Cross-Cultural Learning About the Maasai People of East Africa

The Maasai
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Introduction
Society is always changing. Technology and globalization have continued leaving a mark on virtually everything. As the world changes, there is a need to preserve the culture and traditions of societies. Perhaps the most affected by these changes are the indigenous peoples around the world. One perfect example is the Maasai people of East Africa, specifically Kenya and Tanzania. They are the embodiment of the struggle between modernity and traditions, the need to establish a delicate balance between these two aspects and the various ways in which this is done. They have successfully managed to retain their culture and traditions on the backdrop of relentless modernization efforts around them. This essay critically evaluates how the Maasai culture has endured centered on spiritual traditions rooted in cattle and ancestral grasslands despite ongoing threats to their nomadic way of life.
The Maasai
The Maasai people have inhabited the grasslands of northern, central, and southern Kenya and northern Tanzania for generations, preserving a rich cultural history as cattle herders tied profoundly to the land. Their semi-nomadic pastoralist lifestyle centered around reverence for cattle as the embodiment of wealth and well-being. However, the Maasai have faced monumental upheavals throughout history that have threatened their traditions – from European colonization to modern pressures of agricultural and conservation policies, sedentarization campaigns, land privatization, climate change, and tourism. As early occupants of the Great Rift Valley, the Maasai originated from northwest Kenya and later settled in different areas like Dodoma and the Great Rift Valley, displacing other tribes and securing territory they still occupy today.
For centuries, the Maasai co-existed relatively harmoniously with the wildlife they shared these ecosystems with, moving their cattle temporarily to accommodate dry and wet grazing seasons. The era of British colonialism in the late 19th century brought enormous disruption as vast rangelands were confiscated for big game hunting reserves and agricultural settlements catering to Europeans. Forced relocation sanctions blocked livestock trade and crop growth, leading to famine and deprivation, attempting to dominate the independent governance and belief systems of the Maasai. In the post-colonial period, Kenyan and Tanzanian policies continued partitioning their lands through villagization schemes, cultivation zones, and conservation areas – severely constraining mobility essential to pastoralism. Successive governments have always continued with the negative practices that have hampered the complete flourishing of the maasai people.
Maasai are predominantly pastoralists. Pastoralism relies greatly on land and the vastness of pastures. These pastures have been greatly damaged by the unpredictable weather and climatic conditions of late.
With recurrent droughts devastating both livestock and wildlife populations, some Maasai today live in poverty. The cattle that is their symbol&n...