Morning with the Masai

Visiting this Masai village was a real eye-opener, especially as we were basically cocooned within luxury resorts most of the trip.The Masai seem very friendly (and very tall!), being the only tribe to cling to a traditional lifestyle in Kenya.

They are nomadic (though in practice tend to move the village every three years or so), practice polygamy (each wife is bought with 10 cows), wear traditional clothing and are very poor (materially).

The village is essentially a circle of mud huts with cows and sheep in the middle. As result, it is ankle deep in dung – stepping in some was ‘lucky’ according to the locals.

You’d think visiting them would be a touch uncomfortable, but it wasn’t. A US$20 fee per person is paid to the tribe directly; there’s no middle man and the money is used to educate the children. 'Tours’ are informal affairs given by the sons of the chief who speak excellent English, Swahili and their own Masai tongue.

We were shown the extremely dark and cramped interior of one of the huts, how the Masai make fire from pieces of wood, and some of the beadwork made by the women. 

The Masai are famed hunters and our guide admitted to having killed a lion – a big honour. Lions are the traditional enemy of the Masai, who raise cow and sheep, but these days they are only allowed to kill lions (with spears!!) if it attacks their compound. One dead cow means two dead lions.

The Masai have become so good at killing lions, it is said that if a lion sees anyone dressed in Masai clothes, it just runs away!

Of course, dancing and singing Masai songs was also on the menu – we all ended up joining in, some more than others!