The
Maasai Tribe.
For my trip to Tanzania I am
researching the Maasai tribe that lives there and I found a lot of interesting facts about them.
Maasai's unique culture,
dress style and territory of the wild and wildlife in Kenya and Tanzania have
made them one of Africa's most famous tourist attractions. The Maasai make decorative beaded jewelry including necklaces, earrings, headbands, and
wrist and ankle bracelets. These seems to be really cool designs. The Maasai
also create interesting wood carvings. A lot of these art pieces are sold to
tourist. You can find the beautiful Maasai art all over the world.
Another interesting fact that I
found is that most Maasai men stand over 6 feet tall and are warriors. Their
very important god is the rain god Ngai. When the children are young they sing
and dance for it to rain. Also when boys turn 14 they traditionally spend up to
8 years looking after livestock far from the village. When they come back they
are to get married. The two facts that stood out to me the most was that traditionally
to become a man you would have to kill a lion but today killing a lion is illegal
and if you do you will go to jail. The other fact is that warriors drink cow’s
blood because they believe it makes them stronger.
The Maasai women are very important
in the society. The women make the homes, milk cows, and collect water, cook,
and look after the children. But women are considered a minority in society
also and are usually represented by their father or husband. A question I would
a Maasai women is “If you could, would you change your style of living?”
Learning about the Maasai tribe is
very interesting and I hope that when I go to Tanzania I will learn more about
the tribe.
