We took a 1 hour drive from the Serena hotel– where we lodged at Masai Mara National Reserve, to one of the Masai villages. This trip was almost not going to happen. Here is a little back story. If you are not aware, I am currently in Kenya for the upcoming Magical Kenya Travel Expo starting on the 2nd of October 2019 (tomorrow!). Magical Kenya Tourism Board invited me to explore Kenya before the expo starts and I had a bucket list of places to visit and things to experience, and Maasia Mara was one of them.
There are several Masai villages in Masai Mara National Reserve. Apart from the villages, Maisa Mara is also a National reserve. After going for a game drive in the morning it was necessary that we head back to our hotel to rest and have some lunch. But this also meant that we might not be able to visit any of the Masai Mara’s villages that same day considering the distance.
Myself and my fellow nomads were already looking for an alternative to make the visit to Masia Mara happen. This was until we were greeted with pleasant news saying we would be able to visit one of the villages later in the day. You should see how excited I was!
Upon arriving at one of the villages, we were greeted by one of the Masia warriors.
About the Masai Mara Warriors:
The Masai warriors are made of men only. They are named warriors because there was once a time when there were inter-tribal wars over ownership of land in Kenya by the Masai Mara tribe and another.
If you are thinking “who won the war?”, no one did. The government intervened, and divided the land equally to each tribe, and there hasn’t been any inter-tribal war since then.
About The Masai Mara Tribe:
For a man to get married, the number of cows he has or the availability of any would determine whether or not he gets a wife. The cows are given to the wife’s parent as dowry. Apart from this, the Masai Mara tribe is popularly known for their jumping culture, this is usually done to get the ladies.
About The Masai Villages in Africa:
The Village is made up of small huts (houses made of mud and plants) for living. It also has a yard where the cows, rams and other animals are kept, along with the Masai market where the women sell beauty ornaments. These ornaments includes, necklaces, earrings, beads and more, mostly women clothing for Kenya. The Maasai women also build all the houses in the village without the assistance of the men. Each woman build each house when they are about to get married to a man. This might sound weird, but it is true. The women deserves some accolades.
The men are also entitled to have more than one wife, as long as he has enough cattle to for pay her bride price/dowry. This is a culture that is popularly practiced by all Maasai across each of the East African countries.
My Experience at the village
After meeting the warriors and community members, the men sang and danced or rather “jumped” for us, while the women also sang and danced for us. Most of these videos have already been uploaded on my Instagram account (CLICK HERE TO VIEW). An extensive video would be added to my YOUTUBE channel.
The day ended with a lot of picture taking, smiles, laughter, and purchase of goods from the Maasai market. It is interesting to note that a percentage of goods sold is used for community development, while the elder decides how the rest of the money would be shared among-st themselves.
Leave a Reply