Maasai

The Maasai people live in East Africa. They may have separated from other Nilotic groups as early as 1,000 years ago and moved into what is known today as the countries of Sudan and Uganda. This split was followed by two major migration waves, one that might have occurred 300 years ago or earlier and the second one in the 18th century. These migratory movements account for the Massai's present-day locations in Kenya and Tanzania. The Maasai are primarily a pastoral people, although a few among them devote their time and energy to agriculture.

The Massai believe in one supreme God, Ngai (also named Engai or Enkai). That supreme God is androgynous—that is, both female and male. Ngai's primordial dwelling, the Ol Doinyo Lengai, literally “The Mountain of God,” is located in northern Tanzania. Ngai created the forest, mountains, lowlands, and highlands. Natural forces, such as rain, thunder, drought, and lightning, act as gifts or punishments from God.

The Maasai God appears in two manifestations: Ngai Narok, characterized by goodness and benevolence, is black, whereas Ngai Nanyokie, the angry one, is red like the British colonizers who disrupted Maasai life. Ngai Narok is associated with the north and presides over rain, fertility, the sun, and love matters, whereas Ngai Nanyokie is associated with the south and a vengeful attitude and behavior.

According to Massai mythical narratives, in the beginning, the sky and the Earth were one. All the cattle of the world belonged to Ngai. However, it happened that the sky and the Earth separated, and Ngai and its cattle were no longer living on Earth. However, given that the cattle's subsistence depended on the availability of grass, Ngai decided to send all the cattle down to the Maasai, asking them to look after the animals. The cattle descended by means of a long rope made of the wild fig tree's roots, thus making that tree a sacred plant among the Maasai. That tree, known as oreti (or oreteti) in the Maa language, consequently plays an important role in Maasai ritual ceremonies because it connects the living to God. That connection was disrupted when a hunter of Torrobo (a neighboring people) descent, jealous of God's gift of cattle to the Maasai, took it upon himself to cut the rope, thus creating a gap between the sky and the Earth and interrupting the flow of cattle from God to the living.

Grass has also acquired a great deal of religious significance and prestige, as God's gift, among the Maasai. Grass held in the fist is a sign of peace, and it is also used for blessings during rituals. Another quite important and common agent of blessing is spitting. To spit on someone, especially children, is a sign of reverence and approval. Newborn children are generously spat upon by adults as a way of wishing them a good life.

However, cattle, as the ultimate gift of God to human beings, are most sacred. The cattle possess the qualities of God and attest to God's greatness and [Page 397]generosity. Through the consumption of meat and the drinking of milk, God and human beings become one again. Thus, meat eating and milk drinking, through their re-creation of this primordial unity, are religious experiences of the highest order and, quite predictably, occur at the most important times in Maasai life, such as birth, initiation and circumcision, marriage, and death, and on all critical occasions like rites of passage from one age set to the next. Animals are ritually killed, and the meat is blessed by the elders and shared and eaten publicly.

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