The Masai men pass through three stages in their lives -- boyhood, warriorhood, and elderhood. Each stage is marked by a “rite of passage” ceremony.

The Masai men are grouped into age sets. The boys and men from one age set stick together all their lives, a bit like secret societies. Each age set makes up its own code-language, unintelligible to any other age set.

While the boys are in the boyhood stage, they have few worries in the world besides tending to the calves, goats, and donkeys. They are also taught traditions and skills from the elders. Between the ages of six and eight, Masai boys become herdsmen. They are in charge of cleaning, feeding, and watering the cows. When searching for water, the boys may have to herd the cattle more than 20 miles a day. The boys act together to protect the cows from grass fires and other dangers.

The next stage is warriorhood, and it's marked by the boys being circumcised in mass ceremonies across Kenya and Tanzania. Every 10 to 14 years, when an age set moves into a new age group, all the boys and young men between 14 and 25 are circumcised. Entire villages attend the ceremonies. The boy who flinches during this procedure brands himself as a coward and disgraces his family. To help prepare them for the pain, their parents cut their ears when they are children with coal taken from fires. Yeow!

Once circumcised, the boys become Morani or young warriors. With others of their age set, they color their skin red and braid their ocher colored hair intricately. They set off together to learn survival techniques and to become armies of warriors to protect their people and cattle. They will live together in bomas (circle of huts) apart from the village where they had grown up.

Traditionally in order to pass from warriorhood into elderhood, they were to hunt a lion with only a spear to show bravery. However, the government of Kenya has made this practice illegal but locals believe that the Masai still observe this tradition once in awhile. Since the Masai have hunted the lions on the Mara for centuries, the lions have learned to recognize the red robes and instinctively keep their distance.

I had read of an account of one tourist who had noticed several lions suddenly becoming agitated and hunkering down in the grass when they saw a Masai far off in the distance. The lions didn't care one iota about all the vehicles full of people that were much closer. They don't associate the vehicles -- or the people in them -- with danger. But one red-robed Masai far in the distance was enough to seize their attention.

The Masai men pass on to junior elderhood at around the age of thirty. In junior elderhood, the age set will marry (probably having a number of wives) and continually live together raising their families and tending to their cattle.

First marriages are arranged, and cattle are exchanged as an transaction. Girls often have their marriages negotiated by their fathers before they are even born. Girls are circumcised after the onset of puberty as their passage to womenhood, therefore they can be married off as early of the age of ten.

Most Masai have as many as five wives in their lifetime, and with each new wife, they get richer and have more cattle and belongings. This is because with each wife comes a dowry consisting of goods provided by her family.

The first wife will have a hut to the right of her husband's main hut. The second wife will have a hut to his left. The first and the second wives won't be friends; but the first wife will be friends with the third, the second with the fourth, etc. The last wife can't tell the other wives what to do, and certain jobs like fetching water, bringing firewood, or sweeping the floor is left for her to do. She will ask her husband to marry another wife in order to get some help. The Masai sincerely felt sorry for Jeff as he only had one wife!

These men are allowed to have relationships with any circumcised women of their age group. If your warrior friend comes over to visit your wife, he will plant his spear in the doorway of your house. He's then permitted to have sex with your wife, and this is perfectly okay as long as the spear is in the doorway. When he's done, he removes his spear and leaves. This isn't entirely risk-free, as there are major complications if these relations result in a child.

Since the bomas (circles of huts) are of the same age set, the senior elderhood will all be living together. The purpose of the senior elders is to provide leadership. They make decisions concerning the welfare of the group, including marriage arrangements and other transactions involving a transfer of cattle. They will also come to the younger bomas to help teach traditions and skills to their grandchildren.


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Copyright © 2002, Dawn M. Dalton.
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