The Masai

In the game parks we stay in tents or lodges and (in case we encounter a wild animal) we aren’t allowed to walk from our lodge to the bar or restaurant without a guide. In the Kruger we asked our guide what would happen if we met a lion on the path, ‘I phone for car’ was his reply. 

Back in Tanzania our guides were Masai. When we said we were ready to go back to our tent after dinner the barman didn’t say that our guide would be with us shortly he said, ‘Masai will come’. 

And in all our journey across Africa so far the Masai are the only tribe that we can distinguish. They are immensely tall and slim, they wear a distinctive red and black checked robe and - if they are smartly dressed - white sandles. But, what really distinguishes them is that they always, always carry a stick. In a group of schoolchildren you can tell the Masai because they have a stick and the rest don’t. 

There are Masai children herding cows along the road - they have a stick. In hotels there are Masai doormen and they have a stick. When they dance (and Masai dancing is basically a massive pogo session) they have a stick. Whether the stick is to herd animals or kill them we do not know. 

Indeed we have met many Masai and have learnt almost nothing about them. Karen Blixen wrote that they eat only milk and the blood of their cows and that as a result the women are sterile. We don’t know if that is still true today, but she also wrote that the Masai are the most elegant and self contained of all the African people and that remains the case nearly 100 years later.