The Maasai people of East Africa live in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania in an area that doesn't support growth of crops and hence their dependancy on animals such as cows and goats.  The Maasai are a semi-nomadic people who originally migrated south from Lake Turkana in the 15th century and because of their warlike traditions eventually dominated the region known as the Great Rift Valley in the 19th century.  We were keen to see them in their natural habitat and Simon arranged to take us to see a typical Maasai village.  The Tanzanian and Kenyan governments have tried to encourage the Maasai to abandon their traditional semi-nomadic lifestyle, but the people have continued their age-old customs and many (myself included) believe that the lifestyle of the Maasai should be embraced as a traditional culture that would otherwise be lost.  Maintaining a traditional pastoral lifestyle has become increasingly difficult due to outside influences of the modern world and many Maasai tribes throughout Tanzania and Kenya now welcome visits to their village to experience their culture, traditions and lifestyle and also to help raise money to continue with this lifestyle. (More about the Maasai)

On our arrival at the village they made a great ceremony of presenting our fees ($20 each) to the village headman and even though this was a few years ago, there were obvious signs of commercialisation with selling of trinkets and souvenirs, which didn't look entirely authentic and home made.  Anyway, this is unfair and if it helps to preserve this way of life I'm all for it.  The huts were constructed of mud, grass, cow dung and urine and were quite small and dark inside; on one side of the entrance the people lived and on the other side the goats lived as this was much safer than being outside at the mercy of predators; the huts were also arranged in a circle or kraal, again for protection.  During the night all animals were brought inside the enclosure; the Maasai are highly dependant on their cows and goats for food, milk and hide and ownership denotes position and wealth.

The men and women were dressed in typical Maasai garments wearing a shuka (colourful piece of cloth - usually red or blue) and cow hide sandals (more recently using old tyres - which the Maasai olympic runner David Rudesha supposedly trained in) and some were carrying a wooden club (o-rinka).  We were told that the colours were not just for appearance but also to scare off wild animals who feared the Maasai warrior.  They sang a Maasai song and we had a demonstration of the traditional dances with the men 'jumping' which consisted of springing as high as possible off two feet.  Supposedly, the higher you could jump the better your choice of female companion.

The Maasai are the only people in Kenya who are permitted to kill lions, but only if the lion goes rogue and becomes a threat to their animals and their livelihood and if a warrior kills a lion he is entitled to wear the mane as a headress - one of the photos shows this.  The problem the government have is that the warriors are very keen to show their prowess and are killing too many lions without necessarily having full justification.