Here’s the thing. When you see friends’ travel photos, or pictures in tourism brochures, or documentaries on TV about remote tribes living off the land in third world countries it’s hard to believe that they actually exist. I mean, in 2011 are there actually more than a handful of people who live in mud huts? And those Masai warriors with the colourful clothing and elaborate jewellery, they’re just for tourists right? They don’t actually wear that stuff when rich Westerners aren’t throwing money in their direction for a photo are they?
Well, after spending a couple of weeks travelling through Tanzania and Kenya I can confirm that the Masai people are everywhere, they do dress in traditional garments complete with the crazy piercings and jewellery and they do live a nomadic life which revolves around cattle. Also, they live in huts constructed of mud and cow dung.
When we touched down in Arusha we tasted our first slice of comfort in several weeks. Arusha is Tanzania’s third largest city with a population on par with Adelaide, it is also the gateway to Tanzania’s main national parks (Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti etc) and is reasonably developed by African standards. What struck me as odd was that in this almost cosmopolitan cityscape there were relatively large numbers of traditionally dressed Masai walking the streets. There’s something unusual about driving past a bus stop with a Masai warrior among the half dozen people waiting for the bus to arrive.
A common issue in Africa is human / wildlife conflict, and as the name suggests it occurs when the needs of humans and the needs of animals converge on the same bit of land. For instance the Wildlife Authority get mad at the local farmers if they kill an elephant that’s eating their crops, but from the farmers’ perspective the elephant is a massive problem that destroys much of their food leaving them unable to feed their family. The same applies with the Masai and the land they use for their cattle to graze (as well as some farming), fortunately a solution has been found in some areas in the form of tourism. The Porini camps we stayed at in Kenya are tented campsites located on Masai conservancies, basically the Masai people are paid rent on their land in exchange for them not farming or grazing there which results in large numbers of wild animals and an amazing tourism experience. The conservancies are not in the national parks but they essentially share a border with them and as there are no fences the wildlife experience is just as good (if not better), and there are no other cars ruining the experience.
The Porini camps also work closely with the Masai community and provide employment for many of the tribe within the campsites in the form of guides, chefs and support staff. It’s a symbiotic relationship that benefits everyone, including the wildlife and the environment. It’s probably better explained in this video actually.As part of our time at the Porini camp we were able to visit the local Masai village. It would be easy to be sceptical about the whole thing if we didn’t get hopelessly lost on the drive to camp several days earlier and see loads of identical villages and communities scattered across the landscape in extremely remote areas totally untouched by tourism. These people still live like this, they dress like this, they make fire by rubbing sticks together, they get their 8 year old children to be shepherds (starting with a small herd of goats and working their way up to large herds of cattle once they’ve shown they can be trusted) and they have multiple wives. Going into their village was a fascinating insight into how other humans live on planet earth, and as I sit here at my computer (with 2 screens no less) having had a hot shower this morning by simply turning a faucet, a hot cup of tea by flicking a switch on the kettle and a tasty bowl of cereal with fresh ice cold milk by just popping down to the local shop yesterday I’m reminded at just how incredibly easy life is for those of us in the developed world and how much work our forefathers have done to put into place all the systems that make life so easy.
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| The pretend spear throwing is pretty cheesy but I still like this shot. |
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| The Masai recycle old tyres to use as shoes. It’s ridiculous how much stuff is wasted in Australia when you see things reused and recycled in every possible fashion in other countries round the world. |
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| Hello ladies – the ability to jump high is seen as a very attractive trait to the ladies of the tribe and helps you establish yourself as a man. As someone who’s played basketball their whole life and could barely touch the ring at their peak it’s lucky I don’t live in a society where you need mad hops to get the girls as I’d be a very lonely man. |
I’ve still got so many photos to go through and so many blogs to write so make sure you keep checking in over the coming weeks. Wedding season kicks off soon too so if you’re lucky you might just see a few weddings blogged as well to keep things interesting (and to keep the good people enforcing the Trade Descriptions Act off my back for misrepresenting this wedding photography blog)!
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