African Adventures: Engaruka

Imagine your life without television. Imagine no phones, computers or internet. In fact, remove every element of your life that requires a power source. Vacuum cleaners, irons, ovens, microwaves, refrigerators, washing machines, hairdryers. All of it. And then take away your car as well. Your only transport is those two things at the end of your legs. There are no coffee shops in your life anymore, no restaurants, only fields of maize and bananas. If your want to eat something, you either need to grow it or kill it. If you want shelter, you need to build it. You have no real need for money anymore - cows are your currency. Your religion is nature itself. Your life revolves around the seasons and the weather. And life and death is a visible circle - part of everyday life.

This is the life of a traditional Maasai.

And then let us imagine that you are a young girl in that society. You know that soon you will be cut, circumcised, which will make sex painful and *save* you from a life of promiscuity. Even though you are only 14, this will mark you as a women and you will be sold to your new husband in exchange for cows. You will become his property. You have no rights and no say. He will point out a spot for you to build your own house on his land and you will do this from sticks and mud. He will demand sex from you and all his other wives almost nightly, and you will obey. You have no choice. Mercifully it will be over in minutes and then he will move to the next wife. Should he tire of you, or should someone else in the village take a liking to you, you will be shared. Like it or not. You must collect wood, cook, clean, provide food and basically fend for yourself. Your husband will not look after you. And should you fail to produce children, at least every 2years or so, you will be seen as a failure. Even though you know that you have very little means of looking after those children, clothing them, feeding them, let alone educating them.

This is the life of a traditional Maasai women.

To say there was a little bit of culture shock would be an understatement! This was one of the strangest weeks of my life. The above description is quite traditional but things are slowly changing. Over the next few days I will try to explain, as best I can, what life is like for those who still live in a traditional Maasai way.

To start with, let me explain where exactly I was. It was a village called Engaruka, which is about a 6hr bus ride west from Arusha and has a population of about 7000. Most people there are Maasai but there is also Chaga tribes people and a Muslim community. I can say with a fair amount of confidence that we were the only 3 white people in town, which is pretty confronting in itself. Ill just give you a few pictures of the journey there and our accommodation today - I need to tackle everything in small chunks.

This was our bus. We had to stop several times so people could get off and walk while the men reconstructed the road as we went.