THE JUMPING MASAAI WARRIORS

So with our introduction to the Masaai Culture and women yesterday, this morning was the young Masaai Warriors turn to shine.  We were up at 7am and tent packed for a 7.30am breakfast and at 8am we walked the 50m back to the Masaai Village.  We didn’t enter back in where we were yesterday, we went around to the side of the village when a few minutes later a chanting came from the young Masaai Warriors as they danced/skipped in a single file with their throwing sticks and spears oh ah ah-ing past us and then circling back again.  They were very impressive looking and I just loved the sound of their chants.  There was one young man that had the mane of a lion made into a hat on his head, and even though they don’t enforce the killing of the lions now as part of their initiation, they still do kill the animals if they are attacked by them or their precious livestock is attacked.  After a few laps around the yard, a few more chanting songs, it was time for them to show us just what all the fuss was about with their jumping and they did not disappoint!  Those guys jump like they have springs on the bottom of their tyre shoes.  There was a lot of airtime and I was lucky to snap some amazing photos.  The one thing they didn’t do was all of them jump together.  There were 2 or 3 at a time but all 8 men didn’t jump together and I didn’t want to ask in case it was like taboo or something for them not to.  But an amazing experience and you could see that they were have a genuinely good time, which makes me feel better that we aren’t infringing on their time or upsetting their culture too much.  Big Pete was the only mzungu man representing our group, so he got his ‘air’ time jumping with the Masaai and he may not have jumped as high as them, but by golly he gave it a good shot and kudos to him for giving it a crack!!!    

The central unit of Masaai society is the age-set. Young boys are sent out with the calves and lambs as soon as they can toddle, but childhood for boys is mostly playtime, with the exception of ritual beatings to test courage and endurance. Girls are responsible for chores such as cooking and milking, skills which they learn from their mothers at an early age.  Every 15 years or so, a new and individually named generation of Morans or Il-murran (warriors) will be initiated. This involves most boys between 12 and 25, who have reached puberty and are not part of the previous age-set. One rite of passage from boyhood to the status of junior warrior is a painful circumcision ceremony, which is performed without anaesthetic. This ritual is typically performed by the elders, who use a sharpened knife and makeshift cattle hide bandages for the procedure.  The boy must endure the operation in silence. Expressions of pain bring dishonour, albeit temporarily. Any exclamations can cause a mistake in the delicate and tedious process, which can result in lifelong scarring, dysfunction, and pain. The healing process will take 3–4 months, during which urination is painful and nearly impossible at times, and boys must remain in black clothes for a period of 4–8 months.  During this period, the newly circumcised young men will live in a "manyatta", a "village" built by their mothers. The manyatta has no encircling barricade for protection, emphasizing the warrior role of protecting the community. No inner kraal is built, since warriors neither own cattle nor undertake stock duties. Further rites of passage are required before achieving the status of senior warrior, culminating in the eunoto ceremony, the "coming of age". 

When a new generation of warriors is initiated, the existing Il-murran will graduate to become junior elders, who are responsible for political decisions until they in turn become senior elders.  This graduation from warrior to junior elder takes place at large gathering known as Eunoto. The long hair of the former warriors is shaved off; elders must wear their hair short. Warriors are not allowed to have sexual relations with circumcised women, though they may take girlfriends from among the uncircumcised girls. The warriors spend most of their time now on walkabouts throughout Masaai lands, beyond the confines of their sectional boundaries. They are also much more involved in cattle trading than they used to be, developing and improving basic stock through trades and bartering rather than stealing as in the past.  One myth about the Masaai is that each young man is supposed to kill a lion before he is circumcised. Lion hunting was an activity of the past, but it has been banned in East Africa—yet lions are still hunted when they maul Masaai livestock, and young warriors who engage in traditional lion killing do not face significant consequences.  Increasing concern regarding lion populations has given rise to at least one program which promotes accepting compensation when a lion kills livestock, rather than hunting and killing the predator.  Nevertheless, killing a lion gives one great value and celebrity status in the community.

