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Maasai 9/11: Dance and Women
The Maasai men here carried a stick, a kind of cattle prod. They did not have the long hair of the Moran warriors. Their dance consisted of a lot of vertical jumping. They invited us to take part. When the dance was finished, they invited us to take part in a prayer from their culture which they explained was essentially a prayer for cosmic harmony. When they dance for themselves, they would dance in a circle, but for spectators, they dance in a line.
We were glad that the women got to dress up in as gaudy a fashion as the men, and that they were allowed to appear, and that they didn't cover their heads or faces. Maasai women shave their heads.
I asked 'Simon' who was showing us around, and who had spent some time at university in Britain, whether Maasai men valued good humour, or hard work, or beauty in their wives. He said they valued fertility and nothing else was important. He said, however, that he was not yet 25 which was the minimum age of marriage for a Maasai. He said a wife would cost about 15 cows.
