The Massai warriors are one of the vital distinguished and revered ethnic teams in Kenya. The soldiers are so vastly feared, it’s advised that lions and cheetahs will run away or cease their pursuits of sport animals if a Massai warrior is wherever shut by. As quickly as a Massai warrior is initiated their spear and protect are adorned with purple paint, which is symbolic of their standing in society.
The central unit of the Massai society is the age-set. Though younger boys are despatched out with the calves and lambs as quickly as they will toddle, childhood for boys is generally playtime. Ladies are accountable for chores reminiscent of cooking and milking. Each 15 years or so, a brand new and individually named technology of warriors shall be initiated. This includes most boys between 12 and 25 who’ve reached puberty and should not a part of the earlier age-set. One ceremony of passage from boyhood to the standing of junior warrior is a painful circumcision ceremony, which is carried out with out anesthetic. The Maa phrase for circumcision is emorata. The boy should endure the operation in silence. Expressions of ache deliver dishonor, albeit quickly. The therapeutic course of will take 3-4 months, and boys should stay in black cloths for a interval of 4-8 months.
Throughout this era, the newly circumcised younger males will stay in a “manyatta”, a “village” constructed by their moms. The manyatta has no encircling barricade for defense, emphasizing the warrior function of defending the group. Additional rites of passage are required earlier than attaining the standing of senior warrior, culminating within the eunoto ceremony, the “coming of age”.
When a brand new technology of warriors is initiated, the present warriors will graduate to change into junior elders, who’re accountable for political choices till they in flip change into senior elders.
The soldiers are accountable for society’s safety, and spend most of their time now on walkabouts all through Maasai lands, past the confines of their sectional boundaries. They’re additionally way more concerned in cattle buying and selling than they was, growing and enhancing fundamental inventory by way of trades and bartering fairly than stealing as previously. Boys are accountable for herding small livestock. Throughout the drought season, each warriors and boys assume duty for herding livestock. Elders are administrators and advisors for day-to-day actions. Ladies are accountable for making the homes in addition to supplying water, amassing firewood, milking cattle and cooking for the household. One fantasy in regards to the Massai is that every younger man is meant to kill a lion earlier than they’re circumcised. Though lion looking was an exercise of the previous, and lion looking has been banned in East Africa, lions are nonetheless hunted once they maul Massai livestock, and younger warriors who interact in conventional lion killing don’t face vital penalties. Rising concern concerning lion populations has given rise to no less than one program which promotes accepting compensation when a lion kills livestock, fairly than looking and killing the predator. However, killing a lion offers one nice worth and celeb standing locally.
