Dancing With the Maasai

After a hectic 9 days, Thursday was a welcomed slow day to be customized as we desired.  We had the option to take a balloon ride in the morning, however, dangling several hundred feet in the air wasn’t something of interest to either of us.  So instead, we slept in a bit, and had a leisurely morning doing not much of anything around the resort. 

Monkeys at our Lodge

At 2:00 however, we had a tour scheduled of a Maasai village.  This was something we had been very interested in when we were planning but had some reservations on the nature of these types of activities.  While such experiences can be incredibly educational, we were somewhat hesitant for fear that the experience would be awkwardly exploitative.  There can be an odd feeling of being an obvious outsider coming into a rural village where naturally there is a difference in wealth by incredible multiples, jumping off of a bus where a bunch of people are told to do their dance for you, so you can buy a trinket and leave. If this was the case, we weren’t interested.  (A traveler I met many years ago on a safari in Namibia described the feeling of such a village visit elsewhere as feeling like “tapping on the windows” as if at a zoo trying to get an animal to do something for you.)

Fortunately, the research we found, indicated that this was generally not the case.  Instead, it is a way for the Maasai to teach others about their history and culture which is something they enjoy doing.  Furthermore, the fees to do this are an important part of the local economy and are what help sustain the locals so that they can continue to keep pace with the modernizing world around them.  Therefore, we scheduled the tour.

We met Stephen in the lobby, where he was accompanied by a Maasai man that I would guess was around 35.  He introduced himself as Simon  I had expected that we were getting into the van with Stephen and that we would then drive to the village, however, at the door of the lobby, Stephen bid us farewell.  I asked if he was not driving us and he said “No, you are walking to the village.”  Stephen remained back at the hotel, and we continued with Simon.

As we walked down the entry road that led to our resort, Simon stopped to show us a tall bush which I believe he referred to as an “orange plant”.  He said that the Maasai would boil the root of this plant and use it to soothe intestinal issues.  We continued walking for what was probably a half a mile or so down the dusty gravel road and then turned down a dirt road towards the Masai village.  Ahead of us we could see that there was a group of several young Maasai men all in their traditional clothing, awaiting our arrival. 

Maasai Welcoming Committee

When we got to the spot they were, Simon directed us to a large bush that was creating a little bit of shade.  He said, “I know it is hot for you, so you can stand here in the shade.”   He then told us that in this area, no one knows him as Simon, but they all know his name as Simary (Sigh-MAY-ree).  He then let us know that we could take pictures of anything we want to, and that they would teach us about Maasai life.  He said they were going to start with a traditional dance that is often done at the beginning of large events.  Nine men began to sing in something that is reminiscent of the Mongolian throat singing band “The Hu”.  The song was in a crisp 6/8 (for the musicians out there).  Some of the men sung a single unison low bass droning whole notes that emanated deeply from within their throats, with minor emphasis on each 1st and 4th beat.  A few of the men did more of a percussive sound of eighth notes that was more forced breath than tone, in a bit of a “Heh-hoo-hoo Hih-hoo-hoo.” Where I believe the “Hih” may have been inhaled.  Then the tenor overlaid lyrics that I’m assuming were in the Maa language.  From here the song was punctuated with a few high pitched battle-call “yiyiyiyi” and rhythmic blowing into a horn that I believe was an impala horn.  This provided a single pitch which they blew in 8^th note triplets towards the end of what would be comparable to a verse.

After performing this for a bit, they then grabbed our hands and brought us into the line to dance and sing with them.  I was next to one of the percussive singers, and he tried to teach me the part.  I struggled a bit to keep my dancing going along with the singing while also trying to figure out the pattern of the phonetics.  I kept getting close but not quite there.  He was a patient teacher though as I was attempting to learn during our spontaneous live performance.

After the dance, we then began the competition of jumping.  This is traditionally used to identify the strongest man in the village so that he can win the right to marry a wife.  As the rest of the men stand around, two men face off jumping as high as they can.  If I understood it correctly, it almost seemed like “scissor, paper rock”  where you do a couple small jumps together to get the rhythm, and then the third jump is the one that counts.  The Maasai performed the ritual for us, and then pointed to me and said “it is now your turn to compete.”

Maasai Jumping Contest

I tend to be both competitive and also very much try to immerse myself as much as possible in cultural experiences such as this.  So upon their invitation, I took off my hat and sunglasses off, and much to the surprise of the Maasai removed my shoes and socks and entered into the ring.  I competed against one, and they told me that I jumped higher.  I went back to the line of men feeling accomplished, but then was told I needed to compete against the next opponent. This happened two more times after which I received some congratulatory high fives from the other men. 

