subject: The Kenya Masaai's Fight with Civilization [print this page] The Kenya Masaai's Fight with Civilization
The Kenya Masai is a people who really love there culture. They have fought very hard to still maintain their ways of life in a country flooded by the western culture. They are giving the government a very hard time convincing them that not everything from the west is bad as they assume. Slowly, this is paying off and most are getting civilized though at a very slow pace. The biggest fight with civilization has been informing them that they need to change there lifestyle. The Masai believe that owning many cattle is a design of wealth rather than having even a few but productive ones.
Another battle with civilization is where education is concerned. The Masai fought very hard to make sure that there children were not enrolled in schools. The fight was so bad that anyone who took his child to school was automatically excommunicated from the community. Their argument was that a child did not need to go to school to know ho w to herd cattle. After a time, they started allowing the boy child to go to school when they saw that they could earn a white collar job and a big salary if one went to school.
The girl child was disregarded completely and was only seen fit for marriage as this would earn the family a dowry. Another thing the Masai has really opposed is the western way of dressing. A Masai is most comfortable when a 'shuka' [cotton sheet] is all the clothes he has own. You will spot them all over even in big cities in red 'shukas'. This is there mark.
