds of beaded jewelry on the hands and neck are also very popular. They are worn by both men and women, unisex, so to speak.
Even in Africa it can be very cold in the mornings.
Piercing and stretching of the earlobes is also considered an attribute of beauty among the Maasai. Both men and women wear metal hoops in their ears. Women shave their heads and specially knock out the two lower front teeth, as required by traditional medicine.
The more the earlobes are pulled back, the prettier girl. This one is probably worth its weight in gold)
P. S
Lost Tribes
The Maasai are a proud, numerous tribe living in Tanzania and Kenya. The number of this people ranges from five hundred to a million people. But these are rough estimates, since none of the Maasai have passports. In the past they are nomads who came from the Nile Valley after 1500. Currently, some of them are under pressure from realities modern life begin to transition to a sedentary existence. Many retain a traditional nomadic existence with pristine traditions that amaze with their originality.
The Maasai are very capricious and warlike people who considers himself superior to all other tribes, and even to alien Europeans. They steal cattle from the Datoga, Luo, and Kikuyo, since their highest deity, Ngai, undoubtedly gave everything to them, the Maasai, and blessed them to engage in cattle breeding.
In the past, British and German colonialists were terrified of meeting the warriors of this tribe. It was thanks to their militancy that the Maasai, one of the few, preserved the ancestral lands of their ancestors for a long time. But in last decades Increasingly, they are being driven away from the lands of their ancestors, creating nature reserves in this place, into which rich white tourists who come to have fun on safari are allowed. If the Maasai try to return to their lands, they most often end up in jail. So they have to be content with the poor lands that are still freely available.
Since the means for subsistence became insufficient, some of the Maasai took up poaching, destroying elephants and rhinoceroses for their tusks. True children of nature, the Maasai seem to have forgotten the commandments of their ancestors and, in fact, are cutting off the branch on which they are sitting. After all, the frantic destruction of nature in the near future may put an end to their existence as a tribe.
Tourists rush to Maasai villages because their means of life mass media presented as primordial, ignoring all the achievements of mankind. The cunning Maasai, realizing that they can easily siphon money from tourists, and forgetting about their natural pride, stage performances for the amusement of visiting onlookers. This is a kind of dancing with frantic jumping up.
Women are actively involved in trade, trying to sell beads and bracelets to white tourists. They shout in a lively dialect, extending their hands with goods into the windows of passing cars. What to do - there is much less livestock, and tourists pay good money for goods, on which an entire large family can subsist. The once proud Maasai have even learned to pitifully beg for money, and tourists generously throw crumpled dollars into the outstretched hands of the little shepherds. Maasai boys often become hotel security guards. In crimson-red robes and with spears at the ready, they lazily walk along the perimeter of high-rise buildings.
However, a fairly large Maasai population living on the savannah in northwestern Tanzania still adheres to traditional image life. They live in villages of 5-6 families, around which they build a fence of thorny bushes and poles to protect themselves from attacks by African predators - lions, hyenas and cheetahs.
The houses themselves, according to European standards, are uncomfortable, since their height is one and a half meters, while the Maasai themselves are quite tall (the average height of men is at least 1.8 meters). So they have to enter the hut, bent double. The houses are built mainly by women, coating the frame with cow dung. But there are no windows in such a house. In the middle of the hut there is a fireplace, the bed is made of roughly dressed animal skins.
The Maasai are polygamous, and patriarchy reigns in their families. The limit on the number of wives is only the number of pets the groom has. The richer a man is, the more livestock he has, the more wives he has. He walks like a gentleman between busy women, because he is a warrior and protector! A warrior will never pick up a working tool.
In fact, Maasai women do the lion's share of housework. They even act as loaders, carrying all their household belongings on their backs when the tribe decides to change camp. The women's heads are clean-shaven, and two front teeth are missing from the lower jaw. But the neck and arms are decorated with many colorful necklaces and bracelets made of beads. The standard of female beauty is considered to be a girl with earlobes extended to her shoulders. To achieve this, ears are pierced at 7-8 years of age. The men of the tribe wear red togas, short swords and sandals reminiscent of Roman ones.
The Maasai diet is not for the faint of heart. A special gastronomic addiction is fresh blood. They drink animal blood mixed with cow's milk. The warrior pierces the carotid artery of the unfortunate animal and - the drink, as they say, is served. However, as careful owners, they cover the fresh wound with manure so that the animal does not die.
