A “Manyatta” is a Maasai village or settlement larger than a Boma. Only one Manyatta has been traditionally built every 20 years for the new Moran generation. Its location changes every time it is built, typically in search of better pastures. The changing times have resulted in more lasting settlements, the construction of permanent and better building structures, improving infrastructure and the introduction of farming. As a result four Manyattas have been built in our area for the first time in our history, at least as far as we know. 

 

Our Rombo Manyatta, the largest of all Manyattas, hosts all ceremonies and meetings, including all key functions for our entire Maasai tribe living in the Loitokitok district and neighboring Tanzania. Living in the most important Manyatta means our life is different than when we lived in our homes. We have more ceremonies, more Morans, more Mothers, more kids, more guests, more dancing and traditions to upheld. Our neighboring Tanzania Maasai have no Manyattas similar in scale to ours. Hence other meetings and ceremonies of lesser importance are held in the larger Bomas present in their communities.

 

Our homes are huts typically constructed with cow and goat dung, branches, sticks, mud and grass. They are warm and very dark, as electricity is non-existent and there is typically a maximum of two small windows.  They have a dirt floor, which we wet as often as possible to minimize the abundant dust. There are two bedrooms, one for the men and another for the women. Typically 3 to 5 of us sleep tightly together on top of the leather covering in each bedroom. There are no mattresses, sheets or pillows.  We use the shukas we wear to cover ourselves and sometimes protect ourselves from the bed bugs. There is an extra room to ease the entering/exiting of the home, where we also bathe ourselves, typically twice a week because of the lack of water. We have only a few possessions and very little room to store them in our rooms.

 

There is a central area right outside the bedrooms were we sit in front of fire to drink tea. Only our Mothers, girls, children, Elders, and ex-Morans can eat inside our homes. Tradition prohibits Morans from eating in front of the women or eating fat containing foods. Our Mothers cook rice, chapatti, ugali and other food in this area. We don’t eat fish since we think of it as the snake from the sea. For special occasions or when there are a lot of visitors, women and girls cook together outside. Inside our homes you will always find a calabash, which is used for the milking of the animals. There is also charcoal to clean the calabash and to use it for fire. It makes a huge difference in reducing the abundant smoke in the homes of those wealthier families that can afford to use it instead of wood.