Masai misconceptions

Today, after having been silent for 11 days! (forgive me!), I would like to share with you some of the myths about my husband's tribe.

There are many books about Masai culture but sadly, 90% of the time they are outdated. The Masai have a culture that dates back to over two centuries ago and they try to hold on to it even today in 2018, yet they have to adapt daily to the many challenges modern day planet earth brings with it.

My husband and his brothers working to inject one of our bulls.

Because of this, their culture is changing quickly and there have not been many publications that deal with these changes in Masai culture.

I would like to give you examples of some customs here and would like to ask you to comment below wether you believe they are true or false.

I will then reveal the answers and explain.

1)     To become a warrior, Masai boys have to kill a lion.  True or false?

2)     Masai men share their wives with visitors.  True or false?

3)     Masai women do not use hygiene products during their periods. True/false?

4)     Masai celebrate Christmas.  True/false?

5)     Masai girls are circumcised before marriage. True/false?

6)     The colour of the cloth a man wears, displays age or social status. True/false?

7)     Masai dance is exclusive to men. True/false?

8)     Warriors whistle to their cattle. True/false?

9)     Masai girls herd the goats. True/false?

10)   There is a hidden meaning to facial markings. True/ false?

11)    Masai live only off meat and milk. True/false?

12)    Masai don't wash. True/false

13)    Masai live close to famous National Parks. True/false?


Please click on the 'comments' icon below this blog post to type your answer for each example. Looking forward to chatting!

Please also check out my crowdfunding campaign which I am running to bring environmental education to the Masai community I live in. Thank you!

An african love story

I have not shared stories with you for a while as I am so involved in my Masai community education campaign which is leaving little time for anythung else.

It is taking me on a journey to reconnect with old friends and to also go beyond my comfort zone to ask people for support, but it has so far been an AMAZING experience and one that is leaving my heart full of love every day!

We have also had a very sad week as we lost a young warrior in a tragic accident but the amount of love and support that has and is being shown to his family is just overwhelming and is leaving everything else in its shadow.

I am wrapped in a blanket of love, in the mood for sharing this beautiful emotion with the world and this is why I would like to tell you a love story - my very personal one. The story of how I met my husband Sokoine:

Sokoine taking a break while herding our cattle

I had met him on Mafia Island. A magical place. Paradise. A haven of peace, blue seas and the most amazing diving. Mafia to me was Zanzibar’s little sister. Just as beautiful and cultured but more herself. Less altered by the hordes of tourists that befall Zanzibar so frequently.

The day I set foot on Mafia was the day I met Sokoine.

I was with a group of volunteers, exploring the village of Utende, when we bumped into some Maasai. I was enthralled at first sight. He was taller and bigger than the others, but what drew me in were his eyes. Dark and fiery, yet infinitely kind and patient.

Our wedding day.

I tried to keep him there, on the dusty road in the midst of the village, with my year’s worth of Swahili I had picked up working in Ifakara, close to the Selous Game Reserve in the south of Tanzania. I did not want this moment to end. Another one of those moments that made me feel so intensely at one with the dust under my feet and the sun caressing my skin; at one with the country I had come to love, with the Swahili flowing freely off my tongue, with the immensely beautiful and fascinatingly exotic people standing in front of me.

He worked as security for one of the hotels by the beach and everyday, when we walked past, I tried to make myself as noticeable as possible, pushing our dive cart, laughing, talking; and should I glimpse him watching me, my heart would beat a little faster.

Five weeks passed and I became more and more attached to Mafia, its people and Sokoine. I knew I would not go back to Germany.

And when my friend Michael, whose shop down by the beach was right next to Sokoine’s, told me one day that Sokoine liked me, it seemed I had even more of a reason to stay.

That this beautiful, proud, mysterious human being that comes from a world I cannot even begin to envision, should like me, this ordinary white chick, was too much for me to comprehend. But it was true and we got together and spent the most amazing three weeks under the sun and the stars of Mafia Island…

…a year later we married and moved to his traditional Masai home in the Masai Steppe of Tanzania.

Our son Yannik, Sokoine and I. 

Six years later, and I am still here with him, his parents, his grandmother and more recently with our son. I am as in love with the beautiful country as I have always been and have recently launched a campaign to bring environmental education to our Masai community to make a stand against the ongoing environmental destruction of their homelands.