After my victorious competition, we all marched into the inner part of the village continuing to sing. Here we were met by some of the village women who joined us in dancing and singing.  The women introduced themselves to Aimee, and after we all finished dancing and singing, Simary told Aimee that the women liked her and said they’d like to keep her in the village.

Now that we were on the inside of the village enclosure, there were several mud huts with mud roofs.  On top of two of the huts were women working on the roofs. The one had a large pile of mud mixed with cow dung that she was using to seal the thatch that made up the roof.  Simay explained that rains will be coming, and they must finish the roof beforehand.  This was quite the dirty job, as her hands and arms were covered in the concoction up to her elbows as she grabbed handfuls of the mixture and spread it around the roof.

Inside the Village

Simary had us sit down and taught us about life in the village.  He told us if you have multiple wives it can get complicated and you must build each wife a house.  He said the man must go into each of the wives’ huts and satisfy them at night, and be careful that they are treated equally because jealousy between wives can become a big problem.  At the end of the explanation he summed up his lesson by saying “more wives, more problems.”

Simary Inside Hut (his leg is bent behind him)

He then gave us a tour inside one of the huts.  These were very similar to the ones we had seen earlier at the Bomas of Kenya.  As we walked in the door, there was a partially enclosed pen to the left for animals.  Inside the main hut however it was extremely dark.  Coming in from the bright sun, we could see nothing.  In the bedroom, he had us sit on the bed, which was a structure of reeds about 2 feet of the ground, just under 3 feet wide, and about 5 feet long.  To the left was some shelving, also made out of reeds, and opposite us was the children’s room (next to Simary in the picture).  In the center of the floor a few rocks were arranged, and this is where the fire would be built on cold evenings.

Hut Shelving

After the tour of the hut, Simary took as back out, and walked to the other side of the village.  Here he sat us down again in the shade, and he shared the history of the area and the tribe. After this they demonstrated how they make fire by taking a flat piece of wood with a round notch carved out of the edge and a long stick that is placed in the notch, and then twisting back and forth with the hands, pushing down hard.  The Maasai’s hands would start at the top as they rubbed their hands back and forth vigorously, until their hands slide to the bottom, then they’d quickly place their hands at the top and do it again.  It did not take long until smoke appeared.  Under the flat piece of wood they had a machete, so that once an ember formed and dropped onto it, they quickly brushed it into a pile of elephant dung.  They then began blowing on the dung which began smoking quite a bit.  In under two minutes start to finish, they had a flame.

This was the last part of the actual tour and we were then brought into a large fenced off area where several tables had been setup in a large square.  Each of the women had their souvenirs for sale.  Simary told us that we could grab whatever interested us, and then he we would meet in the middle of the square with us at the end to negotiate a price.  At each table the woman behind it would encourage us to look at specific items, and of course encourage us to buy them.  We eventually selected a few and met for the final negotiation.

Simary initially quoted us 13,000 shillings for all the items we had picked up (roughly $95). I had offered to remove one of the larger items, and offered 8,000 for the rest.  He countered with “I could do 12,500 for all of it”.  Then I made things complicated for him and pulled out my wallet and said “I only have 10,000 shillings, so will you take 10,000 for all?  He asked if I had more shillings at the hotel, which I said no.  (partially true…I did have some shillings but only enough to tip our waitress from the last 3 days, whom I had not tipped yet, and to tip the men that I knew would carry our bags for us the next day to the car.

Simary said he would need to discuss it with everyone else.  He pulled together a couple Maasai men, and went through each item, calling to the woman at the table.  It appeared he was having to figure out how much each person would get paid for the lesser amount.  Finally he came back and said it was good.

At this point, I wanted to present him a gift.  I thanked him for teaching us about the rich historical culture of the Maasai people.  I said my gift did not have deep historical culture, but was something visitors to Nashville Tennessee buy as souvenirs.  I told him unlike the Maasai cow’s blood that makes them big and strong, my gift will make you lazy and fat.  Nonetheless, I handed over a large box of GooGoo Clusters for them to pass around and enjoy in the village.  

A Gift of Goo from Nashville

After this we collected our purchases and were escorted back to the resort by both Simary and another of the Maasai men.  On the way back he congratulated me again for my strong jumping. 