Kenya’s Masaai tribe has become an icon for the richness and diversity of the country’s culture, a people whose traditions, beliefs and routines have changed little since the dawn of their history.  The way they live now, even as so much is changing around them, the way their society is structured, the pride that binds them and keeps them strong, all of these look the same today as they would have done to their ancestors long ago.  Their way of life is still very close to that of their ancestors, their society is organized in the same way and modernity has not affected them much yet. They are semi-nomadic pastoralists: their livestock is their livelihood. Their whole society revolves around their cows, sheep and goats, as it did for their forefathers.  Warriors, all the young men in their community, are in charge of protecting livestock from predators and enemies, and, these days, of taking cattle too far away pastures during the dry season. Women and children look after goats and sheep that are more resilient and can remain near the homesteads also during the dry spells- thus always providing milk and meat for the family. Elders keep peace and harmony in our community, settling disputes, administering justice, negotiating with neighbouring tribes and these days with the local administrations.

Being a warrior is exciting and fun, it has many privileges but also many duties. Many of the warriors look at those times as the best in their lives- though by no means the easiest. To become warriors they have to demonstrate their bravery: they have to undergo circumcision in front of the whole community, without flinching or squinting their eyes or giving any other sign that they are experiencing pain. After all, if they cannot stand bravely that bearable pain, how can they persuade the elders that they will risk their lives to protect their livestock and their community?  After circumcision they have a whole month to heal. They are dressed in black, and every homestead where they go has to slaughter a sheep to feed them and honour them. They spend their days chasing girls, in a much more literal sense than what you are thinking: they have to run after them to get special rings that they make for them, and the more they have the better. This exercise helps them to recover.  Once the healing period is over, they become effectively warriors. They now belong to an age group, a group of peers with whom they share duties and responsibilities. They have strict rules to follow: they can’t eat meat at home, instead they have to go out in the bush and slaughter an animal with other warriors- this is to prevent them eating the meat for the rest of the family; they cannot eat or drink alone, only with at least one other warrior- so that even the poorest warriors can be well fed and help during battles or fights; they cannot drink alcohol or take any drug: they need to be at all times alert and ready to spring into action to rescue our cattle or protect their community; they incur in fines for the whole age group if any of them is disrespectful to an elder, or they mistreat animals, or any other bad behaviour. They have to help every member of the community when their cattle are lost. They have to take their families’ cows to greener pastures during the dry season- this often means spending 3-4 months in the bush, far from home and from any village. But in the wet season, when the cattle is at home and the young boys can look after it, they spend their days resting and going to the many ceremonies that happen in the community- circumcisions, weddings, graduations. They dance and sing, and jump of course.  After about 15-20 years from when the age group is formed, a new set of warriors starts to form, their age group is closed and they graduate to junior elders. They pass the symbol of their power to the next generation, and start learning the skills of the elders. Life becomes easier, they can spend more time at home with their family, but they often look back with nostalgia to their days as warriors.

We spent the next 2 hours with these young brave men and they LOVED spending time with us.  They were more than happy to have their pictures taken and they LOVED it even more when you showed them on the playback screen the photo of themselves.  There was a point where one of the warriors saw an elephant on the slopes of one of the surrounding mountains, the animal would have been over 1km away and I was able to use my super zoom lens and snap the ellie and when I showed them how close I had got with my zoom they just couldn’t believe it and I have to say it was a pretty good photo considering how far away the elephant was, and then my second thought was that our tents were pitched 1km away from a roaming elephant!!!  We did have 2 Masaai men stay at out camp last night to ‘protect’ us which was quite cool which made me think maybe the baboons do wander at night and now after seeing the elephant I think it was a wise idea to have them keep an eye on us when we are camping in the middle of Kenya where the animals roam free in these parts.   