The Maasai eat meat extremely rarely, as they try to protect the number of their livestock, because the number of domestic animals measures their well-being and the number of wives. Women of this tribe live much shorter than men. Perhaps the reason for this is the overwhelming Homework, as well as the lack medical care, including during childbirth. Compared to their neighbors and enemies, the Datogas, the Maasai have much fewer children per woman. On average - three children. Researchers see the reason for the decline in fertility in the early sex life girls, sexually transmitted diseases, violence against women, as well as the existence of such a wild custom as female circumcision.
Despite the terrible way of life (according to the ideas of a civilized European), the Maasai are quite happy and satisfied with themselves. A white-toothed smile never leaves their faces, and while dancing, they fly high into the air, jingling their numerous bracelets.
P. S. In 1988, Swiss-born Karina Hofmann left her civilized boyfriend in Kenya to fall in love with the Maasai warrior Lketing. Karina was faced with dirt, misunderstanding, monstrous bureaucratic procedures, and childbirth in a Kenyan hospital. But at the same time, her story contains many examples of mutual respect, understanding and love. Only Lketing's hypertrophied jealousy forced the young woman to leave Kenya. In 2005 there was even a film about this strange story, and she herself published two books: “Back from Africa” and “Rendezvous in Barsaloi.” A year before the books were published, she visited her abandoned husband, and even still supports African relatives with money.
Lost Tribes
MASAI – THE FIERCE WARRIORS OF AFRICA
The Maasai are a proud, numerous tribe living in Tanzania and Kenya. The number of this people ranges from five hundred to a million people. But these are rough estimates, since none of the Maasai have passports. In the past they are nomads who came from the Nile Valley after 1500. Currently, some of them, under the pressure of the realities of modern life, are beginning to move to a sedentary existence. Many retain a traditional nomadic existence with pristine traditions that amaze with their originality.
The Maasai are a very capricious and warlike people who consider themselves superior to all other tribes, and even to visiting Europeans. They steal cattle from the Datoga, Luo, and Kikuyo, since their highest deity, Ngai, undoubtedly gave everything to them, the Maasai, and blessed them to engage in cattle breeding.
In the past, British and German colonialists were terrified of meeting the warriors of this tribe. It was thanks to their militancy that the Maasai, one of the few, preserved the ancestral lands of their ancestors for a long time. But in recent decades, they have increasingly been driven away from the lands of their ancestors, creating nature reserves in this place, into which rich white tourists who come to have fun on safari are allowed. If the Maasai try to return to their lands, they most often end up in jail. So they have to be content with the poor lands that are still freely available.
Since the means for subsistence became insufficient, some of the Maasai took up poaching, destroying elephants and rhinoceroses for their tusks. True children of nature, the Maasai seem to have forgotten the commandments of their ancestors and, in fact, are cutting off the branch on which they are sitting. After all, the frantic destruction of nature in the near future may put an end to their existence as a tribe.
Tourists rush to Maasai villages because their way of life is presented by the media as pristine, ignoring all the achievements of mankind. The cunning Maasai, realizing that they can easily siphon money from tourists, and forgetting about their natural pride, stage performances for the amusement of visiting onlookers. This is a kind of dancing with frantic jumping up.
Women are actively involved in trade, trying to sell beads and bracelets to white tourists. They shout in a lively dialect, extending their hands with goods into the windows of passing cars. What to do - there is much less livestock, and tourists pay good money for goods, on which an entire large family can subsist. The once proud Maasai have even learned to pitifully beg for money, and tourists generously throw crumpled dollars into the outstretched hands of the little shepherds. Maasai boys often become hotel security guards. In crimson-red robes and with spears at the ready, they lazily walk along the perimeter of high-rise buildings.
However, a fairly large Maasai population living on the savannah in northwestern Tanzania still adheres to a traditional way of life. They live in villages of 5-6 families, around which they build a fence of thorny bushes and poles to protect themselves from attacks by African predators - lions, hyenas and cheetahs.
The houses themselves, according to European standards, are uncomfortable, since their height is one and a half meters, while the Maasai themselves are quite tall (the average height of men is at least 1.8 meters). So they have to enter the hut, bent double. The houses are built mainly by women, coating the frame with cow dung. But there are no windows in such a house. In the middle of the hut there is a fireplace, the bed is made of roughly dressed animal skins.
The Maasai are polygamous, and patriarchy reigns in their families. The limit on the number of wives is only the number of pets the groom has. The richer a man is, the more livestock he has, the more wives he has. He walks like a gentleman between busy women, because he is a warrior and protector! A warrior will never pick up a working tool.