Maasai Escort Back to our Camp

As we walked back we passed a massive herd of hundreds of cows that stretched as far as the eyes could see.

Cows for Days

When we arrived back Stephen was awaiting us, and asked what we wished to do now.  We had said we would like to do our last game drive.  This would be a short one as the National Park closed in 2.5 hours. 

As soon as we entered into the park, there seemed to be a nervous buzz among the wildlife.  There were quite a few animals right near the entrance and many seemed to be standing at attention.  Stephen heard on his two-way radio that something had happened at the first intersection of trails, and that there may have been a recent kill.  We headed in that direction, but before we got there, we saw a couple hyenas.  We stopped to take a look (there were several other trucks around also, which is always an indication something of interest is near). As we looked at the two hyenas we heard some braying somewhat similar to a donkey, and saw a third hyena running around making the noise.  He ran towards us and crossed the road right in front of us.  He was carrying the bloody severed head of some small antelope in his mouth.  There was a fourth hyena nearby, and the one with the head in its mouth pranced towards it proudly braying the whole way.  As we sat there, the hyena ran around continuing to call attention to himself to every animal that would pay attention to show off the head.

A Very Proud Hyena

We asked Stephen if the hyena would have killed whatever it was he was carrying, and Stephen said probably not.  They are not good hunters they usually just scavenge other kills.

At this point we noticed there were two lions further up the road, and it appeared one was eating something it had killed. The hyena with the severed head in its mouth was prancing closer and closer to the lion.  It seemed to have not realized the lion was there.  At one point though when it was still 100-200 feet away it stopped, apparently having caught site of the lion.  While the hyena did stop in its tracks, it seemed to suddenly become once again awash in bravado, as it again started prancing, this time towards the lion proudly showing off the head in its mouth.  However, the closer it got to the lion, rational sense seemed to take over and he veered off in another direction.

We continued to sit and watch the lion.  We still could not see what was in the grass that it was eating,

but it seemed to be enjoying the last few bites and relaxing while letting it digest a bit.  While the hyena with the head had disappeared somewhere off in the distance, the other hyenas were still slinking about the area.  The lion closest to us (the one that had been eating) seemed to have been annoyed by the first hyena’s antics and saw the other ones in the distance on the other side of the road we were on and decided to get up and deal with the situation.  The lion got up and began walking towards the road. It seemed not to care at all that there were over a dozen safari vehicles filled with humans watching it.  Instead his sights were trained directly on the hyena in the distance.  It trotted across the road and into the taller grass where it crouched down a bit as it stalked the hyena hurriedly. He got closer and closer but did not get within 50 feet.  At one point the hyena sensed something behind it, and began galloping into the distance.  At this point the lion decided it wasn’t worth the trouble and gave up the chase.

After staying in this area for about 30 minutes and watching all the interactions between the two lions, four hyenas, and hundreds of other animals keeping a wide berth around the lions, we decided to venture deeper into the Mara.  There was not much else in terms of wild game that we saw over the next hour, just a few animals here and there, and a few interesting birds.  A few miles in the distance, we could see rain coming down on sections of the Mara.  In our section the air and the ground were dry, but the sky was overcast, and the air was filled with the smell of cool rain which had stirred up and mixed with the sweet smell of some of the flora from the Mara.  The smell was fantastically refreshing.  I stuck my head out of the safari van for most of the rest of the trip just to inhale as much of the scent as possible.  I did a quick google search to see if I could find an incense that could fill my house with the smell of “Maasai Mara in the Rain”.  I couldn’t find it.  If anyone ever comes across it, it is a fantastic smell and I recommend you buy a lifetime supply.

Maasai Mara in the Rain

We exited the park only a few minutes before the 6:30 closure.  We headed back to our lodge, cleaned up, went to enjoy our last dinner on safari, and had a few cocktails to celebrate as well.  While the lodge had been fairly quiet and empty previously, today a large group of around 20 Canadians as well as a separate group of about 10 French had now checked in, so the restaurant was very full.  With the much larger crowd, a group of the Maasai had been arranged to come in and do their singing, dancing, and jumping for the enjoyment of all of us at dinner. They also came by each of our tables and greeted us.  We didn’t recognize any from our earlier outing, but I was sure to brag to them that I had won the jumping contest in the village. 

Maasai at Dinner

After relaxing for quite some time and bidding farewell to our waitress from the last few days, we handed her a box of Goo Goo Clusters as a thank you, and we retired to our room.