After Pete had nearly killed himself chanting, jumping and trotting and circling in a single line, and then jumping again, the girls got the call up and gave it their best shot-even though in the Masaai culture women don’t’ ‘jump’.  After seeing the masters do, it was kinda funny to see the girls attempt airtime and Anne seemed to have the height but I tell you Evie had the faces and I got 2 crackers as she tried to get some airtime off the ground.  From here no village visit is complete without a shopping experience and the Masaai women had been setting up their wares on cow dung tables while we had been with their warriors.  This is a true and ORIGINAL Masaai Market experience and it was good to know that whatever we bought was going directly to the people who made the items and walking around the massive square of dried cow dung tables there was some amazing things and I have to say I am a sucker for all things that sparkle and all that colour that was jumping out at me was too much to resist.  It was great to see the women that we had seen yesterday and they treated us like old friends, but maybe that was part of their sale tactics!  The downside to the setup is that the women all had their own stalls, and with around 12 of them you can’t possibly buy something from everyone and after we left they started packing all their goods away and I felt bad for the ladies that didn’t sell anything, as they set up-hoped for a sale and then got zippo and then had to pack it all away.  I am sure it works out in the wash with each group visiting every few weeks in peak season (well I hope) and I felt good that I had bought 2 necklaces and 2 bangles knowing I had helped them, if not in a small way, but I am sure every schilling counts and they did make me work for the items as I got all 4 pieces half the price they had originally asked for.  Sneaky devils! 

Our last thing we got to experience was to throw a few spears and they showed also showed us how they throw their sticks that has like a thermometer looking bottom to it.  They kill with these things and it is a real skill to throwing them and it is not as easy as it looks.  I gave it a shot and I think if I wasn’t careful I would do more damage to myself than to anything that was in my vicinity!!!  Anne and Effie were giving it a good crack and I got some great action photos of the girls doing ‘Masaai warrior’ stuff.  Again women in the Masaai culture don’t participate in these activities-but it was fun.  We were finally walked back to camp by our Masaai warriors and that in itself was pretty cool and when we got back to camp the truck had been reversed and was ready to motor.  As Dan said goodbye to our warriors we got on the truck and as we drove off they stood there waving to us till we couldn’t see them anymore.  Again, I am not normally a great fan of these ‘village’ visits as I generally find them to be set up for tourists and a little ‘fake’ for want of a better word.  But I go the distinct impression that we had walked into a ‘proper’ Masaai village, a working village and there was no plomp or fakeness about it all, and I honestly had a great time the last 24 hours and learnt something new about race that co-habits this wonderful planet of ours. 

So we travelled back the same way we came, including another water stop and Alex was careful enough this time to not park in the muddy section of the water well and 15 minutes later we were driving back past the main dusty Masaai village, which was not as busy as it had been the day before.  We were then back on the main dusty, bumpy road and were rewarded with another African massage for 1.5 hours arriving into our last camp of the tour, Mountain Rock, which is located 10 minutes from the gates of the Masai Mara National Reserve.  As routine dictates, we helped Susan unload what she needed for the next few days, tents were erected-for the last time-and then we were fed lunch at 12.30pm.  After washing and flapping duties were done we had free time for nearly 2 hours, which gave people the opportunity to do some washing, reading, cleaning and some even had some nana naps, and why not-we are on holidays after all!!  I pulled out my computer with the plan to pump out a blog, but when there are people around all chatting it is hard to concentrate, so I decided to load my photos to my external hard drive instead as there was no internet connection here, not even my Safaricom modem worked here, but my mobile phone had reception, so we weren’t totally cut off from the world. 