In fact, Maasai women do the lion's share of housework. They even act as loaders, carrying all their household belongings on their backs when the tribe decides to change camp. The women's heads are clean-shaven, and two front teeth are missing from the lower jaw. But the neck and arms are decorated with many colorful necklaces and bracelets made of beads. The standard of female beauty is considered to be a girl with earlobes extended to her shoulders. To achieve this, ears are pierced at 7-8 years of age. The men of the tribe wear red togas, short swords and sandals reminiscent of Roman ones.
The Maasai diet is not for the faint of heart. A special gastronomic addiction is fresh blood. They drink animal blood mixed with cow's milk. The warrior pierces the carotid artery of the unfortunate animal and - the drink, as they say, is served. However, as careful owners, they cover the fresh wound with manure so that the animal does not die.
The Maasai eat meat extremely rarely, as they try to protect the number of their livestock, because the number of domestic animals measures their well-being and the number of wives. Women of this tribe live much shorter than men. Perhaps the reason for this is backbreaking housework, as well as a lack of medical care, including during childbirth. Compared to their neighbors and enemies, the Datogas, the Maasai have much fewer children per woman. On average - three children. Researchers see the reason for the decline in the birth rate in the early sexual life of girls, sexually transmitted diseases, violence against women, as well as in the existence of such a wild custom as female circumcision.
Despite the terrible way of life (according to the ideas of a civilized European), the Maasai are quite happy and satisfied with themselves. A white-toothed smile never leaves their faces, and while dancing, they fly high into the air, jingling their numerous bracelets.
P. S . In 1988, Swiss-born Karina Hofmann left her civilized boyfriend in Kenya to fall in love with the Maasai warrior Lketing. Karina was faced with dirt, misunderstanding, monstrous bureaucratic procedures, and childbirth in a Kenyan hospital. But at the same time, her story contains many examples of mutual respect, understanding and love. Only Lketing's hypertrophied jealousy forced the young woman to leave Kenya. In 2005, there was even a film about this strange story, and she herself published two books: “Back from Africa” and “Rendezvous in Barsaloi.” A year before the books were published, she visited her abandoned husband, and even still supports African relatives with money.
You want to know if there are mutants in Chernobyl, well, look for yourself and evaluate critically. By opening access to the dead zone, the government made a fatal mistake. Terrible monsters escaped from under the sarcophagus.
Video number 1. Human mutants of Chernobyl, attack unknown creatures on the stalker. They look like people, but they behave more like animals. The blood just runs cold in my veins.
Now a few photos of Chernobyl mutants.
Photo, terrible mutant fish from the Pripyat River.
Local residents are already used to it. They fish to the fullest, especially since the catch is incomparably greater than in the Dnieper.
Animals are mutants. I don’t know about the previous ones, but last photo, obvious photoshop.
But seriously, then at the moment Everything is calm at the nuclear power plant. All mutants, if there were any, had already died long ago, unable to withstand natural selection. Well, or they hid somewhere under the reactor. Professor Vyacheslav Konovalov devoted his life to collecting information about mutations caused by the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. You can find out more about him and his research. If you want, you can learn more about the nature and animals of Chernobyl from the film: “Radioactive Wolves of Chernobyl.” As you can see, the nature there is more beautiful than many outside the window. It doesn't smell like mutants.
Therefore, if you still really want to look into the eyes of death, then there is no point in going to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, everything is calm there, otherwise, why would 5,000 security people be needed? It’s better to play the game Stalker, you can not only look into her eyes, but put a little lead into her.
Here's a cool video on the topic. Gosha Kutsenko talks about the film based on the game “S.T.A.L.K.E.R.”
As I understand it, the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series should appear in 2012. with him in leading role. True, there is not a lot of information about this on the internet.
Here's another trailer for the series:
Until it's filmed, you can watch Tarkovsky's old film: Stalker from 1979. Well, or read “Roadside Picnic” by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, the film was shot based on this work.
PS: and finally, the main film of 2012 on the theme of Chernobyl and its terrible mutants.
Forbidden Zone / Chernobyl Diaries (2012). Watch the trailer:
PPS: I accidentally came across the film “The Sky Saw Everything”, this short film was shot without money or financing, but I liked the film. It is not about Chernobyl, but rather filmed in a post-apocalyptic style, but the atmosphere is similar.
The Maasai are a people in the border regions of Kenya and Tanzania. Number of over 0.5 million people (1983, estimate). By modern estimates The Maasai number about 900 thousand people, of which 350-450 thousand are in Kenya. The language belongs to the southeastern group of Nilotic (Nile) languages.
