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Kenya: The People, The Places, The Culture (3)

November 20, 2010 By Guy St. Clair

Party Time There’s probably no better way to convey one’s impressions of a different place than to describe how people have fun together. As it turned out, my pals and I were up for a good party back at the beginning of the month when my friend Joseph Gichuki decided to have a party for …

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Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Gichuki (Joseph), Kenya - Culture, Kenya - Goats, Kenya - Parties

Masai Mara (8): Maasai Dances (Women)

May 23, 2010 By Guy St. Clair

It is interesting to note that with the women’s dancing, there is much more gentleness and fluidity, so once more those preconceptions sneak in and apparently are part of every culture. The women line up and begin singing soft, sort of squeaky tunes (no one the same, I gather) and the cacophony is pretty amazing. …

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Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Kenya - Culture, Kenya - Maasai, Kenya - People

Masai Mara (7): Maasai Dances (Men)

May 23, 2010 By Guy St. Clair

As we move on into the relations between the men and the women of the manyatta, perhaps this from a recent books I read will help: “As Maasai society is polygamous, an elder can take as many wives as he can afford and father as many children as possible. Conventionally, a Maasai man of the …

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Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Kenya - Culture, Kenya - Maasai, Kenya - People

Masai Mara (6): Maasai Fire w/ Sticks

May 23, 2010 By Guy St. Clair

One of our most intriguing findings, in visiting the Maasai and getting to know them through Tomas, is just how little they depend on things that are purchased. They do all their own medicine, as we all know, and hearing Tomas describe some of the ways they use herbs and leaves and bark and such …

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Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Kenya - Culture, Kenya - Maasai

Masai Mara (5): Maasai Manyatta

May 23, 2010 By Guy St. Clair

We had seen many of these family compounds, known in Maasai as a manyatta, as we drove around the Maasai countryside, both on this safari and when we had returned from Kisii some weeks back. They are not villages, as such. Instead they are compounds where the extended family of one man lives. Let me …

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Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: Kenya - Culture, Kenya - Indigenous Peoples, Kenya - Maasai Manyatta, Kenya - Maasai Tribe, Kenya - Masai Mara Game Reserve

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