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as a part of our safari we first went to a maasai family. They have hut houses and still dress traditionally. They did a welcome song for us (which seemed a bit contrived) and then sold us their goods. The men have a part of the song and they sing in low guttural voices, some of them sound like a low buzzing sound and each man (teenager) takes a turn jumping straight up into the sky. For the women's part the song sounds like women singing and they do this dance that makes their beaded necklaces pop into the air. After a while the women gave each woman in our group a necklace and we did the dance with them. You are basically moving your shoulders up and then dipping down with your knees... but also sticking your chest out. It looks like they are jumping, but their feet don't move at all. It was hard to figure out.
When I studied the Maasai in college they looked tall and thin, especially the men. The men were taller than the other TanZanian men I've met but not as tall as I expected - they were about 5'10/5'11. They have this cool beaded bracelet that goes up from their wrist to almost their elbow that was beautiful. Some of the men had short hair (all of the women do) and some had the very traditional braid looking hair. When I studied them I thought there were very thin dread locks or braids but in actuality it was brown string! The are so long that they are looped up
back to where they begin.
After the dance they wanted us to buy buy buy - it was too much pressure for me. I usually love to bargain but was being swamped by the "Karibu"s and people tugging on me. Finally one Maasai man started guiding me b/c I wasn't moving through tables fast enough. I was at the 3rd table of 10 and was just wasting time saying No... politely.
One of the Maasai men put a bracelet on my wrist and then moved his fingers up my arm a bit an said 'soft' with awe in his voice. That totally caught me off guard and so I took his wrist and said 'yours is soft too' to try to make it more of a curious comment than an oddly sexual comment. But it was surreal b/c I study all these people in Anthropology and I've seen many types of people in my travels but this is the first time they seemed real - real is actually not the word... this is the first time I felt like I could have been this culture. During the few days on safari and seeing Maasai many of the men were very intrigued with me - at one point our guide/friend, Musa put his arm around my shoulder as we walked away from a Maasai man who was very interested in me. I think he would have wanted me for one of his wives! It also surprises me how intrigued they are with my dreadlocks (I keep thinking but we have the same hair, you could do this too!). And they also ask what tribe I'm from and are shocked when they hear I'm a 'black American'. I'm so glad that my uncle did that blood test last summer so I can tell people at least what country my ancestors are from - though I've been telling everyone they were from Senegal instead of Sierre Leone and Liberia. I asked Musa if I were Tanzanian, what tribe would he think I was from. He said the scuma tribe in the Mwanza region who are known for fishing. There are more than 200 ethnic groups - more than 100 tribes in TanZania (Chagga (are in the region I'm in),mbulu, Meru (of Mt.Meru), Maasai, Scuma....)
TanZania seems more like Africa than S. Africa does and I like it better. These people haven't been abused as much by colonization and you can tell. There are more black people and these TanZanians are proud. I love it!
When I studied the Maasai in college they looked tall and thin, especially the men. The men were taller than the other TanZanian men I've met but not as tall as I expected - they were about 5'10/5'11. They have this cool beaded bracelet that goes up from their wrist to almost their elbow that was beautiful. Some of the men had short hair (all of the women do) and some had the very traditional braid looking hair. When I studied them I thought there were very thin dread locks or braids but in actuality it was brown string! The are so long that they are looped up
back to where they begin.
After the dance they wanted us to buy buy buy - it was too much pressure for me. I usually love to bargain but was being swamped by the "Karibu"s and people tugging on me. Finally one Maasai man started guiding me b/c I wasn't moving through tables fast enough. I was at the 3rd table of 10 and was just wasting time saying No... politely.
One of the Maasai men put a bracelet on my wrist and then moved his fingers up my arm a bit an said 'soft' with awe in his voice. That totally caught me off guard and so I took his wrist and said 'yours is soft too' to try to make it more of a curious comment than an oddly sexual comment. But it was surreal b/c I study all these people in Anthropology and I've seen many types of people in my travels but this is the first time they seemed real - real is actually not the word... this is the first time I felt like I could have been this culture. During the few days on safari and seeing Maasai many of the men were very intrigued with me - at one point our guide/friend, Musa put his arm around my shoulder as we walked away from a Maasai man who was very interested in me. I think he would have wanted me for one of his wives! It also surprises me how intrigued they are with my dreadlocks (I keep thinking but we have the same hair, you could do this too!). And they also ask what tribe I'm from and are shocked when they hear I'm a 'black American'. I'm so glad that my uncle did that blood test last summer so I can tell people at least what country my ancestors are from - though I've been telling everyone they were from Senegal instead of Sierre Leone and Liberia. I asked Musa if I were Tanzanian, what tribe would he think I was from. He said the scuma tribe in the Mwanza region who are known for fishing. There are more than 200 ethnic groups - more than 100 tribes in TanZania (Chagga (are in the region I'm in),mbulu, Meru (of Mt.Meru), Maasai, Scuma....)
TanZania seems more like Africa than S. Africa does and I like it better. These people haven't been abused as much by colonization and you can tell. There are more black people and these TanZanians are proud. I love it!
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