A Masai warrior came to Tubber
On Thursday June 5th, 2014, Timothy, a Masai warrior came to visit us in Tubber National School. He was dressed in his traditional dress. Red is the favourite colour of the Masai tribe. Timothy had lots of beads which his Mum and his sister had made for him.
Timothy’s Masai name is Mosiany Lekobo – which means greedy child. He explained to us that he got this name because he dranks lots of milk when he was small.
Looking after animals
The Masai’s main source of income is from farming. Their herds contain goats, cows and sheep. They have recently introduced camels into some herds. When Timothy was younger he had to go out and look after the animals for his family. This meant even looking after them at night! They use dogs to warn them if any lions are around. The dogs bark so the warriors then know there is danger. In order to scare the lions away the warriors make lots of loud noises and they use torches to scare them.
Timothy’s life
Timothy spent 8 years in primary school and 4 years in secondary (high) school. Because is secondary school was so far away he was a boarder (i.e. he only came home every 3 months).
When he was 16 he graduated as a warrior. He is now a junior elder which means he has to train the younger warriors to protect the village, protect the livestock and teach them survivor skills.
Masai way of life
The Masai don’t have electricity so they don’t have televisions, computers or the internet. They do have mobile phones. To charge the phones, they need to go to the market (which happens every fortnight) where people come from the city with large generators. They pay a fee to these people to charge their phones. They also have large shopping centres but these are usually a long distance from their village. At these shopping centres you can also pay to have your phone charged.
There are about 10,000 people in their village. There are only about 4 cars in the village. The people walk everywhere they need to go. The whole community owns the land and they have a very strong tradition of sharing. They share everything, land, water etc.
School
It is a legal requirement for everyone to go to school, however, many girls do attend a school. The schools often move from place to place if the Masai need to move their animals.
Markets
Every second Wednesday a market comes to the Masai village. At this market there is lots of things for sale such as clothes, cooking utensils, sugar, beads etc. The Masai sell their animals at this market and can buy some of the items for sale at the market in return.
Athletic Skills
The Kenyans are known as very good runners so we decided to test Timothy’s skills. We also showed him some of our skills. We showed him some hurling skills as well as some gaelic football skills.
We all had a great day and learned a lot about a completely different way of life to ours!