At 3pm, we were back on the truck to get in an afternoon game drive in the Masai Mara National Park.  I was really excited for this part of the trip as I had an image of millions of animals in a concentrated area passing us by on the Great Migration, but Dan had been, the last few day, started to slowly drop hints that the national reserve was massive and that we just may not see what I had pictured in my mind.  Oh.  Really.  I was slightly disappointed, as this trip had been booked with the GREAT migration as the major draw card, but I am happy to say it didn’t last long as the whole trip has been an amazing experience and as long as we get to see some animals then I will not be as disappointed as it really has been an incredible week thus far.  We had to stop at the main gate for Dan to get our park tickets and also to sort out Nic, Jess and Jimbob’s balloon ride that they were going to do in the morning.  I did a balloon ride over the Serengeti, so I wasn’t going to do another one here as they really are super expensive, but I do believe it is worth doing once in your life and for ‘other’ travellers, when will you ever come back, so make the most of the opportunity.  The downside is that it took almost an hour for them to get sorted with the balloon company, which was an hour less time we had in the park as it closes at 6pm and I wonder if there is a better way that the bookings can be done than keeping 9 of us waiting for 3 people to book.  It gave us an opportunity to get some photos of the gate and there were also some birds and a lizard that we were able to watch to help pass the time.  There are Masai women at the gate trying to sell their wares, but I am shocked myself to say I was all shopped out, and we had the safety of a very large truck, but for the smaller vans that stopped, the women would swoop in on the vehicles, like 3-6 of them all holding up and yelling for the mzungu’s to buy something. 

We were finally on our way just after 4pm and into the mighty Masai Mara Reserve.  I was finally able to pull out my binoculars that I bought when I was in Australia and it was a great feeling when I was looking out of the trucks windows on the expanse of the national park.  It is mostly flat, with not much vegetation besides a lone acacia tree poking out randomly as we scoured the area with 13 pairs of eyes for some African animals.  There were a few dead wildebeest and zebras and you can always smell them first before we sae their dead carcasses and it was a great place to see the ugly vultures as they scavenged off the dead animal.  The next 2 hours we saw topi, a herd of elephants, impala, cox hartebeests, buffaloes, wildebeest, grants gazelles, Thompson ‘tommy’ gazelles and on our way out at 6pm we ran into a single female lion which we watched as she sat under a tree for around 10 minutes and then another one right near the front gates of the park-which is a little scary when there are businesses and peoples home (tin sheds) are on the other side of the gate.  It was great to see lions as they are always respected and the one animal that people always want to see on safari.  There were no cheetah or leopard sightings, bit we have a full day in the park tomorrow, so all hope is not lost yet.  We had to high tail it to the main gate, as they do close at 6pm and any minute after that time, depending on the park, they are in their right to charge you an additional days fee as your fine.  Luckily we were not the only ones late, and there were people after us that were still watching the lion that we had just seen.             

Back to camp and dinner was served at 7pm.  It is dark by this time, but we had the luxury of a dining hall at this camp site that had tables (with table clothes) and chairs and even a small bar that opened in the evening.  The beers were 300KSH, and I needed a change from beer and was able to buy a Smirnoff Black bottle for the same price, 300KSH which is 3.75AUD!!!!  This is a drink that costs 12AUD in a pub back home and I can get one in Africa, in a pub, in a remote location for under 4 bucks.  Yes some things may be expensive, but it is a nice surprise when you least expect it Africa knocks you for a 6 with a cheap commodity of booze.  Like most people, we all wanted a shower after our dusty 2 hours in the park this afternoon.  Jimbob, Anne and I were the first ones to the public showers before the mass influx of people just after us.  The hot water system is done on a donkey shower system, which I had never heard of before until Smokey mentioned it this afternoon. I had never heard of donkey showers before but they work by heating up large quantities of water with any available wood heating two 44 gallon drums turning the water hot and then being pumped into the showers.  Well when there was the 2 of us in the showers this was enough, but when all 6 showers were in use 44 gallons doesn’t last long and then in turn neither did the hot water, but I was lucky and still kept a luke warm shower to finish washing my filthy hair where some of the others had a cold shower, which can be okay if it is hot outside, but the nights are cool and with a cold shower can be a big ask.   

ANOTHER GREAT day in this amazing country.  Masai Warriors jumping, an original Masai market, African animals on a safari, camping in a tent with the flaps left open for the first time this week and amazing new friends…..does life get any better?