Historical Development of the Maasai

The Maasai belong to the Nilotic group. The Nilotic people, who speak a language belonging to the Nilotic-Saharan language family, live mainly in eastern Africa and are engaged in animal husbandry, including the Maasai, the Samburu, and the Karanjin, who are known for their bravery and cattle chasing. Their ancestors came to eastern Africa via the region of South Sudan and absorbed many customs from the neighboring tribe of Cushites, including age hierarchies, circumcision, and writing.

The Maasai's territorial reach reached its peak in the mid-19th century, spanning almost the entire Rift Valley region of East Africa, reaching the neighboring Marsabit Mountains to the north and bordering the Dodoma region to the south. The Maasai, during this period, raided cattle as far east as the Tanga region of Tanzania. The hunters mainly used spears and shields, but their most powerful weapon was the flying spear, which could reach targets up to a hundred meters away. In 1852, there were reports of roughly 800 Maasai warriors roaming Kenya, and in 1857, after expelling the population from the wakuafi wilderness in southeastern Kenya, the Maasai's sphere of influence threatened the Kenyan seaport city of Mombasa. After constant migration, the Maasai became the southernmost branch of the Nilotic people. However, after this territorial expansion, the Maasai suffered great crises between 1883 and 1902. First came the onset of epidemics, including bovine pleuropneumonia, rinderpest, and smallpox. According to a German lieutenant, the epidemic first broke out in northwestern Tanganyika, where about 90 percent of the cattle and more than half of the wildlife were infected with rinderpest. Local German doctors claimed that roughly every second an African became pockmarked with smallpox. The outbreak of the epidemic was accompanied by drought, and in 1897 and 1898 there was no rain at all. The Austrian explorer Oscar Baumann, who traveled to the Marseille region between 1891 and 1893, published a book in 1894, "Explorations of the Nile in the Marseille Region," in which he described in detail the ancient Marseille villages near the Ngorongoro Crater: "The eyes of the skin-and-bone women gleam with hunger, and the warriors are literally crawling on their backs. hunger, the warriors simply lacked the strength to even creep forward, the old men were numb and emaciated. Flocks of vultures circled high in the sky, ready to wait for their prey to fall". During this period, the Maasai population declined by two-thirds.

The Maasai territory in Kenya was reduced by 60 percent and gradually pushed into what are now the Kagadu and Narok regions by two successive treaties between the British, who arrived in Kenya in 1904 and 1911.

The Maasai in Tanzania were also expelled during the 1940s from the fertile land they had previously inhabited, which was located between the volcanoes of Mount Meru and Mount Kilimanjaro and near the Ngorongoro Highlands, where they had been living. Ngorongoro Highlands nearby fertile lands. Many areas were set aside as wildlife nature reserves and various national parks, including Amboseli National Park, Nairobi National Park, Maasai Mara, Lake Nakuru in Kenya, and Serengeti National Park in Tanzania.

The Maasai, a nomadic people, have rejected offers from the Kenyan and Tanzanian governments to settle them down and have also actively fought for the right to graze their livestock in the national parks within the two countries. Opposed to slavery, the Maasai live with animals and loathe modern human transportation. Geographically, the Maasai are divided into 12 tribes, each with its own customs, language and culture, and with its own leaders.