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.

10 things you don't need when raising your child with the Masai

I have been living with the Masai for five years and 18 months ago I had my son.

Sometimes bringing him up out here in the bush seems difficult but when I think about it, I believe I am very lucky as certain things are so much easier out here in regards to raising children.

Here are ten things you won't need when raising your child with the Masai:

Nappies. Out here they are difficult to dispose of, as Tanzania does not have a               working waste disposal system in place. You don't need them though as Masai life       is lived out in the open. We just let the children do their business openly, cleaning       them up when need be.

Clean clothes: We are surrounded by sand, mud and dust around the clock, so           things are bound to get dirty. No one here minds a dirty child or messy clothes.

Baby carrier: African women are famous for carrying their babies on their backs.
They don't do this with a specially designed backpack (which you wouldn't find       here anyway) but with a kanga, a simple piece of fabric which has a multitude of       uses, from headwrap to sarong to baby carrier.

Pram: Roads are sandy, stoney and muddy. You would not get anywhere with a           pram, even a fancy off-road one. Here, when you want to take your child places,           you carry it.

My son playing with a baby goat.

Nanny: Masai live in huge extended family units. You will always find someone
willing to look after your baby for a while. They love children and they help you         out for free.

Highchair: Out here, when a baby is old enough to eat, you sit it on your lap and
feed it or sit it on the floor and let it get messy. After all, we don't have fancy             carpets here.

Car seat: The main means of transport here are motorbikes. If need be, you strapp your baby to your body and let yourself be driven by a reliable driver or, in my case, my husband.

Play groups: Children here play OUTSIDE. From dawn to dusk. And they play with anything available, sand, twigs, seeds. No need to take them somewhere fancy.

Cot: Masai babies sleep in their mother's bed from the day they are born. So has           mine. I love watching his sleeping face in the morning and holding him close.

Wet wipes: The Masai use soft leaves from a tree they call Olmaroroi to wipe baby bottoms. We call it toilet paper tree.

As strong as a woman

Can you do this?

My sister-in-law doing her washing with her son strapped to her back.

Masai women, and generally women in Africa, do back-breaking work on a daily basis. They walk kilometres to fetch water, having to either carry it home on their heads, or loading it onto a donkey. They often do this with a baby on their back.

When they get home, they do not sit back and recover, but start cooking their own food over an open fire. In the African heat, this is another strenuous task.

If they have a spare minute, they go out into the bush to collect firewood. Again they carry a huge load by tying it together and carrying it on their backs with a string wrapped around their foreheads.

Masai women are also in charge of house building. Masai huts are built out of wood and mud. The women fell trees which serve as pillars and hundreds of thick branches which are wrought together with flexible tree bark to serve as walls. 

This is then weather-proofed by plastering it with cow dung and sand. 

Men take no part in building houses or fixing them. Nor do they fetch water or firewood or play a role in raising their children. 

Women do everything in the Masai world and they never complain.

I have come to know how strong we can be, through them.