The Maasai probably migrated to their modern lands (southwestern Kenya) from the Nile Valley in Sudan after 1500, bringing their domesticated livestock. Traditional occupations are nomadic cattle breeding, crafts (spears, musical instruments). Traditional cults are preserved.
The Maasai are perhaps one of the most famous tribes in East Africa. Despite the development of modern civilization, they have almost completely preserved their traditional way of life, although this is becoming more difficult every year. They move freely across the savannah from place to place, from country to country, regardless of customs regulations and state borders.
The Maasai consider themselves the supreme people of Africa. They are not concerned with the affairs of the lower tribes - the Luo, the Kikuyu, or any other alien Europeans. Since ancient times, they respected only those tribes that could provide them with worthy resistance.
They live off livestock. They do not know agriculture or crafts, but they are sure that the Supreme God Engai gave them all the animals in the world. Therefore, theft of livestock from other tribes is a common occurrence for the Maasai.
At temporary sites, they build dwellings, coating a round frame of branches with manure. Their huts have no windows, and the hearth is located inside, next to beds made of animal skins. These houses are built mainly by women. During transitions, when there are not enough pack animals, they carry simple belongings and frames of huts on their backs.
Around the village, in which five to seven families usually live, the Maasai build a fence of poles or thorny bushes - a kraal - to protect themselves from attacks by lions, leopards or hyenas. The Maasai feed on milk or animal blood. Meat - in exceptional cases. In times of hunger, they pierce the carotid artery of cows with a short arrow and drink the still warm blood. Then they cover the wound with fresh manure to use the animal again.
Starting from the age of 3, their children herd cattle, and at the age of 7-8 years, their earlobes are pierced with a piece of horn. Then the hole is widened with pieces of wood. Over time, heavy beaded or beaded jewelry pulls your earlobes down to your shoulders. And the more a Masai’s earlobes are pulled back, the more beautiful and respected he is.
The number of wives a Masai man has depends on the size of his herd. There should be enough wives to care for all animals and children, carry water and firewood for the hearth. This is probably why women live much shorter lives than their husbands, who, being warriors in peacetime, spend their days talking and wandering around the savannah...
Since ancient times, the Maasai have owned lands in the Serengeti Valley, in the vicinity of the Ngorongoro Crater and the Great African Rift Valley. In ancient times, a young man in a tribe could be considered a man only after he managed to kill a lion with a spear. The British and German colonialists in East Africa were most afraid of clashes with this tribe. The Maasai have always resisted them fiercely. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, they managed to survive and prove to the Europeans the rights to the ancestral lands of their ancestors. But they were unable to withstand the onslaught of civilization at the end of the 20th century...
Over the past 30 years, the Maasai have been evicted from much of their land. White people forbade grazing cattle there, declaring their lands “reserve.” Rich white tourists who came to Tanzania on safari wanted to “see animals, not half-wild ragamuffins.” Evicted Maasai who returned without permission were killed or imprisoned.
Here and there, bungalows and lodges began to appear in the savannah. And the Maasai realized that lions, antelopes, gazelles and tourists are much more important than themselves. Left without a livelihood, many took up poaching.
For thousands of years, the Maasai tribes coexisted with nature, and now they have begun to violently destroy it. Their own livestock is almost extinct, but elephant tusks and rhino horns sell well on the black market. And now rhinoceroses in the Maasai lands have been exterminated, and the number of elephants has decreased hundreds of times.
Throughout the country, Maasai are hired as security guards in expensive hotels or organize evening performances with traditional dances. More and more often you can see people dressed in red, guarding the perimeters of expensive hotels with spears at the ready...
And only in the remote corners of the savannah in north-west Tanzania are some nomadic camps still preserved, where sun-burnt white tourists do not reach and where everything is still preserved in its original form ancient way of life the life of the once formidable and most famous tribe of East Africa - the Masai tribe.
http://www.africa.org.ua/data/n5.htm
The Maasai are a tribe of proud warriors, one of the most ancient and numerous in all of Africa. They live in Kenya and Tanzania. Distinctive feature This tribe is that none of its members have a passport or any other document. That is why it is simply impossible to determine the exact number.
In the 15-16th centuries. The Maasai led they came from the banks of the Nile. In modern times, many of them, not without the pressure of today’s realities, are forced to become sedentary. However, not all of them give up, most still remained nomads.
Who are the Maasai?
