Year 6 at Rochedale State School were fortunate to have a visit from Dr Tyman who talked to them about the Maasai people of Africa and showed them some great Maasai artifacts. Here's some of our pictures taken during the talk and some information about the Maasai.

Here's some other pages with pictures of Maasai people on them if you would like to learn more about them:

The Maasai People

A Maasai Village

A Maasai Warrior's Dream

Maasai People
The Maasai are East African nomadic people speaking the Maasai Sudanic language. The Maasai (or Masai) traditionally herded their cattle freely across the highlands of Kenya. Probably at the height of their power in the mid-19th century, they suffered from the British colonization of Africa and the resultant ecological and political changes. Rinderpest, an infectious febrile disease, apparently accompanied the British, decimating the cattle herds that supplied the Maasai with milk and blood; famine and then smallpox followed. The weakened Maasai attacked rather than cooperated with the new rulers. In 1904 and 1912-13 the British government relocated the Maasai population to distant southern Kenya and Tanzania, where they now live.

Maasai males are rigidly classed by age into boys, warriors, and elders. Girls often have their marriages negotiated by their fathers before they are born. Older women enjoy the same status as male elders. The Maasai, most of whom are nomadic throughout the year, live in kraals, small clusters of cow-dung huts constructed by the women. Today the Maasai number approximately 250,000. They remain a pastoral people.

The Maasai believed that God originally gave all cattle to them. Because of this, it was a common activity for them to take their spears and shields and go and steal back cattle that were in the possession of other tribes.

Most of the work in a Maasai village is done by the women. They are very much subject to the will of their husbands. Even so, in sharing the milk, which is an important part of their diet, they receive less than other members of the tribe.

The gourds in these pictures are used as milk containers and their size and thus the amount of milk they contain, depends on the owner's age and status. Each family member has his/her own gourd. Maasai clothing is worn mainly for decoration. Traditionally it was made from animal skins but today colourful red cloth is the favourite. Click on the girls in their colourful red cloths, to see a bigger picture.

Beads are an important part of Maasai culture. They are a sign of age and status and are worn on wrists, necks, heads and through ear lobes. Because the Maasai people have so little in the way of material possessions, they make use of everything available. No part of their animals is wasted and even discarded cans are put to good purpose.

When young men become warriors, they receive a spear, a sword and a shield from their father. The shields are made form buffalo hide, stretched over a wooden frame and decorated with geometric patterns in black, white and red, showing their clan. Mancala know to the Maasai as "En geishi" is a game played  by Maasai warriors and elders. Peebles or seeds are placed in holes carved into a block of wood and are meant to represent cattle owned by the players. Each player attempts to capture the other player's "cattle".

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Pages by Glenda Crew, October, 1999