Maasai Tribe

local Culture

MAASAI TRIbe

The Maasai are a Nilotic people, an African people who originally settled along the upper Nile valley but started to move down the Nile around the 16th Century and over time occupied the lands they still inhabit today, Kenya and Tanzania.

Their language is Maa (hence Maasai) and their traditions are passed on orally. They are traditionally pastoralists and their culture gravitates around tending livestock even though survival has led them to be sedentary and many work in towns.

an ancient people

with many traditions

The Maasai have a patriarchal and hierarchical structure where the elders have almost absolute decisive power over community affairs and initiation rites. Each age passage involves a ritual: Laiyoni (young males), Morani (warriors), Tiyeki (young adults) and Orpayan (adults) are the different age groups.

The Maasai are polygamous and monotheistic, they believe in Enkai (God) and are predominantly Catholic or Lutheran. The traditional houses where the Maasai live used to be made of dung mixed with mud but today they adopt more stable constructions made of stone and sheet metal.

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