Maasai: Film essays

Filmed in the Rift Valley, Kenya, Film essays includes a series of six films which investigate the contemporary influences that are shaping Maasai culture.

Determined to defend their way of life, the Maasai consider the changes that they can make to help navigate the future. These changes include improved access to education and the development of a broader economic base, including the growth of arts and crafts practice, already strong in Maasai culture.

Traditionally, male and female roles have been clearly defined and quite separate. Women carry water, prepare the food, build houses, and look after children. The men look after the cattle and goats, often walking for long distances to find pasture, build the fortified fences around the Enkang (village enclosure) and train as warriors to defend their village and their animals.

In this personal account of Maasai life, women discuss their changing role in Maasai Society. Young women and men discuss the tradition of female genital mutilation and their strong opposition to a practice that is now illegal in both Kenya and Tanzania.

The arts and crafts are practiced by both men and women, traditionally, the men making spears and other artefacts and the women making jewellery. Given artistic traditions and increasing engagement with the arts internationally there is a strong likelihood that a contemporary form of art practice will continue to grow. This will include the visual arts, as well as music and literature.

The possibility of developing a Maasai Cultural Centre with the assistance of UNESCO Observatory is discussed as a way of developing the art and cultural practice of both men and women. Maasai artistic traditions include dirges, songs, plays, dressings (clothing and body decoration), making of artefacts such as spears and other weapons, jewellery, building and animal husbandry.

The results of all this artistic creativity are used in ceremonies, that may have their origins hundreds of years ago, or as the arts and crafts develop further, are collected around the world, creating new opportunities for Maasai artists.

The Rift Valley has been very dry, dust is all around us. Will the rains come this time? The cattle and goats struggle in their search for food, the men walk ever further in search of pasture, the women walk ever further to fetch water. The children remain at home to help their families.

Changes in climate have a direct and powerful impact on Maasai people, drought means the death of the animals that are so central to Maasai culture. Drought brings severe food shortages and has a powerful impact on the ability to maintain cultural traditions.

Drought diminishes the possibility of sending children to school and then on to higher education. Like all indigenous peoples, the Maasai are in the front line of the impact of climate change. Maasai people pay the social and economic price for actions that had little to do with them, the pollution of the atmosphere by industrialized cultures, far away.

The extraordinary biodiversity of the Rift Valley, the numerous species that surround the Enkang (village enclosure) of the Maasai, are important as they provide a cultural richness unparalleled anywhere on earth. Species survival is also critical for economic reasons as environmental tourism expands.

Environmental pressures on Maasai society continue to grow in complexity and include drought and climate change, development issues and land use, conservation issues and a semi nomadic way of life, animal husbandry, population increases, new technologies, ecotourism and globalisation.

All these things create an increasingly complex framework in which Maasai culture and society has to function and evolve. Like all indigenous societies, the connection to the land and nature that surrounds them, are the core elements in the future and success of the Maasai. A culture too precious to loose and in whose peoples’ memory is stored the knowledge and tradition from which we can all learn. The Maasai films contained in this resource pack are:

• Women at work and women at home
• Enkang life
• Changing times
• Food and celebration
• Keeping knowledge
• Birds sing and lions roar