External depictions: The Maasai as a “famous” group

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have to charge them more...they don‟t use condoms, they don‟t care, you know...they sleep with anybody, they don‟t care, that is their life” (28/06/2000).

I gathered many stories that involved Maasai men and Kamba women. Such stories would be narrated with detail and enthusiasm. They remained fresh in people‟s memories perhaps because of their phenomenality. Maasai pastoralists/traders lost thousands of shillings to Kamba and Kikuyu female commercial sex workers based in the trading centres. In one particular account given by a Kamba woman working in a bar in Kiboko market, a Maasai trader lost Ksh 60,000 (about EUR 800) in a lodging where he had spent the night with a friend to the bar maid, and who had since relocated to Mombasa. Although this friend of hers was afraid of the reprisals, she told me that the Maasai cattle trader had later said that what he had lost was “pesa kidogo” (“little money”) and that it was “ng'ombe tatu tu” (“only three heads of cattle”). She had offered to go for her friend in Mombasa clarifying that “this would have cost him about Ksh 3,000...but he would have recovered his Ksh 60,000”. She sounded as if she knew exactly where her friend was and assumed that the „stolen‟ money would have been found intact. Cleverly, the Maasai trader had rejected the offer. Telling her that the Maasai man would probably have lost an additional Ksh 3,000, she burst out laughing in agreement. She considered the Maasai as gullible. But in this narrative, there is a mix of

„class‟ and „ethnicity‟. In the rural settings, it is common practice for the „poor‟ to take advantage of the „rich‟ irrespective of ethnic affiliation. It is only that the Maasai appeared more vulnerable. This vulnerability was said to be exacerbated by Maasai men‟s tendency to be ostentatious “even when they sell one cow” (Mutui, Kiboko, 06/03/2000). To be fair to the Maasai, considering that a cow can fetch up to Ksh 10,000 (EUR 130), the monthly salary of a trained primary school teacher, it is a considerable amount.

Going back to the Ksh 60,000, that is a lot of money by any standards. My reading is that it was not that the money was “little” but perhaps because the Maasai trader was addressing a Kamba audience. The underlying message seems to have been; “we have money, you do not have it”. It was evident that for those who have it, the Maasai carry a lot of money with them.

The school headteacher referred earlier, told me how Maasai parents, in comparison to the others, not only paid school fees for their children usually in cash, but they would pay any outstanding balances and contingent levies “on the spot” even when they did not know about them.

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and the elusive but cherished „uncontaminated‟ identity. And from school pupils, the warriors, elders, to women, awareness about their fame (often exaggerated) cuts across age-sets and their vast territory. “We are known all over the world, I am sure you know that”, remarked a Maasai elder during my fieldwork. Palalelei continued: “You people...you are known for nothing (not as well known).” Although one may say that few groups, if any, can be said to lack some form of pride, the case of the Maasai pride can only be comparable to the Nuer of Sudan and Ethiopia.¹¹⁶ If those people who study the Maasai have disagreed on certain aspects of Maasai history, ethnicity, social organisation and practices, they are agreed on one thing; the Maasai are a proud people. So proud are they that after the 2001 September 11^th attack in New York and Washington, they donated 15 cows to assist the Americans! after a Maasai student who was in America at the time came back home later and narrated the episode to his people.¹¹⁷ This gesture put the Maasai in the news once more as the American embassy officials in Nairobi went to Maasailand (Trans Mara) to receive the cattle.

Palalelei was keen to stress that the Maasai were „better positioned‟ than the Kamba in their ethnic rivalry and competition. The phrase, “I am sure you know that” had a deeper meaning.

First and foremost, he was addressing me as a Kamba and therefore seeking acknowledgement of his assertion that the Maasai are famous. Secondly, he knew that I was studying in Germany and therefore sought to confirm whether the Maasai were well known overseas. In general, Maasai fame appears to reverse the purported „advantaged‟ position of the Kamba who portray themselves as the „local agents of modernity‟. Well, the Kamba dismiss Maasai‟s world appeal and fame saying that it has reduced them to tourist objects.