Children under 14 years of age are considered the happiest Maasai. The tribe does not force them to learn anything, go to school, engage in social work, and so on. At this time they only dance, have fun and sometimes go hunting. However, none of the children refuses personal self-improvement; they all watch the adults, especially the leader. Seeing how they act and what they do, kids build their own model of behavior.
After 14 years, the next 2-3 years the Maasai walk and look closely. Gradually they enter into the established structure of the tribe, where each person has his own responsibilities. Teenagers do not immediately decide on their employment; they try themselves in all areas. So, for example, one of the girls can become a cook, the other will start looking after children.
Then at the age of 16-17 the Maasai get married or get married, build own house, where they will live as a young unit of society. Funds are gradually accumulating. Since there are no banks in the villages, status is determined by the number of heads of livestock. The greater it is, the correspondingly higher the position in society. After the wedding, a measured life begins; a mature personality already knows exactly what responsibility falls on her. And this continues until old age.
How do the Maasai live?
The Maasai live in a relatively large village 160 km from Nairobi. The tribe has preserved its original way of life and way of life to this day. Since the area where it lives does not have fertile soil, people are forced to engage in cattle breeding. Each person determines his age only approximately; he does not have a passport, and the Maasai are not used to keeping track of the calendar.
Each village has about 100 inhabitants. And they are all members of this big family. The leader is at the head. Lifestyle, accordingly, only patriarchal. Modern men Since there are no wars, they graze cattle. Previously, this was the responsibility of the weaker sex. Women prepare food and raise children. There is also no special upbringing; young people simply look up to their elders, imitating them in everything.
A Maasai chief can have three wives. The tribe, of course, is warlike, but this does not apply to women. They earn the respect and trust of men with delicious food. By the way, the leader determines his beloved wife every day. And his choice will depend directly on the deliciousness of the prepared dinner.
Maasai wedding
In the Maasai tribe, wealth is accumulated by selling daughters. Therefore, a man who has more girls has a high status. The wedding begins with the groom coming to his bride's house. Her father is sitting on the threshold, guarding the home (so that his daughter is not stolen). Before handing over his daughter, he determines how many cows the young guy will have to give for her.
The bride must be a virgin. Many guests come to the wedding, each of whom gives a little (or a lot) of money for the benefit of the newlyweds. All funds are collected by the mother-in-law. At first, she will live with the young people, performing the work of treasurer. As for the celebration itself, it takes place in the standard and usual mode - guests, fun, host, holiday costumes and so on.
A terrible tradition is that the first time the wife will sleep not with her husband, but with the toastmaster. This is due to the fact that a young man should not see the blood of his Maasai woman.
If a warrior decides to marry again, then the new bride is chosen not by his mother, but by his first wife. The situation is the same with the subsequent ones. That is, no matter how many brides a man requests, they all go through the selection of the one who was matched in the beginning.
Maasai food
The food and drink of the tribe are very peculiar. Moreover, it is better for faint-hearted people not to get acquainted with the cuisine in question at all. The Maasai's favorite drink is fresh blood. Sometimes it is diluted with milk. Drinking occurs as follows. The man pierces the animal’s artery with a sharp object and places a container under the pressure. The beast does not die unless thirst is quenched for the 10th time. After the warrior has filled his cup, he seals the hole with clay, and the cow or ram continues to live.
But the African Maasai tribe has an extremely negative attitude towards meat products. This is not due to the fact that they are ideological vegetarians. It’s just that livestock is the main source of income, and eating it means depriving oneself of one’s status and reducing one’s importance in society.
The Maasai are distinguished by amazing traditions that may seem terrible to a European or Slavic person. So, for example, all the girls go along with the guys. Moreover, if a woman has not done this, then she will never be married.
Also all the girls have to head. Apparently, the men of the tribe do not believe that female beauty consists of long curls.
Each tribe also has its own distinctive sign - tattoos. They cover both human bodies and livestock. Only in this way, when grazing, can they distinguish their own sheep from someone else’s. By the way, if outsider cattle accidentally entered the tribe, they are immediately returned. No one has yet forgotten the belligerence of the Maasai, even after decades of peaceful existence.
Conclusion
The uniqueness of the Maasai tribe is literally amazing. The photo of each of its members proves belligerence and willfulness. There are also often hints that they place themselves above other African tribes, as well as Europeans or Americans visiting the continent.
Moreover, when the colonialists came to Africa, they were actually afraid and even afraid of meeting the Maasai. With all this, the Europeans had modern technologies and weapons, the tribe was primitive. It should be noted that this ancient culture has still been preserved only thanks to belligerence and reluctance to surrender its ancestral territories to the colonialists.
