Lion Guardians

Category: Maasai traditions | Date: Aug 25 2008 | By: lionguardians

Friday marked the arrival of a new generation of Maasai warriors, or murrans. A ritual called “Enkipaata” was marked in our district to see if the new murrans were ready to go under the knife (circumcision) and become the next Maasai army. This celebration happens every 13 years, or sometimes longer.

The murrans to-be were made to spend a night in the bush on their own with no one to guard them or protect them. The next morning elders go and see if they are alright and check whether they were able to endure the night without blankets and not fearing any wild animals.

These photos show the murrans being blessed by the elders because they have been able to spend the night out in the bush on their own. It signifies that the warriors are now ready to be able to take care of their community, and I hope of the wildlife that they live with too. The circumcision ceremony will take place a few months after this ritual.

When such an occasion happened last I was 7 years old, so I wasn’t allowed to attend. Now I am 23. You can imagine how old I will be when the next ceremony happens!

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Tags: ceremony, circumcision, Kenya, lion, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai, warrior

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Category: Maasai traditions | Date: Jun 26 2008 | By: lionguardians

Marriage in Maasai culture is one of our most important traditional activities. A man has to be married as soon as he undergoes the circumcision ceremony. A Maasai murran is not able to choose whom he is going to marry. If a murran’s father has a good friend with a daughter, then the fathers will negotiate among themselves and decide on a date to marry off their son and daughter, without consulting them first.

A week before the celebration a meeting is held know in Maasai as “aadung inkishu“, which literally means the splitting of cows. This is where both parties agree on the number of livestock that will be paid by the family of the murran, to that of the daughter. This amount differs from person to person. If it is an arrangement between friends it may be 4 or 5 cows, or it may be as high as 14 or 15. As you can see in the video (filmed by Lion Guardian Koikai), he was joking that he would offer 12 cows for Amy to be his second wife!

A Maasai murran does not see his bride before the marriage, and in most cases they have never met before the ceremony. Some days before the marriage a murran picks his best man and they travel together to the bride’s boma to pick her up, taking with them the dowry they are paying to the family.

If her boma is far away, they have to count how many days it will take them to walk to the bride’s boma and back to make sure they get back in time for the marriage! The bridegroom and best man must walk all the way there by themselves. Then they will pick up the bride from her boma, and they will walk all the way back to his boma. No members of her family are permitted to attend the marriage ceremony. She is no longer part of their family.

One may wonder why Maasai men have to pay the bride’s family livestock when they marry. This is so that the family will be able to remember their daughter who is no longer part of the family. These livestock will always remind them of her. Does this happen in your culture?

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Tags: Kenya, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, marriage, masai

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Category: Maasai traditions | Date: Jun 25 2008 | By: lionguardians

 I think it is only here in Maasailand that women are the beasts of burden. They have a lot of responsibilities; land tilling, herding cows, collecting water and firewood and even building houses. Recently I came across a new house being built from local materials. In the photo you can see branches collected from the surrounding area, which are smeared with cow dung to make the house warm and waterproof. It is the least costly kind of construction because one does not need any money to buy anything. And of course it was a woman that was building this house!

With my exposure to other cultures in the world, I have learnt that these tasks should be divided more equally among men and women, and I will help my mum cut branches to build a house. But she must collect the cow dung herself. It is against Maasai tradition for a man to hold dung in the case of constructing a house. However when it comes to any other tasks I would do anything to help mum. Here is a photo of some Maasai women in front of a finished house.

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Tags: house, Kenya, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, masai

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Category: Maasai traditions | Date: Jun 03 2008 | By: lionguardians

Being a murran means one has to be smart all the time; but this does not mean a murran must take a shower every day. Instead, a murran always carries a mirror tied to one end of his shuka, and you will often see him looking at himself in the mirror, making sure he is well-groomed. The yellow and pink circles of plastic you can see hanging from these murrans’ shukas are mirrors.

He must make sure that the red ochre that is applied to the face is not messed up, so that he can re-apply it if it gets damaged. Showers are normally taken in a river, not bathrooms, and if it takes a whole month to get to a river or close to any water source then they can wait. During sleeping they use a piece of the stomach of a cow, that is made thin and light. They wrap it around their hair so that they don’t damage the red ochre.

Murrans clean their teeth with a branch of a bush. The roots of this bush are boiled up and used to treat upset stomachs, but the branches are cut and stripped of their bark. The top is then made flat for cleaning the teeth, and the other end is sharpened to use as a toothpick. This video, filmed by Lion Guardian Lenkina, shows me making a Maasai toothbrush!

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Tags: Kenya, lion conservation, Lion Guardians, Maasai, marriage, masai

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