SAAFI Gwatema is an 18-year-old Barbaig girl. She has a calabash of water balanced on her head. She is returning from a shallow well in Mogitu Village, Bassotu Ward, in Hanang District to collect water for domestic use. All families in Bassotu collect water from this pond. Saafi is dressed in tastefully adorned goatskin skirt that is tucked under a cloak-like tunic. She is also sporting copper and brass bangles, earrings and beaded necklaces.
Like her skirt, Saafi’s calabash is skillfully decorated with colourful beads embedded in goatskin. She shambles along gracefully reminiscing on the previous day’s traditional burial ritual that had brought together hundreds of people. Saafi is a member of the Barbaig people who still value the traditional lifestyle. The Barbaig and their Maasai neighbours, have withheld more of their traditional customs than the numerous Bantu.
They are easily noticeable in their unique attire, adornment and facial marks. Their clothing is red, brown or orchred cloak-like tunics. Maasai women wear tunics that are longer with blue and black colours added to the common red. Barabaig women have tasseled skin dresses and cloak-like tunics. They also wear tanned goatskin gowns, and are happy to show visitors how the gowns are made.
Barbaig women also take delight in teaching visitors to pound and grind maize on flat stones. The women have pretty common facial decoration, which is made by creating numerous scars or tattoos around the eyes in a symmetrical pattern. Among the Maasai it is the women who build houses. The men spend most of their time minding the cattle, hunting or even dancing.
The “Inkajijik” (Maasai word for “house”) are made of mud, sticks, grass, cow dung and cow's urine. Women are responsible for making the houses as well as supplying water, collecting firewood, milking cattle and cooking for the family, says Naseriani Lembris, Maasai woman in her early seventies.
It is the women who hold the pan when collecting fresh blood from a live bull. The bull is normally rounded by men, brought down and restrained with ropes. Then it is shot in the neck with a plain arrow to break a high-pressure artery.
When blood starts spurting a woman collects it with a bowl. Naserian says that this fresh blood is often given to a circumcised person (esipolioi) or a woman who has given birth (entomononi). The Maasai live on meat, milk and blood. Also, on a regular basis cattle blood is drunk by elders (ilamerak) who have taken too much alcohol and are heavily intoxicated.
The blood alleviates the intoxication and weakens the hangover, according to another elder, Lukunyiiyi Seurii (73). There are many ceremonies in Maasai society including “Emuratta” (circumcision for boys and female genital mutilation (FGM) for girls). Women's initiations focus on female genital mutilation and marriage.
Men will form age-sets moving them closer to adulthood. Women do not have their own age-set but are recognized by that of their husbands. Both Maasai men and women are traditionally eager to undergo circumcision. This initiation is performed shortly after puberty.
Circumcision initiation elevates an individual from childhood to adulthood. Circumcision among women is shrouded in secrecy. It is taboo to discuss the women’s circumcision rites. Nataliani Kivuyo (62) felt embarrassed when asked to shed some light on what entails women’s circumcision. She placed her palm on her mouth and kept mum.
It is an abomination and, indeed, a bad omen to discuss FGM in Masaailand. Hard-boiled Maasai morans never touch uncircumcised women. The warped belief here is that a Maasai man, who has sexual contacts with uncircumcised woman dies a few weeks or months after the “diabolical incident.”
On the other hand, Maasai women never give in to the advances of an uncircumcised man. In fact, only Maasai men are considered eligible for sex. Men in the rest of the human community are inferior. They are despised by the Maasai.
Among the Wahadzabe, women play quite insignificant roles in society. Apart from minding the domestic chores, including taking care of children, they are the gatherers of fruits, tubers. They also collect firewood. They are also skilled shrilly singers and dancers.
Hadzabe women collect fruits and tubers in dense forests mainly in Karatu District, Manyara Region. They often climb trees to harvest fruits, edible leaves and barks. The women venture into thick forests where dangerous animals such as rhinos, buffaloes, leopards and lions teem. They work in groups often accompanied by an armed man whose task is to protect.
The Hadzabe possess a thrilling ‘click’ language and uncanny hunting skills. They use bows and arrows in hunting. They also gather wild fruits, tubers, roots and leaves for food.
While Maasai men spend most of the time tending cattle, which they love by far more than their wives, Hadzabe men spend days and nights hunting and have little time with their multiple wives.
Wife beating is scorned or even punished among the Hadzabe, says Naftal Omi 52), who lives in a cave with his two wives near Lake Eyasi. Like the Maasai and Barbaig, Hadzabe girls undergo FGM, an initiation that leads to womanhood. Barbaig men manage their many wives kindly without the usual love hostilities.
The men often explain the benefits of marrying many wives and the reasons that allow married men to make children outside wedlock. After burial rites, which normally end as darkness starts to creep in, unmarried men and women pair off and leave the place silently.
They disappear behind the shrubs on their way back home. Paradoxically they never indulge in sex. Premarital sex among Barbaig young men and women is strictly forbidden. Defaulters are admonished angrily or even punished. The Barabaig belong to the Tatog cluster of highland Nilotes.
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