Back to some more village photos today. Let's start with the men.
It is definitely a 'man's world' in Maasai culture. You get many wives. You never have to kiss, cuddle, snuggle or show affection in any way at all to any of those wives. You have no responsibilities other than your livestock, but once you have children you can send them to sit in the field all day with your cows. You are allowed to get drunk if you like, or disappear into the woods for weeks, or just lie around all day having 'simba time'. Whatever really. AND you get to walk around with a big knife and a big stick, play with fire and kill things. How great is that?
Occasionally, if the mood strikes you, you might get together with your mates and practice your dance routines.
I guess these guys think they deserve the easy life. They did go through a lot to get to Warrior status after all. That little thing called... circumcision. Ouch.
In Maasai culture, male circumcision is done at around age 18-20. It sounds quite traumatic. It is dragged out a little with some hard questioning from the elders, a beating or two, some derogatory name calling and then finally they are made to lay flat, completely still, while someone slices their foreskin with a possibly blunt and/or dirty knife. If they flinch, if they even so much as bat an eyelid, they fail, and will be shamed in the community. Their family too. Who ever said men don't have a high pain threshold?
But all this lack of responsibility makes them quite fun to be around. Especially if you get a bit of Konyagi into them (its a spirit somewhere between vodka and gin). We took them some bottles as a thank you for hanging out with us. They viewed it more as a challenge and proceeded to down it all as fast as they could.
This ended up in a messy scene with warriors toppling over everywhere, arguments about who was the real leader in the dance routine thing and a few near misses with spears and knives as they proceeded to jump and fall about.
It is hard to remember that the lifestyle in the village is 100% authentic for these guys. There is no 'putting it on' for the tourists. This is real life. The wonder and delight at discovering how an ipod works or looking at the half naked girls in a fashion magazine was as real as any I've ever seen.
Anyway, on to the women. I just thought they were all stunning. I was a wreck without any mirrors or makeup or hairdryer or straightener for the week. These women live like that and were all the more beautiful for it. (I wish I had more photos but they were generally not too keen on having their picture taken).
They are also responsible for creating an income so that they can buy all the things that they cannot grow like rice and sugar. Crafts are a common income source.
We had a nice chat with all the mamas. They were interested to know about (discrete) contraception options and we wanted to know whether they would want their daughters to live a traditional Maasai life or not. It certainly seemed to be a hard one.
It struck me that while our lives in the west are generally ruled by pleasure, here they are ruled by necessity. We choose the food we eat for pleasure, look for jobs that give us fulfillment or satisfaction, choose a partner that we love to be around, spend our money on toys and gadgets that amuse us, buy cars that thrill us and buy clothes that enhance the image of ourselves. These Maasai do none of those things. Everything here seems to have a much closer link with survival rather than pleasure.
They still seem to laugh a lot though. That, I know, is for pleasure.
Till next time x
Thanks again Ashley!! Very interesting to read al this. Think I will stick to being Australian. x
ReplyDelete