Journeys of the Heart: Tanzania

The Maasai tribe inhabits the highlands of Tanzania near the Ngorongoro Crater. They are semi-nomadic herders of cattle and goats and live as they have lived for centuries. We

were able to visit one of their villages.

The tribe's traditional dress is robing made of red cloth but they have expanded to purple and blues. Felician told us that the color red allowed the Maasai to tell whether or not a figure in the distance was a tribal member. They are known as fearless warriors, and when they settled in the highlands of Tanzania where there is good grass for their herds of cattle, they ran all of the other tribes out of the area including Felician's Iraqw tribe. Although Felician insisted that there were no hard feelings between his tribe and the Maasai, he definitely remembered that tribal history!

The Maasai live in circular huts made of acacia wood (which provides the frames for the homes), and a mixture of grasses, mud and cow dung. The huts are small.

In the center of the hut is a small fire which gives heat to the home and is used for cooking. Two small, slender slits in the walls on opposite sides of the hut are the only "windows" in the homes. They are approximately 4 inches tall and 1 inch wide and can be used not only to allow smoke to be released into the open but to check on animals wandering through the village at night. The families sleep on cow hide laid atop the dirt floor with boys/men on one side and girls/women on the other.

The Maasai are polygamist and men can have up to 3 wives. Each wife has her own hut and when the husband visits a hut for the night, he stakes his spear in front of the hut near the entrance to give notice that he is there. Males are known as fearless warriors, and Felician said that even animals know that the color "red" from their clothing indicates danger. While we were camping on the rim of the crater, a Maasai warrior was hired to keep the cape buffaloes out of the camp at night.

(We were camped near a buffalo trail that led to a watering hole). We loved his shoes!

The rite of passage to adulthood for males is to be circumcised between the ages of 9 and 12 without the benefit of anesthesia. Every three years, the ears of men are pierced with thorns and those young males without pierced ears were in schools (as required by the government) at the time of the community piercing.

Males carry clubs to protect themselves and others from wild animals. When they become "elders" of the tribe, the women decorate the clubs with beautiful bead work. The men are responsible for herding the cattle which is a source of food (the Maasai cut a cow's neck every morning and drink a mixture of its blood and milk) and a measure of a man's wealth. The Maasai believe they are the true owners of all cattle (much to the chagrin of other tribes, I am sure), and at night, they enclose their cattle and sheep in the fencing surrounding their community.

Woman do all of the cooking, the building of the huts, the bead work, and making of crafts for sale. They wear large beaded necklaces which they are able to bounce to the rhythm of chanting when they dance. The girls and women also have pierced ears.

During our visit, the Maasai chose some of our group to join them in dancing. Their dancing to me appears to be jumping while chanting. One of the older women appeared to be the "leader" among the women.

She was a gracious hostess and seemed to be a woman of contentment and kindness. She picked Cindy and Kay to dance with her.

She also gave Kay and Cindy a necklace to wear while dancing. Before leaving the village, Kay gave her one of her own rings, which was made of shiny silver. The woman was noticeably moved by the unexpected gift, clasped Kay's hands palm to palm as if in prayer, and enclosed them in hers. Although neither Kay nor she could converse in spoken words, each shared the language of the heart and understood each other completely.

The men also dance in a circle and while chanting, jump straight up. They would have no trouble getting rebounds in the NBA. Jerry was chosen to dance with them.

They are handsome men.

Those young men who had gone to school could speak a little English, and they welcomed us as guests into their huts. The young man who was with my group had gone to school until he was in the 7th grade when students must begin paying for their own education. Although he had a sponsor for a year or so, his sponsorship had ended and his father insisted he return to the village. He had obeyed because his father told him to come home. It was that simple. He would not have disobeyed his father although there was an obvious longing in his voice to return to school.

This is a picture of the young guide with his mother who was Kay's new found friend and leader of the women. His ears were not pierced indicating that he was in school when the community piercing occurred.

In the picture with me, I am holding a beaded club that was made by his mother. The colors are those of the Tanzania flag.

At the end of our visit, we visited the village school where the children appeared to be younger than 6 or 7.

They were learning English and were able to sing the ABC song that I sang as a child as well as show us some words that they knew in English. Lynne had brought some stickers from the States and had given them to the teacher who had handed them out. You can see the handiwork with the stickers in the picture. Their teacher hardly said a word while we were there.

The visit to the Maasai village was an incredible experience and I think often of the community and its people. I wonder what the future holds for them and all of Africa with its boundless resources, its boundless poverty, and its boundless social problems. I also think of all of the gifts I have been given by merely an accident of birth into the family I have, my birth into a society that values education, and my birth into a country that offers freedoms and prosperity. I came away from Africa this time like I did when I was in South Africa: with a renewed determination to be a better steward of the gifts given to me and to remember . . . to remember. . . .