Incidentally, the heading of this subsection is also based on a protest comment made by a Kamba respondent: “Okay, they are famous, is that important?” (Mwende, Emali, 20/07/2000). This comment, made out of anger, sent me pondering, what is in fame? Mwende was of the view that the Maasai were famous “for the wrong things”. That they were well known for “keeping their culture, circumcising women, keeping many cattle, killing lions, their traditional clothes, such things...whites come here, they don‟t cross to our side, they go to Kajiado...some of these people you see here (Maasai), have they even been to school? no!

but they have white women”.¹¹⁸ The idea of Maasai men being admired by white women does not seem to go down well among Kamba men. But although they could not comprehend exactly why the whites had a liking for the Maasai, they were convinced they could not compete. They also felt that „fame‟ translated into material gains and enhanced Maasai‟s self

116 See Prichard (1940).

117 See The Daily Nation, Friday, June 7^th , 2002.

118 As wives.

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esteem. Sitonik, my research partner, was more blunt. He claimed that if there was a white who knew a Kamba, then this must have happened “by accident” as s/he criss-crossed Maasailand or by meeting them “in the hotels where they work”.¹¹⁹

All this brings to mind books like die weisse Massai (“the white Maasai”) by Corinne Hofmann (2000). The book tells you how „different‟, exotic and unique the Maasai are. In a casual chat with a German family, with whom I visit once in a while, and who had read the book,¹²⁰ they could not hide their curiosity about the Maasai. No wonder that the first time I visited them, they had asked whether I was Maasai. Telling them that I was not, they looked a bit disillusioned. I was partly to blame. Before I visited the family, we had exchanged notes about ourselves and photographs. Accustomed to the Kenyan style of using the Maasai image as a way of selling Kenya to the outside world, I had sent them Maasai photographs in their traditional regalia (in shawls, loin-clothes, pierced and extended earlobes etc.). Little did I know that this was actually the kind of person they expected to see. Listening to them telling their friends about what they had learnt from me, little would be said about my studies in Germany or my university career but rather whatever I said about life challenges in rural Africa, snakes, hunger and poverty. But to be fair to them, what sense would it have made to their listeners being told how „western‟ I was! A friend of theirs quipped one evening that I was “fortunate to be in Germany”. Although he was apologetic later, his was a position shared by many of my Kenyan friends.

Kenyans or indeed Africans who read Hofmann‟s book should be excused for the anger the book may evoke. For it presents a very familiar African story; people living very close to nature, using rudimentary methods of survival, hardly influenced by the urban or

„modernised‟ environments in which they live¹²¹ and „crude‟ in behaviour. But again, when you read about the rich body of depictions exchanged between the Kamba and the Maasai, you might find Hofmann‟s book too „mild‟. The only difference perhaps, is that her book runs like a documentary, a lived experience, devoid of meanings and stereotypes. I know that I am landing on a very slippery ground, for whatever the Kamba actors said about the Maasai was presented as „real‟. So that what Hofmann, as a westerner not „stand‟ among the Maasai, turns out to be what a Kamba cannot „stand‟ too. They literally share a platform. But there is still a difference. Hofmann presents her story as an „insider‟ and as this study has shown, insiders often deconstruct myths, stereotypes and imagined ethnic differences. But contrary to this, she uses her insider position to perpetuate „known‟ Maasai stereotypes.

119 It was claimed that the Kamba are overrepresented as waiters in Kenya‟s tourist resorts and big hotels.

120 In fact, they gave me their copy!

121 She met her lover, Lketinga, in the historical city of Mombasa.

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During my study, it was clear that many Maasai knew that there was a large body of literature written on them. While some expressed concern about the „negative‟ image often portrayed, many took pride in being „internationally‟ well known. Actually, the first time I heard about Hofmann‟s book, was from one of my Maasai research partners. When Sitonik talked about the book, I first thought that he was referring to another sensational story that hit Kenyan headlines earlier regarding a British woman who met another Samburu man in Mombasa, fell in love and divorced her husband.

Although I doubt that he had read the book, he gave a vivid account of its contents. He did not say the title of the book nor the author but he noted that “it is written by a woman from Switzerland who had married a msamburu”. This compels me to comment about Hofmann‟s selection of her book title, die weisse Massai, although the story actually revolves around a

„Samburu‟. It is the appealing and well known „Maasai‟ image which must have made her to select a „Maasai‟ title for marketing reasons. Admittedly, the Samburu (Ilsampur) are linguistically and culturally related to the „Maasai‟ but, inhabiting Samburu district, they are in many respects a distinct ethnic group¹²² from the Maasai of Kajiado, Narok and Trans Mara.

They do recognise themselves as „Samburu‟. A Maasai historian, ole Kantai notes: “..also within this body of the Maasai are Ilsampur who are geographically isolated by their location in the north east of Kenya”.¹²³

Although Maasai fame may at times be premised on the “wrong reasons”, as Mwende had noted, their admiration world-wide is evident. And this fame is not just acknowledged by Kenyan groups, novelists and tourists. Scholarly works have been on the frontline. From Adamson (1967), Kituyi (1990), Spear and Waller (1993) to Holland (1996), the Maasai are praised for their resilience, unique culture and history. Within East Africa, Maasai image has been appropriated for all sorts of purposes. Tourist websites advertising Kenya as an attractive destination would be incomplete without pictures of the Maasai.¹²⁴ In addition, there are instances where non-Maasai Kenyan groups pose as Maasai for commercial purposes. A Kenyan journalist, Wycliffe Muga, wrote an article entitled “when „Maasai‟ is a job description”. He eloquently noted that in the coastal town of Mombasa (where he was based),

“we have long been familiar with “Maasai” as a job description, rather than a tribal label...”.¹²⁵

122 Unlike other „Maasai‟, for instance, they keep camels. „Politically‟, they are also treated as distinct from the

„Maasai‟. Apart from having their own district, they are also counted separately from „Maasai‟ during censuses and in the run up to the 1992 elections, they were slotted as a distinct member of the so-called KAMATUSA, which stood for Kalenjin, Maasai, Turkana and Samburu groups.

123 In a forward in ole Sankan‟s book “The Maasai” (1971: x).

124 For instance, see http://www.magicalkenya.com

125 See “comment” in the The Daily Nation, Saturday, January 5, 2002.

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He proceeds to give a vivid account of how non-Maasai groups clad in the red shuka (shawl), braided hair, and holding a club, hawk beaded „Maasai‟ ornaments in the beaches, the underlying motive being to catch the attention of European women tourists. He notes that

“the anecdotal evidence would seem to indicate that the great majority of these „Maasai‟ are actually Giriama,¹²⁶ often ex-members of some tribal dance troupe...it paid dividends to be a

“Maasai” and so they deserted their earlier calling and settled down to being full-time

„Maasai‟ to their conspicuous advantage. But recent years have reportedly brought increasing numbers of Digo and Kamba into this speciality market. And although the Giriama had a head start, „Maasai‟ from these other tribes are believed to be in hot pursuit, racing neck to neck, to challenge the dominance of Giriama „Maasai‟”. It would appear that Bantu groups have not ceased to be die Maasaiaffen (Maasai apes) only that this time around, the „aping‟ has taken a different form in that it is for commercial purposes. The imitators cannot afford to introduce modifications but instead try to be as „Maasai‟ as possible, often overdoing it. Because of Maasai fame, their traditional dance, which other East African groups may not find very thrilling, pulls huge audiences among foreigners basically for what it represents.

The „real‟ Maasai are caught up in a dilemma. On the one hand, they are demeaned by other Kenyan groups while on the other, many mimic their dressing styles to access certain resources, making it look quite fashionable and potentially resourceful to be Maasai. After I learnt a bit of Maa, I greeted a watchman in Nairobi‟s South „B‟ estate who, from his dress, looked Maasai. He retorted in Swahili: “Wewe ukiona mtu amevalia namna hii unafikiri ni Masai?”, meaning, “if you see someone dressed like this, why should you conclude that he‟s a Maasai?” I challenged him, saying that one may speak Maa when he is not Maasai, to which he responded that he was just dressed kikazi (“as per the demands of the job”). It was clear that all what his employers (Kenyan Asians) wanted was a „Maasai watchman‟. In any case, they communicated in Swahili.

The Maasai in commercial advertisements

The Maasai international appeal is used in the advertisement of a wide range of products. On Kenyan television, the national postal corporation¹²⁷ carried an advertisement in the 1980‟s in which somebody who posed like a Maasai was shown running through several ridges, valleys and plains to post a letter, and then showed how „easy‟ it had become overtime to access postal services. In this advertisement, Maasai image is associated with the past. In Germany,

126 The Giriama or Agiriama are a Bantu speaking group living along the Kenyan coast.

127 Previously called Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (KP&TC) and now renamed Telkom Kenya Ltd.

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a coffee processing and marketing company, Tchibo, features the Maasai in a television commercial that advertises coffee. It is safe to assume that the commercial is aimed at giving coffee „African roots‟ and perhaps show that the beans have been acquired through “fair trade”. Otherwise, I am certain that both the company and the targeted consumers are not ignorant of the fact that the Maasai, predominantly associated with pastoralism, live outside the coffee belt of East Africa. In the Tchibo commercial, the Maasai image appears to represent the African identity. The leading airline manufacturer, Boeing, also features(d) the Maasai in one of its commercials perhaps to drive the point home that a Boeing airline can take you to the remotest parts of the globe. Here, the Maasai are presented not only as a marginal group inhabiting geographically distant areas but also as a tourist attraction.

In yet another feature (see photo below), a Maasai looking after cattle in the dry East African plains is holding a mobile phone, a gadget associated with elitism in that part of the world. This photo, carried by Missio aktuell of the German Catholic organisation, was in connection with the inequitable distribution of technology in the world.

While the photo shows the technological gap between African countries and the industrialised world, it also appears to

show the mix between modernity and tradition. It is an irony since the last thing one would associate with a Maasai herder is a mobile phone. Following a discussion I held with two German students who toured Kenya and saw a considerable number of people in Nairobi and Mombasa holding mobile phones, the hidden message behind this photo seems to be: “Eradicate poverty first and then you can think about mobile phones”.