If you would like to support me in saving the Masai culture along with the wilderness they live in and depend on to feed their cattle, click on this link.

A New Year's wish

The holidays are over and we have started a new year.

Well not so much us - the universe really. So, what are you going to make of it?

2017 for me was the year, where I have finally woken up. It only took me 31 years.

What I mean by that? Well, I feel that I have finally come to understand what is wrong with our planet, for one, and how everything is connected, for another.

Celebrating New Year's Day with friends and family

I have always been passionate about saving our planet - I have always had a huge amount of compassion in me, which is what made me aim towards becoming someone who would make a difference in this world.

I studied Conservation and came to Africa full of enthusiasm and my green-eyed view of our planet's issues. But I did not really SEE.

Now, 8 years later I am finally doing that. And I think what opened my eyes and my soul to the essence of things is my son Yannik, who was born beginning of 2016.

Myself, my husband's Sokoine and our son Yannik 

The biggest problem our planet faces, is human overpopulation.

I see it here on a daily basis, here in the Masai Steppe of Tanzania where I live with a tribe that tries to hold to the way they used to live hundreds of years ago.
And the struggle they face doing so mirrors everything that is going wrong with mother earth.

They used to live off the land of which there used to be so much in Africa, only a century ago. They depend on it for pasture lands for their cattle. Nowadays, there is no land left for them to herd their cattle, because the Masai themselves have become so many, as have their neighbouring tribe, the Zigua.

Here in rural Africa, people live as subsistence farmers and any one soul being born in this place wants to have a farm, a shamba on which to grow his corn which is the staple diet of most Africans. To establish farmland trees are being felled.

Huge areas of the Masai Steppe have already been deforested to make room for farmland and this deforestation is ongoing and uncontrolled. My guess is that in ten years time, there will not be any woodlands left.

The Masai Steppe - deforested farmland up close with views of untouched wilderness in the distance 

The Masai struggle to keep their cattle alive who have become so abundant that they do not even get enough grass in the rainy season. In the dry season there are repeated conflicts over grazing and farmland between the Masai and the Zigua, one wanting to graze their cattle, the other reluctant to tolerate livestock that eats their crops.
Nature is being destroyed, wild animals becoming extinct and conflicts over land becoming more frequent. And it all has one common cause: there are too many people for the land to support.

In 2017 I have finally understood how all this is connected and in 2018 I aim to do something about it.
On 21st December 2017 I launched a campaign to educate four Masai from our villge in conservation and land management to put a stop to the environmental destruction of their lands. For this, we need to travel to Kenya, to a centre for holistic management that offers courses to local community stakeholders and pastoralists.

I hope this education will encourage our community to once again care for their land and to prosecute people who fell woodlands and poach animals. I also believe it will give them the tools needed to manage their land more sustainably, introduce grazing rotas and reduce cattle numbers.

This education is meant to be an eye-opener for the Masai of the Masai Steppe. To make them see that the health of the ecosystem they live in and depend on, is in their hands, that they have the power to save it and guard it.

I believe that if we are successful in provoking change in our community,  others will follow suit.

A kudu that had died in our arms on Christmas Day, having been shot in the jaw and starved to death.

If you believe in fate and destiny then this is mine. I have never been more passionate about anything other than our planet and conservation and I know that with this project, I can finally act on what I believe in.

It is a new year, but the state of our planet is just the same as ever. It needs our help.

You might think, this has nothing to do with me, but IT DOES! We are all in this together and it is everyone's responsibility. Maybe many of you do not have the means to do something for the planet, so I am giving you the chance to DO GOOD THROUGH MY PROJECT! If you care about ours and our children's future and if you have even 5 $ to spare, donate it to my cause.

I promise you these will be 5$ well spent. I am running this project for no personal gain, but for the sake of our wildlife and wild spaces. If you care even a little bit, show it to the world - support us!

My dear readers and followers, I hope you do not mind me being so straight and honest with you - I am desperate to provoke positive change in our community but I cannot do it alone. I am relying on you to help me and my husband Sokoine to start changing the way Africans see their role in conservation.

Follow this link to see my campaign.

Watch my campaign video here.

Thank you!