Circumcision ceremony - Elatim

This week we had a big circumcision ceremony, an Elatim, for nine boys and girls.

Masai women dancing during Endomon

Whereas the boys (layiok) have to actually undergo circumcision, the girls' (endoyie's) involvement is only symbolic.

An Elatim takes part over two days. On the first day, there is the Endomon, which is a good luck ceremony for which there has to be some offering. This offering varies from family to family but for my husband's family it is a sheep that is slaughtered.

If the Elatim involves girls and should they be already promised to someone, there will also be a Saikelosi. A Saikelosi involves the arrival of the future groom's family and gifts that they bring to his chosen bride.

At the arrival of the Saikelosi, the women dance and by nightfall the warriors, the Moran will dance too. The actual circumcision does not take place until anytime between 1 am and 4 am and often the Moran dance right until that time.

The person circumcising the boys is often of the Hadzabe tribe as the Masai believe the spilling of blood of a fellow Masai, brings bad luck.

During Ilmasin 

The coming day is the actual Elatim and a bull is slaughtered to feed the guests.
The parents of the newly circumcised children have to perform Ilmasin, where the father sits outside the hut where his son or daughter rests and his wife and other female relatives gather around him to shave his head and spill milk on him as a blessing. Ilmasin is completed by women dancing and chanting.

The boys rest inside for a month or until they are fully healed.

They won't be full warriors however until the current Moran have taken the Ilmaho ceremony in which they pass their rights and duties onto the new generation of Moran.

See below how the Moran dance during the Elatim.

Gender division

Masai life is strictly divided between male and female.

Men and women do not ever eat together nor is it common to see husband and wife go places together or socialise as a couple.

Masai women are not allowed to watch warriors eat and a warrior can never eat alone in a woman's house as it is marked by the presence of Enkotiook, hollow pumpkins in which milk is stored and the cow's tail with which these are cleaned.

In each Masai hut, there is a female and a male bed. 

A woman at the waterhole 

Work is also divided between the sexes with women doing the bulk of it, collecting water and firewood, cooking, washing and looking after children. 

Men herd the cows, take them to water and move them great distances in the dry season and provide an income. 

When it comes to clothing, female and male Masai cloths are also very different. The men's cloths are commonly any shade of red with vivid patterns while the women clothe themselves in plain purple and blue. 

Warriors dancing at a ceremony 

Warriors and older men wear a belt onto which they holster their knife and club (Olokoma).

Uncircumcised boys and girls often wear nothing but an old piece of clothing handed down to them by their older siblings. They also ever wear one cloth, whereas circumcised Masai always wear at least two.

Both men and women adorn themselves with jewellery but while women put heavy brass wires around their ankles and wrists, warriors wear white beaded anklets and bracelets.

My husband and I on our wedding day

I mostly wear western clothes but for special occasions I dress like a Masai woman.

A life away from home

While my sister was here, we decided to spend some time on Zanzibar together.
The five days we spent there, made me fall in love with the island all over again.

Travelling with someone who is new to Tanzania and sees her beauty with wondrous eyes, reminded me why I came to love it here.

Traditional dhow in the evening light.

We went to Kendwa, in the north of the island. Crystal white sand on a long broad stretch of beach and clear turquoise waters in which swimming is possible even at low tide, make this my favourite place on Zanzibar.

You cannot walk there without being addressed by people trying to sell you things.
Many of them are Zanzibaris but there are also a lot of Masai.

A warrior talking to tourists on Kendwa beach

They come to coastal regions in the hope to find work to help keep up with an increasing demand for materialistic things by their families.

These days the Masai do not cloth themselves in sheep skins but buy expensive clothes made in Asia. They do not use twines, roots and seeds anymore to create jewellery, but buy plastic beads made in China to make necklaces, bracelets and anklets.

An increasing population size has lead to higher cattle numbers and overgrazing.
Cows do not produce enough milk anymore to make the yoghurt the Masai used to live off in past times.

A warrior keeping watch over a hotel beach front.

For this reason Masai have started either planting farms of corn or buying it which is both costly. They have become many, and the land is no longer enough for them to live off exclusively.

They usually find employment as security for hotels and often have shops selling Masai crafts too.

It is a stunning sight - Zanzibar's white sands and turquoise waters glistening in the African sun - and a warrior in full dress, wearing Ildeka, which only they are allowed to wear; long cotton strings braided into the top hair, falling in braids down to their lower backs.

A warrior posing for me on the beach.

I loved Africa even before I had met any of them but for me now they represent everything I have come to love about this continent.

Their even featured faces with almond eyes and bright white teeth is matched in beauty only by their kind souls.