Published by
East African Educational Publishers Ltd.
Elgeyo Marakwet Close, off Elgeyo Marakwet Road,
Kilimani, Nairobi
P.O. Box 45314, Nairobi - 00100, KENYA
Tel: +254 20 2324760
Mobile: +254 722 205661 / 722 207216 / 733 677716 / 734 652012
Email:
Website: www.eastafricanpublishers.com
East African Educational Publishers also has offices or is represented in the following countries: Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana and South Sudan.
Naomi Kipuri, 1983
All rights reserved
First published 1983
ISBN 978-9966-46-173-5
Without assistance from a long list of friends and relatives, it would not have been possible to write a book of this kind. It is not possible to name everyone here, but since they know themselves, I wish to record my deep gratitude for their contributions. I am particularly indebted to my mother, Maayio enole Kipury, for spending many hours narrating patiently most of the stories in this book. She also sang to me many womens songs, and gave explanations whenever my inexperienced mind failed me. I am also extremely grateful for the help offered by David ole Tuukuo and Mumeita ole Kipees, who contributed some of the stories and proverbs. Without the cultural knowledge of Moses ole Marima and Matuyia ole Kurao, which they so willingly shared with me, my appreciation of some riddles and poems would have been limited. Lastly, many thanks go to Ann Ndungu for her tireless effort in typing the manuscript.
In this collection of Maasai oral literature, Naomi Kipuri has provided an enchanting avenue into the wisdom, mores, values, art and literary creativity of Maa-speaking peoples of East Africa. Known for their commitment to a pastoralist lifestyle, the Maasai number around 2 million spread across both Kenya and Tanzania. They feature prominently in mass-circulated iconography of Africa in safari brochures, coffee table books, mobile phone ads, and on postcards shouldering video cameras in a cheap contrast of supposed tradition with presumed modernity. In these images, Maasai are subjects of narratives constructed by others. They are presented as proud cattle-keepers who reject the demands and exigencies of todays world. However noble and romantic that may at first appear, the disturbing subtext is that they are out of synch with contemporary life, a cultural throwback to a bygone era. Yet nothing could be further from the truth.
This volume offers a strong rejoinder to those dangerous discourses. It contains a wide array of stories, songs, poetry, creation myths, heroic legends, trickster tales, allegories, riddles, proverbs and more composed by Maasai for Maasai. But they are rendered here for broader audiences by Kipuri, who painstakingly collected them, transcribed and beautifully translated them so that readers could appreciate them both in their original Maa and in English. She organizes them into chapters according to genre, each of which is preceded by a thorough and illuminating introduction. These oral art forms educate and elucidate. They describe the rewards that come to the just, and the punishments suffered by the greedy or lazy, the selfish or unkind. They offer explanations for the origins of Maasai moieties and clans, and of cultural practices such as marriage.
They tell how features in the landscape where Maasai live came into being and describe the personalities of others who share that landscape, such as the clever hare, the wise mongoose and the greedy hyena.
The release of this new edition is especially timely given escalating pressures on Maasai and other pastoralist communities to abandon their way of life and assimilate to the mainstream. Both the Tanzanian and Kenyan governments have instituted policies that impede and undermine pastoralism despite the fact that pastoralists (with the Maasai being the majority) provide both nations with 80-90% of their meat and dairy needs. Politicians are also trying to legislate limits on the size of herds, and in some cases ordering draconian destocking campaigns, based on controversial (and scientifically unfounded) ideas about the carrying capacity of the land.
Without ease of movement to shift herds seasonally for access to pasture and water, and without the ability to maintain herds at traditional levels, the Maasai will be unable to sustain their way of life.
It is important to note that both Kenya and Tanzania are signatory states to the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). They are thus bound to the principles enshrined within it, which include rejecting discrimination against indigenous populations and ensuring their rights to self-determination, to their land, and to practise their cultural traditions. Globally, Maasai are recognized as indigenous people yet their own governments resolutely deny the existence of any indigenous populations. And yet, the Maasai are continually misrepresented in public pronouncements, both official and unofficial, as raiders and thieves, who disregard the land rights of others by trespassing where they will, and whose herds destroy the environment, wreak havoc on farmers crops, and imperil water sources and wetlands.
Upon investigation, what one finds instead is that it is Maasai territories that are being invaded. Farmers, both large and small-scale, whose territories are now over-populated and over-cultivated are encroaching on Maasai territories with impunity, attracted also because they surmise the virgin soil there must be rich in nutrients even if rainfall is meager. And investors and elites, who view Maasai territory as underutilized and rich in agricultural or mining or conservationist potential, are joining forces to grab ever more Maasai lands. Unfortunately, this continues a long history of forced re-settlement of Maasai from their territories, which dates back to the arrival of colonial settlers in the Kenyan highlands in the late 19th century up through the creation and expansion of multiple national parks in the 1960s onwards that continue to bear Maa names (Maasai Mara, Serengeti, Tarangire, Ngorongoro, Manyara) in memory of those whose land it once was.
Traditional pastoralism is as study after study has shown. Yet curiously this passes unrecognized and governments risk endangering their meat and dairy supplies by threatening pastoralism. Try imagining a dinner party in Kenya or Tanzania without nyama choma or chai masala! A second irony is that Maasai territories keep being appropriated for new national parks precisely because they are such excellent guardians of the land and its flora and fauna. In 1961 Tanzania had only one national park, the famous Serengeti, but today it boasts sixteen, several of which are the direct result of Maasai evictions (add Mkomazi and Ruaha national parks to the list above). Thus contrary to depictions of Maasai as causing environmental destruction or degradation, Maasai have proven to be such superior custodians of the land that they are now losing to countless conservation initiatives.
Maasai communities nonetheless continue to pursue their way of life, which is documented and praised through their oral literature and songs. In the area of Kiteto district where I have worked for a number of years in Maasai communities, one song frequently sang by warriors details their love for the land and its features:
