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Oldoinyo Sambu

A Maasai man tells the story of his splendid and diverse territory of life in Tanzania. WORDS, IMAGES, AND VIDEO Alois Porokwa   I didn’t know why Ndakaji Leyian was so perplexed when, back in 1978, he asked me where I was studying. Ndakaji is a Maasai Elder, now about eighty years of age. In

A Culture in Peril: Tanzania’s Maasai Forced from Their Ancestral Lands

The Maasai take their culture with them wherever they go. WORDS AND IMAGES Melanie Furman “My grandparents only ate cow’s milk, cow’s meat, cow’s blood, and wild fruit they would find while grazing cattle. They still don’t eat maize meal, but now we have to. They never go to a hospital when they get sick.

Lessons of the Maasai Warriors (Morani)

Maasai Warriors

Edna Kilusu   “Do not come back after I lock the door,” my mother says, warning me not to be late returning tonight. While she milks the cows, I quickly build the fire and ensure that it is ready for making ugali, an everyday meal of corn flour and water eaten in most Maasai communities in

Please Talk to Me! I Am a Stranger Until You Talk to Me

Edna Kilusu (Tanzanian Maasai) “What?” my friend and I said simultaneously. The sheriff had asked if we had any drugs or guns with us. It was a calm, hot summer evening when we decided to go on a short bike ride after a long, boring three months of quarantine in Ogallala, Nebraska. We biked down

River of Brown Waters

Laissa Malih My video, River of Brown Waters, is the story of a river called Ewaso Ng’iro in northern Kenya. The river arises from the west side of Mount Kenya and flows through the pastoralist counties of Laikipia, Samburu, Isiolo, and Marsabit. It supports wildlife and many other species and has been, and continues to

Ewaso Ng’iro Camel Caravan

biocultural diversity

Video and text by Laissa Malih (Kenyan Laikipian Maasai), age 25 The Ewaso Ng’iro Camel Caravan is a five-day annual journey for climate change adaptation and peaceful co-existence along the Ewaso Ng’iro River in Kenya. The purpose is to promote shared understanding of threats facing the river, along with the cooperation needed to lessen them. Camels are used

Lessons of the Maasai Warriors (Morani)

Maasai Warriors

Story by Edna Kilusu (Tanzanian Maasai), age 19   “Do not come back after I lock the door,” my mother says, warning me not to be late returning tonight. While she milks the cows, I quickly build the fire and ensure that it is ready for making ugali, an everyday meal of corn flour and water

Orpul as a Place of Mind: Integrating Local Ritual into School Curriculum to Sustain Biocultural Diversity in Tanzania

biocultural diversity

by Heidi Simper “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin, and culture is like a tree without roots.” —Marcus Garvey During the rainy season in the bush of the Great African Rift Valley in Eastern Tanzania, amid Maasai culture, acacia trees, and cries of hyenas in the night, I was conducting my

Unity in Diversity: A Case Study of Intercultural Education in Tanzania

Maasai

by Jennie Harvey . Traditional knowledge (TK) is the knowledge accumulated by local and Indigenous Peoples over hundreds of years through the experience of living in a particular place. It includes knowledge about plants, animals, natural phenomena such as the weather, technologies for hunting, fishing, farming, forestry, and other activities, and constitutes a worldview comparable