How well do you know the Masaai Comunity?????

                      Drawing near to the Maasai:

The picture of a Maasai warrior – statuesque, long hair caked in ochre mud and his body adorned with countless colourful beads, leaning on his spear while he surveys the surrounding savannah – is one of East Africa's most recognisable images, and the epitome of African dignity and tradition. That the Maasai of southern Kenya and northern Tanzania are so well-known is remarkable given that they represent barely 2% of Kenya's population.
The Maasai have historically been a people apart, a pastoralist people who, in many cases, continue to lead semi-nomadic lifestyles that change with the seasons. For travellers to the region, however, encounters with the Maasai are too often restricted to fleeting photo opportunities. It takes a little insider knowledge to get beyond the typical tourist experience and to see first-hand the creative ways the Maasai have found to keep their traditions alive.

Manyatta visits

The most accessible gateway into the Maasai world is by visiting one of the Maasai manyattas (villages) that line the access roads to safari parks such as the Masai Mara National Reserve and Amboseli National Park in Kenya's south.
Some of these manyattas can be overwhelmed with tour buses in high season. For a different experience, choose a village removed from the main road, and go there in the smallest group possible. Visiting in the company of a Maasai guide will also help to break down the barriers, as will lingering in the manyatta for more than just a quick snapshot of the warriors.
Take the time to sit and talk with the women and take a guided walk out from the village with a young warrior. And if you're really brave, try the Maasai's culinary mainstay, a blood-and-milk combination supplemented by a drink called mursik, made from milk fermented with cow's urine and ashes; its formidable list of ingredients aside, mursik has been shown to lower cholesterol…
A negotiable entry fee (usually US$20 to US$25) almost always applies when visiting manyattas – money from tourist visits (including the sale of souvenirs) goes to fund schools, buy medicine and expand the precious cattle herds around which so much of Maasai life revolves.

Maasai-run lodges

Private wildlife sanctuaries run by the Maasai provide a fabulous opportunity to see wildlife in the company of the very people who have for centuries lived, and continue to live, alongside the animals. Most Maasai have long been natural conservationists, and it is therefore no coincidence that Kenya’s greatest wildlife concentrations are to be found in the semi-arid plains of Maasailand.
Walking out into this wilderness under the protection of the Maasai is to look at the African wilds with new eyes as your guide draws your attention to the tracks of predators, the medicinal plants known only to the Maasai, and the cultural contours of a land they know intimately.
Lodges in these wildlife sanctuaries don't come cheap – US$500 per person per night (full board) should be considered a starting point – but these are once-in-a-lifetime encounters in the African wilderness, allowing precious insights into local culture and ecology that very few travellers ever get to experience. The money invariably goes to community projects, ensuring that entire regions benefit from your visit. Sanctuaries where such visits are possible include:

• Campi ya Kanzi – In the Kimana Community Wildlife Sanctuary east of Amboseli National Park.
  
• Ol Donyo Lodge – A private lodge on the Maasai communal Mbirikani Group Ranch, between Amboseli and Tsavo West national parks.
  
• Il Ngwesi Ecolodge – A Maasai-owned ecolodge on the Laikipia Plateau.
  

Lion Guardians

Under Maasai tradition, killing a lion – an act that symbolises a young warrior's ability to protect his community from danger – is a critical rite of passage for young Maasai men. But with lions in Kenya facing an uncertain future, a team of young conservationists has come up with an innovative way to preserve both Maasai traditions and the endangered lions on the Maasai group ranches that surround Amboseli National Park.
Called Lion Guardians
, the program employs young Maasai warriors to prove their bravery and tracking skills and gain peer respect – all essential elements in traditional Maasai culture – by protecting Maasai villages and their livestock from lions, even as they teach new generations of Maasai to change their lion-killing ways.
As it seeks to expand into Tanzania, the Lion Guardians program will soon allow travellers to spend time with the Guardians, possibly even patrolling with them in search of lions, all with the aim of providing insights into Maasai culture.
Bookings are not yet open, but participating lodges will be listed on the Lion Guardians website soon. You can expect to pay US$250 to US$500 per person – a small price to pay for catching a glimpse of this rare partnership between conservation and traditional cultures, and a partnership that may represent a vision of the Maasai future.

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