They have maintained the way they live for decades and are one of the few tribes in Africa to stick to their cultural practices and traditions.
Although the Maasai have strongly gripped their traditional beliefs, their culture is uniquely transforming over the years.
Most of them live in Kenya, and some in Tanzania.
There are however little known but interesting facts about members of the Maa community.
Here are some of them;
1. Traditionally, the Maasai do not bury their dead.
Most dead bodies are simply thrown to the wild forests for scavengers.
Burials are believed to harm the soil and is reserved only for some chiefs.
In fact, in some occasions, the dead would be smeared with fat so as to easily attract wild animals to eat the bodies.
The Maa believe that once someone is dead his journey is over.
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2. They believe that their God, Enkai, gave them all the cattle in the world when the sky and earth split, and cattle rustling is just an activity of taking back what belongs to them.
A man’s wealth is also determined by the number of cattle he owns and the children he has.
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3. When a man sires only girls, he is expected to prevent one of his daughters from getting married.
The young woman was then authorized to have children at her father’s home, with any man of her choice. If she gives birth to a male child, he was pronounced the heir of the old man’s property.
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4. No one in the traditional Maasai community was allowed to inherit land, only cattle could be inherited.
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5. The elders of the tribe drink fresh cattle blood to alleviate hangovers after a night of drinking alcohol.
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You may want to see here the three popular tribes in Kenyan that made the list of popular tribes in Africa.
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