All smiles, their hair dyed with red ocher covered with an ostrich feather headdress, the young Maasai take selfies. They have just completed the first day of Eunoto, the ceremony that marks the passage of “warriors” into adulthood.
Aged 18 to 26, they came by the hundreds to Nailare, a remote village in southwestern Kenya, all from the same generation of “moran” (“warriors”, in the Maasai language).
“Today we become men”, proudly summarizes Hillary Odupoy, a 22-year-old medical student, sunglasses on his eyes and a pearl necklace on his bare chest: “This is one of the most important ceremonies of our life. There are never so many of us. It unites the Maasai community”.
Originally from the region, a certain number of them left it to work or study in the cities of Kisii, Nairobi or, like Hillary Odupoy, even further in Machakos, more than seven hours away.
All wear red, the sacred color of the Maasai, from their hair covered in a mixture of ocher and oil to the shuka – the traditional covering – which serves as their clothing.
This rite of passage, which is held every ten years in each Maasai clan, also brings together families, inhabitants and local officials, several thousand people in total.
For five days, the ceremony is punctuated by traditional gutural songs and dances in single file on one hop, the adumu – famous Maasai jump – and various rituals, such as the sacrifice of cows whose blood is drunk by the “moran or the shaving of their hair by their mothers.
The “warriors” then abandon their swords for the fimbo, the walking stick of the “elders”.
For centuries, Maasai men have gone through three rites of passage – Enkipaata (transition to “moran” status), Eunoto (transition to “young elder” status) and Olng’esherr (transition to “elder” status). -, classified in 2018 as intangible heritage by Unesco.
But the ceremonies of this people of semi-nomadic herders living in southwestern Kenya and northern Tanzania have had to adapt to the changes of modern life: the dispersed population now embraces many other activities than pastoralism.
Schooled for some, the “moran” no longer spend two years in an isolated village, called “emanyatta”, but meet there during the school holidays to learn Maasai history and traditions, as well as life in society.
“In addition to Western education, traditional education is important. Our culture gives us rules of conduct,” said Peter Ledama Ntuntai, 24, who studies agriculture.
“We teach them to be responsible citizens,” explains Olerina Karia, one of the “elders” who taught these lessons. “But the traditions that did not allow the survival of our community, such as killing a lion (to prove one’s virility, editor’s note) or the excision of women, they are taught to get rid of them, especially if they break the law”, he adds.
Illegal, lion hunting also threatened tourism, a precious source of income in this region which is home to the emblematic Maasai Mara park.
Theoretically, young men could only marry after the Eunoto, and their wife had to be circumcised. Since female circumcision has been banned in Kenya since 2011, it is officially no longer practiced.
“You can be Maasai without killing a lion and without knowing about excision,” says Hillary Odupoy.
Some “moran” no longer wait for the Eunoto to get married. “The dynamics of society have changed. When they go to school, sometimes they find a fiancée, get married. So we adapt,” smiles Olerina Karia.
For many, it is a matter of survival to nurture the culture of the most famous of Kenya’s 45 tribes, the tenth in the country by population (1.189 million, according to the last census of 2019).
“Our biggest fear is that in the near future we will no longer be able to practice this culture”, explains Olerina Karia: “Other communities and other people are marketing it while the real custodians, those who know the practice, are not in the spotlight.”
08/20/2023 10:04:21 – Kilgoris (Kenya) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
