Maasai Woman

The Maasai tribes live around the Rift Valley region of Kenya and Tanzania. They are among the most well-known of African ethnic groups, due to their distinctive customs, dress and their residence near the many game parks of East Africa. They own large herds of goats, sheep, and cattle; which they live with while searching new grazing grounds and water sources. The Maasai live in Bomas, which can refer either to the settlement as a whole or to the thick fence of acacia branches that forms its outer circle.

A Maasai woman has to do more work than her husband. A long tradition states that she is responsible for all domestic tasks. Everything on her property, including the land is owned by her husband. She does not own any property, but she is very proud of her husband’s property. A Maasai woman builds her home, which is made from sticks, grass, mud, cow dung and urine. She often travels longs distance to get these building materials. She has to rise early every day to milk cows, and to walk many miles to water holes to launder clothes and get water for the house. She has to gather heavy loads of firewood and carry it back to her home always making sure the fire never goes out.  She closes and opens the main gate to her Boma at every morning and evening. She prepares food for everyone in the house including the visitors. She looks after the children. She handles all the byproducts of the cow after they are slaughtered. Milk is the main food of the Maasai. She can sell milk to buy other items for her household; like maize, potatoes, and beans. The money from the sale of milk is kept by her, while the money from the sale of livestock is kept by her husband.

The Maasai women are impressive, as the men, in their looks. They are tall and slender with long braided hair. Typically, Maasai girls are circumcised between the ages of 11 to 13. Soon afterwards they are married to a man chosen by their father in exchange for cattle and cash.  Some women will be married to the husband who has “booked” her during her birth. A Maasai woman will never be allowed to divorce, except in the most serious cases of physical abuse. If divorced she will never be allowed to marry again, even if the husband, her father chooses, is an old man who dies when she is still in her teens. Instead, she becomes the property of one of her husband's brothers.  She will usually be one of multiple wives and will usually have many children, regardless of her health or ability to provide for the children.

Women consider a good husband to be a man who has wealth: a big Boma, many goats, and many cows. Cattle represent food and power; the more cattle a Maasai has, the richer he is and the more powerful and influential he will be within his tribe. A good husband knows how to care for things and will take care of his wife after she has given birth by slaughtering goats for her to eat.The husband has adopted the custom of having multiple wives (polygamy), everyone tries to live in harmony so long as the husband is fair in the way he attends to each wife. He should not favor one over the rest. Every wife has her own house but they are in the same area. The husband spends his night in the house of the wife who does not have a suckling child. When the man grows old or his children are grown, he will build a home of his own in the same vicinity.