Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization

Status                 : Indigenous Ethnic Groups
Population           : +/- 900.000 people
Area                    : 160.000 km2
Language            : Eastern Nilotic 
Religion               : Christian 

Ethnic Groups     : Ildamat, Ilpurko, Ilkeekonyokie, Iloitai, Ilkaputiei, Ilkankere, Isiria, Ilmoitanik, Iloodokilani,                                        Iloitokitoki, Ilarusa, Ilmatatapato, Ilwuasinkishu, Kore, Parakuyu, and Ilkisonko

UNPO REPRESENTATION
At the UNPO, the Maasai are represented by 3 organizations; The Maasai Women for Education and Economic Development (MAWEED), The Mainyoito Pastoralist Integrated Development Organisation (MPIDO), and The Kitengela Ilparakuo Land Owners Association

OVERVIEW
GEOGRAPHY
The Maasai people are an indigenous ethnic group in Africa who live in Kenya and northern Tanzania. They live a semi-nomadic lifestyle and range from Lake Turkana to Ngorongoro.

POPULATION
There are an estimated 900,000 Maasai total, with approximately 430,000 in Tanzania, though an actual approximation of the population is difficult due to their semi-nomadic nature and the remote location of their villages. The population is currently in decline.

ECONOMY
Traditionally the Maasai are nomadic cattle herders with grazing lands spanning from central Kenya into Tanzania. The young Maasai men tend the herds and live in small camps, moving frequently in the constant search for water and good grazing lands. They often travel into towns and cities to purchase goods and supplies and to sell their cattle at regional markets. However, as both government and private interests have appropriated land that the Maasai need for pasture - often in the name of conservation, the reduction in available grazing land has brought increasing poverty to the Maasai pastoralists. In many cases, the lions that are protected in these national parks stray away from them and kill Maasai cattle. Many young Maasai have started to move to the cities in order to find new sources of income.

In order to remediate to this situation the United Nations Development Programme has recently started to develop wildlife based tourism activities that will yield benefits to the local Maasai communities. In some instances, Maasai cultural centres for the sale of cultural artefacts and crafts will be built.

UNPO MEMBER PERSPECTIVE
There are three organisations that represent the Maasai at the UNPO: The Maasai Women for Education and Economic Development (MAWEED), is a community based organisation (CBO) whose main objective is to fight for the rights of the Maasai women and the educational rights of the Maasai youth. This Non-Governmental Organization was founded in 2001 and is based in Narok district of Kenya. This organisation, with the backing of the Mainyoito Pastoralist Integrated Development Organisation and the Kitengela Ilparakuo Land Owners Association, joined the UNPO on the 19th of December 2004.

The Mainyoito Pastoralist Integrated Development Organisation (MPIDO), was founded to further civic education on human rights aimed at securing land rights, stimulating community development, and responding to food insecurity in Kajiado District, Kenya. MPIDO was established in 1996 and registered as a not-for-profit local Non-Governmental Organization for Human Rights and Social Development. Headquarters are situated in the Bomas of Kenya compound on the Langata Road about 20 km outside Kenya's capital city, Nairobi.

The Kitengela Ilparakuo Land Owners Association represents the Maasai community in Kitengela and acts as a focal point for discussing issues with other stakeholders involving wildlife lands in the region.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The Maasai came from the north of Africa, originating in the lower Nile Valley in Sudan, northwest of Lake Turkana. It is believed that they departed this area between the 14th and 16th centuries, migrating southwards towards the Great Rift Valley. They arrived in their present-day territories in Kenya and Tanzania between the 17th or 18th centuries, covering the largest amount of territory in the mid-19thcentury – covering almost the entire Great Rift Valley.

While previously a cohesive nation, and a formidable fighting force, from 1830, the Maasai unity disintegrated into a succession of wars between the various clans presided over by rival laiboni (ritual leaders), largely over cattle and grazing grounds. One particularly famous battle took place just outside present-day Nakuru around a volcanic crater called Menengai.

Europeans started arriving in the 19th century. Firstly, the missionaries came, then the explorers and finally the British Army. They began to colonize Kenya in 1885 and reached the Maasai territory around 1889. The Maasai resisted British rule and attempt to seize their land; nevertheless after several years of warfare, they had to give up much of it. In 1904 and 1911, the British colonial government tricked illiterate Maasai elders into signing the controversial Anglo-Maasai agreements that made way for the confiscation of the Maasai land on the behalf of the British settlers, who continue to own most of it even today.

After independence from British rule in 1963, the situation of the Maasai did not get any better. Under the rule of the rule of the country’s first president Jomo Kenyatta, more land was lost under land redistribution programmes that favoured the President’s own tribe members, the Kikuyu’s. The creation of the Mara Game Reserve, which would become a National Reserve, excluded them from even more traditional grazing lands resulting in poverty and social disorganization. Still, the Maasai continue their nomadic tradition and resist permanent settlements.