These are just some of the many ways that the Maasai image is appropriated within and outside the Kenyan borders. It is partly this kind of attention given to the Maasai that makes some non-Maasai pose as „non-Maasai‟. There is something positive about these commercials; at least, it is a departure from other negative images where the Maasai have been portrayed as drinkers of animal blood, mutilators of female genitals, as a people who lead promiscuous lifestyles and as trapped in a development dilemma.

Plate 1: A Maasai „cattle herder‟ posing with a mobile phone. Source: Missio aktuell 1/2000.

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The photo could evoke pride or anger depending on who is looking at it. What is negative about it is that it depicts the Maasai as exotic and „different‟. Although the young man is holding a technologically advanced gadget, he is not representing modernity but a disadvantaged, „backward‟ and remotely located group. The photo and other commercials which feature the Maasai appear to stress that there are gains to be reaped by remaining

„traditional‟, different and set apart from the „ordinary‟; they stress difference.

Incidentally, the Maasai have also had „cultural ambassadors‟ supposedly to create awareness about „African culture‟ in the West. One such Maasai was Tom Mpeti ole Surum who was

„Kenya‟s cultural ambassador‟ to the United States.¹²⁸ He became a very famous personality back in Kenya and at one time joined forces to fight a cabinet minister and self styled „Maasai spokesman‟. The campaign did not succeed though. A CNN Inside Africa edition of 14th April 2001 featured one John ole Tome who appeared to have stepped into the late Surum‟s shoes.

Seeking to exclude others

In as much as the Maasai take pride in the social significance attached to their identity by other groups, many have strong reservations on the appropriation of „Maasainess‟. My research partner, Sitonik noted: “Some people think that it is very easy to be Maasai, they come, they try, many give up, it is not easy...you see, sometimes I am dressed just like you¹²⁹ but one can see that you are not Maasai.”¹³⁰ He was desperately trying to erect ethnic boundaries between the Maasai and non-Maasai by insisting on how „different‟ the Maasai are.

“Red shukas are synonymous with the Maasai, but dressing in a shuka does not necessarily (make) everyone a Maasai,”¹³¹ wrote Sinoyia ole Yiaile of the Maasai Environmental Resource Coalition. This is one of the Maasai-led organisations that are fighting for conservation of the Maasai pastoral economy, environment, and against the

“misrepresentation” of the Maasai culture as well as violation of intellectual cultural property rights.

In his article entitled “cultural robbers taking sheen off Maasai culture, ” he argued that cultural „impostors‟ should be shunned for they were “spoilers of the Maasai culture.” He argued that their culture was attractive and irresistible, making some non-Maasai to cash in on

128 See The Daily Nation Friday, October 12, 2001.

129 In a shirt, trouser and shoes.

130 He was referring to certain physical characteristics e.g. height.

131 See “letters to the editor”, The Daily Nation, Friday 12, 2001.

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its “commercial value.” He lamented that an individual “purporting to be Maasai” gave a lecture to an attentive audience at the exclusive Grand Regency Hotel in Nairobi. He notes:

“The individual does not even know how to hold a rungu (club). He holds it with his left hand”.¹³² He calls the person a “cultural robber and conman.” He expressed deep concern about the arbitrary observance of Maasai group norms and physical representations and took a swipe at those who parody the “Maasai culture.” He appeared to have been stressing what Bourdieu (1990: 69) calls the “pedagogic reason,” that is, to “extort what is essential while seeming to demand the insignificant” when defending certain ethnic ideals.

Yiaile‟s anger appeared to be premised not on the fact that people imitate the Maasai, but that there were financial gains in doing this. He also cited another case in a Nairobi restaurant called Simmers where a waiter-cum entertainer “presents himself as a Maasai.” He argued that such individuals should be vetted to ascertain their authenticity and that employers should look for “true Maasai who understand their culture fully to avoid embarrassment.” He appealed to the hotel industry to be advertising such positions. What he did not say in his article is who a “true Maasai” is. His attempt to demarcate ethnic differences was quite illusionary. Although he insists on the authenticity of those who pose as Maasai, he ignores the fact that “impostors” may be more motivated and keen on „Maasai culture‟ more than those he calls “true Maasai”. He went against Barth‟s suggestion that “it makes no difference how dissimilar members may be in their overt behaviour-if they say they are A, in contrast to another cognate B, they are willing to be treated and let their own behaviour be interpreted and judged as A‟s and not as B‟s” (1969: 15).

Im Dokument In spite of difference : making sense of the coexistence between the Kamba and the Maasai peoples of Kenya (Seite 97-104)