At 2:30 p.m. we were warmly greeted by the chief of the local Masai village; magnificently dressed in his royal attire, complete with his colourful chieftain walking stick and his metal coated club. His name was Richard Olekamuye and has two wives but was very excited about his imminent third marriage. His wonderful smile made us feel immediately at ease and with that he walked us to his village in the afternoon sun. On the way he gave us a very detailed, interesting account of the traditions of the Masai Tribes which I'll now reveal to you:
- The Masai Men fully engage in poly amorous activities before marriage (no difference there then). However polygamy is by no means frowned upon. In fact the more wives you have the greater your status is amongst society.
- The men are not allowed to marry until they are 25 years old and have successfully completed the warrior stage.
- For every 15 cows you own you may have a wife. Richard had 32 at the time we met him but was close to completing a purchase of 13 more thus making it 45 cows; allows him to choose his third wife.
- The first wife is chosen by the parents, the second by the first wife, and from then on the husband may choose as many wives as he wishes so long as he has a number of cows fully divisible by 15; fractions, sadly, are not possible.
- The women of community are the chief engineers and architects. They are responsible for the fabrication of every building in the village and each one is surprisingly spacious considering that from the outside they appear no larger than the average sitting-room.
- The huts are built entirely from sticks, soil, cow dung, and cow skin.
- Every village has a 'town hall' where meetings are held every Monday morning to discuss various complaints.
- When boys turn 15 years of age, they attend a circumsition ceremony (without painkillers) where they are then pronounced warriors. Fortunately they didn't go into too much detail.
- Only the men are allowed to kindle fires.
I could go on and on but these were the points that I found most interesting.
Upon arriving at the village we were greeted by the wives performing a traditional welcome dance, dressed in their flamboyant, multi-coloured robes and wearing equally ornate jewellery... needless to say we felt very welcome and humbled by this experience. After the dance we were given a tour round the village by Richard and we were very kindly invited into one of the houses. It took sometime for our eyes and posture to adjust to the darkness and size of the huts but after a couple of minutes it felt incredibly homely.
This was then proceeded by a demonstration in how the Masai men kindle their fires without the use of a lighter. The process involves lightening quick movement and callousness of the hands, as I was soon to find out, because after this presentation I was invited to have a go. I'm proud to say that I did manage to kindle a fire but at the expense of my hands which, as I'm now typing, are still a tad raw... but at least I'd proven myself in front of the warriors and that's the important thing. Finally we were taken to their mini-market full of enticing little trinkets and souvenirs that we couldn't resist indulging in.
Hopefully we will encounter the people from the village again in the future... every single person; man, woman, and child had a contageous smile planted on their face when we met them and leaving the village we couldn't help but smile too.
Xav & Caitlin
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