Today, the Maasai continue their struggle to reclaim their ancestral lands and the tensions are rising. In April 2005, a white farmer murdered a Maasai game warden. He allegedly mistook him for an armed robber. In June 2003, Maasai warriors killed 11 lions from the Nairobi national park in revenge for killing their livestock. They claimed that the government was only preoccupied about the protection of the lions while ignoring the threat they pose to the Maasai herds.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
Environmental threats come from commercial agricultural expansion; sidelining of the Maasai from mainstream nature conservation; insensitive tourism practices; and continued loss of Maasai traditional lands to other modern economic enterprises. Ongoing deforestation, commercial hunting, and the loss of wildlife migratory routes and breeding grounds also pose a threat to wildlife in Kenya and Tanzania where the Maasai are located. Moreover, as the Maasai continue to lose land and traditional culture, elephants and other wildlife lose habitat.

CULTURE AND ENVIRONMENT
CULTURE
The Maasai people are highly traditional and have resisted western influences and modernization that has influenced many of the other communities around them. They remain a highly nomadic people, following traditional grazing lands stretching over Kenya and Tanzania. The culture of the Maasai people is patriarchal and there are still exists clear divisions in gender rolls. For example, the Maasai women are responsible for the house, including construction, maintenance, and supplies; such as water, firewood, food, and milk. The Maasai men herd the livestock and they are also the Warriors that responsible for providing security. The Elders have a leadership roll in the society and direct day-to-day activities, including setting the daily schedule.

Maasai houses are constructed by the women out of readily available materials, including mud, sticks, grass, cow dung and urine. The house is generally either loaf-shaped or circular, and is where the family cooks, eats, sleeps, socializes and stores food, fuel and other possessions. Villages are enclosed by a circular fence that protects the families and the livestock from wild animals at night.

Cattle take a central role in Maasai culture and diet. A man’s worth is determined on the size of his herd and the number of his children. On special occasions, the Maasai people drink cattle blood, and it is traditionally given to the recently circumcised, a woman who has just given birth, elders, and to the sick as it is good for the immune system and very rich in protein. The cattle blood is also used as a hangover cure or to counter intoxication. Throughout the year beef and milk is the base of the Maasai diet. As livestock numbers decrease in size, the traditional Maasai diet is gradually changing and the use of blood in the diet is dying out.

About every 15 years, a new generation of warriors made up of most boys between the ages of 12 and 25 is initiated. Circumcision is the traditional rite of passage that marks the transition from boyhood into the warrior age-set. The previous generation of warriors passes at that time into the new status as junior elders. Girls also undergo circumcision in a rite of passage that prepares them for marriage, though in some cases this tradition has been replaced with a “cutting with words” ceremony more recently. Warriors traditionally would be required to kill a lion in order to have a wife, but the tradition has died out in modern times. Nonetheless, killing a lion brings great respect in the community as lions are still a threat to the livestock.

The women are easily identified by their shaved head, bright clothing and many beads. Both men and women remove of one or more their bottom teeth in early childhood, a tradition stemmed from the idea that some illnesses are caused to swelling along the tooth bed. Earlobe stretching has been a popular body modification, though fewer and fewer Maasai are continuing this custom. Clothing varies by gender, age, and place, but red is a favored color and cotton cloth has become prevalent since, replacing animal skins.

LANGUAGE
Maasai is an Eastern Nilotic language spoken in Southern Kenya and Northern Tanzania by the Maasai people. It is closely related to the other Maa languages Samburu (or Sampur), the language of the Samburu people of central Kenya, and to Camus, spoken south and southeast of Lake Baringo (sometimes regarded a dialect of Samburu). The Maasai, Samburu and Camus people are historically related and all refer to their language as Ol Maa.

RELIGION
One quarter of the Maasai people have converted to Christianity. The traditional Maasai spirituality is an important aspect of life. The idea of religion in the Maasai culture is bound with the importance they place on the stages of life. Each ritual rite of passage into a new life-stage and age-set is a metaphoric step closer toward God. Each ceremony includes the ritual sharing of meat which brings all the participants closer to God. Diviners, or prophets, provide a number of important religious services. They are responsible for divining and healing sickness, providing protective medicines for the initiation of age-sets, and approving the conduct of raids by the warriors. Thus, the rituals and ceremonies in which the Maasai participate give added importance to the pastoral lives they lead. With every ceremony that celebrates the evolution of an age-set into a more distinguished age-set, the added responsibilities given to that person are honoured and celebrated. Their contribution in the pastoral society is elevated as well as their participation in the balancing of their culture with their environment.

USEFUL LINK
http://www.maasai-association.org/maasai.html