Lamu - World Heritage Site

Hello, Lamu Kenya is where Craig and I are staying at the moment. We decided to retreat to this wonderful island to finish our final papers away from the bustle of many other Kenyan cities. I encourage you to look Lamu up on the internet, it's quite an anomaly. No cars, just donkeys (who don't like the rain).

Quick note: I am in an internet cafe on Lamu right now and there are two young Norweigan boys who are always in here playing hours worth of interactive internet games everyday, they make me laugh...

But to back track a bit, the Maasi Mara...southwestern Kenya, home to big game and large ethnic groups who are either pastoralists or small scale agriculturalists. All throughout the academic course we were hosted by a Canadian non-profit organization called Me to We/Free the Children. They build schools and hospitals in rural Kenya and other locations across the globe. So one of their sites is in the Maasi Mara in a community of Kipsigi (sp?) peoples. Kipsigi are small scale farmers whose neighbors surrounding them in the hills are the Maasi people.

While we spent 11 days in the Mara doing our course work and helping build a clinic in the Kipsigi community we had two Maasi guides with us, Peter and Clinton (whose favorite music is Celine Dion to the delite of all the Canadians I was traveling with, Celine is HUGE in Africa-even the rural hills). The Maasi are rather famous globally, they are pastoralists who wear the red blankets as a dress (men and women, a lot of men in Kenya wear skirts) and a delicacy of the Maasi is mixing milk with cows blood. This concoction (sworn up and down by Peter and Clinton to be wonderful) provides them with sufficient calcium and protein.

Note: I have been very hesitant to write to a western audience about the customs of the Maasi or Kipsigi because I fear an instant reaction of judgemet from the readers. I have decided what I feel is ethically within my boundaries to share and I would please ask of you to remember the radical difference in lifestyles, history, and worlds you and the ethnic peoples of Kenya live in. That is not to say that some things are not supposed to stretch you out of your comfort zone, that has been happening to me all this trip, but as you read try to conceptualize it in a space before judgement, floating in wonder instead.

Ok, so milk and blood, other initiation rituals are coming to age processes for men and women. For the men, around 16 the bottom front tooth is removed (with no antestisia) by the father from a method of cutting the gums and pulling the tooth. This practice is meant to mark the member of the tribe as Maasi wherever they go.

Another, and very important ritual, is the male circumsicion which happens around 15-18 years old. After this ritual the boys are considered men and endowed with all of the rights given in manhood. Including taking a wife, sex, and providing for a family. So the circumcision is done without the aid of pain killers, and a clause in the whole thing, is that the boys are not allowed the slightest flinch or wince during the proceedure. If they do they will be austricized from the society indefinetly as cowards and have a hard time taking a wife.

In the past, after the circumsicion ritual the boys-becoming-men left to live in caves where they hunted and killed at least one lion, for three years. Contemporarily I think this practice has lessened somewhat and while both Peter and Clinton (both in early 20's) had killed a lion, with a spear, it is less prevalant than before and the duration in the cave in shorter. But, when the men emerge, they are Maasi warriors ready to start families and raise cattle and goats of their own.

Oh yeah, in preparation for the circumsicion, the young boys will burn themselves with things in order to work up tolerance to pain so thewy do not flinch during the proceedure.

Poligamy is also practiced amongst the Maasi, although it varies from person to person. Many men only have one wife while others have four. We had the opportunity to have candid discussions with our 20 year old warriors and when prompted, both replied they would only want one wife. Peter "Because more than one would be too much trouble." And Clinton "Because he could only share his love with one woman." I will leave it to you to chuckle with that.

The warrior/guides gave us weapons training using their spears and congas (wooden instruments used to finish off the animals) . They also took us on medicinal plant hikes, showing us what plants to use for what. Both men studied biology or environmental science at a neighboring university (another new develoment within their culture).
Interesting note: cattle are considered higher up in the heirarchy than women. Now, I have stated this VERY simply and it is more complex by far, but as is cattle their ABSOLUTE livelyhood in some way, in the past that makes sense.
I am not condoning it, don't freak out :)

Ok, so I bet you have been waiting for the womens story huh?........stay tuned!
I gotta get off this computer!
Please write me a comment, I love them.

Love,
Chelsea