The Maasai culture
The Maasai are indigenous ethnic people who settled in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. The Maasai people have distinct traditions, customs, and dress codes – all of which are very attractive to many tourists – and their residency is well known to be near games parks, especially in Tanzania. All these have made the Maasai be internationally recognized, and you find that so many people are very much interested in learning about their traditional culture. The Maasai has a patriarchal society in nature, where you find most men, especially the elders are the ones who make decisions on major matters. Cattle make a huge part of the Maasai people’s lifestyle, where they depend on it for food and wealth. In fact, cattle were used to measure a man’s wealth, where if you had more cattle, you were considered to be wealthy. But if a man had plenty of cattle but didn’t have children, or many children, he was considered to be poor – the vice versa is also true. Men often have several wives, where each of them had her own house.
The Maasai culture is well renowned for its music and dance – the ever-popular competitive jumping. The one who leads the music – the olaranyani – sings the melody, while everyone else sings polyphonic harmony on call-and-response vocals. Maasai music has always attracted many tourists.
Come learn more about Maasai culture
Now, when you come to Tanzania, especially the northern part of the country, where the Maasai’s live, you will find them everywhere, we mean, they are a near-constant presence. You will be met with the brightly colored reds, purples, and blues of what they call ‘Shuka’ – which is some form of a sheet that they wrap around their body, from shoulders downwards – in the landscape. You may find some of them in their small mud-thatched villages, others in modern towns, or in vast open grazing their cattle, as they have been doing in the past decades.
A very special cultural touch
The truth is, while it is the diverse and prodigious wildlife in the surrounding national parks and game reserves – such as the Serengeti and Ngorongoro – that attracts thousands of tourists to Tanzania, it is the Maasai people who give your visit a distinctive cultural flavour. So if you are planning a visit to the Serengeti, you can visit a Maasai village located between the Serengeti National Park and Ngorongoro conservancy, where you will have a chance to witness their day to day life, engage in their traditional and popular Maasai dance, and also get an opportunity to buy their locally made jewelry.
Live like the Maasai
The Maasai dance is for sure distinctive and infectious, which is why it is so popular, and normally, visitors are always invited to join. Alternatively, if you would like to make the experience a notch high, the Africa Amini Life Maasai Lodge does offer an amazing blend of Maasai traditions and luxurious accommodations. When you are there, you will spend the night in a luxury Maasai boma, and you will be invited to participate in some of their traditional activities, including spear-throwing competitions, nature walks, traditional cooking as well as beadwork classes. In the end, we can guarantee you that you will have one of the most memorable experiences of your life among one of the few traditional normadic communities in East Africa.
Also visit our post “Why you should visit Tanzania.”
