An incredible ethnic patchwork
Tanzania has nearly 125 ethnic groups and 100 languages. The Bantu ethnic groups, which account for 95% of the population, originate from the Niger-Congo region. Among the largest are the Sukuma, Nyamwezi, Chagga and Haya groups, each numbering over a million. There are also a number of slightly different ethnic groups, notably the Masaai, of Nilotic origin (from the Nile region, Sudan and Chad), who are emblematic of the country. We also come across the Khoisan, the original ethnic groups of the region before the Bantu invasion. They are lighter-skinned, speak a language with "clicks" and live in cave dwellings. Two ethnic groups, the Sandawe and the Hadzabe, still live from hunting and gathering, not far from the Kondoa rock paintings, between Arusha and Dodoma. It is possible to go and meet them.
Finally, the Irakws of Cushitic origin (who owe their name to their region of origin, Mesopotamia, before migrating across East Africa to Tanzania) are very few in number and have kept some of their traditions while living in a modern way in the Lake Manyara region. You can also visit their villages. Only 1% of the population is non-African, around 50,000 in mainland Tanzania and 4,000 in Zanzibar. The Asian community, mainly Indian, is important in Zanzibar because of its history, but also in Dar and Arusha, where the country's economy is developing. Europeans also live mainly in Zanzibar and Arusha, the two main tourist resorts.
The Bantus, the most westernized ethnic groups
Today, the lifestyle of most Bantus is modern. Apart from the data collected by early travellers and ethnologists, all that remains of these traditions are a few memories among the elders (soon to disappear), as well as residues of superstitious beliefs or artistic expressions manifested through spontaneous cultural associations or folk groups... Today's music is made up of exogenous contributions: reggae and Congolese (ex-Zairean) soukous, with its electric instrumental rhythms. Soukous is today's version of the ngoma (Congolese dialect drum) from Brazzaville in the 1950s. The lyrics are romances dedicated to certain young women or edifying stories of everyday village life... Zanzibar is also home to taarab music, sung and mocking poems accompanied by Arab, Indian and Bantu instruments. Dance, a social phenomenon both sacred and profane, is widely practiced from childhood, often on a daily basis, at any time of day. The Sukuma ethnic group to the east of Lake Victoria, whose name means "to move" or "to shake", is particularly renowned in this field. Today's young Bantus seem to have nothing but admiration and envy for Western purchasing power and lifestyle. Traditional men's clothing is no longer worn at all, except on the Swahili coast where the Muslim faith has been deeply entrenched for centuries. Only village women continue to wear the traditional kanga. But straightened hair and the wearing of pants seem to have become enviable signs of modernity in the country. Sculpture is now more concerned with the relationship with tourists than with the sacred: its subjects are mainly Maasai pastoralists and wild animals. In short, what the safari enthusiast admires... The art of adornment has now disappeared among the Bantus. Excavations of numerous Bronze Age archaeological sites have unearthed jewelry made of ivory, bone, shells, ostrich eggshells... Traditional housing remains only in remote villages, away from the main roads. From one Bantu tribe to another, and depending on the natural environment, construction methods differed considerably: bamboo around lakes, banana trees on the slopes of volcanoes, acacia and cob in the savannah... In the countryside, teenagers and men still sleep outdoors to protect their animals and women from wild animals.
The Maasai, a fascinating Nilotic people
The Maasai, a pastoral people of Nilotic origin (from the Upper Nile Valley in Upper Egypt, between Eritrea and Sudan), now live between Kenya and Tanzania, along the great African rift of the Rift Valley. They number around 300,000, of whom less than a third are assimilated into the surrounding Bantu or Cushitic populations. Outside areas where the authorities have assigned them land, they are semi-nomads who, depending on water sources, move their villages by donkey or on the backs of women, staying for at least a few months.
The Maasai are an extraordinarily cheerful, simple and welcoming people. Their independence from the authorities, borders and regulations of modern society is impressive. Over time, their land has been taken over by Western farmers, then by Bantu farmers, then by national parks. While they pay taxes on their animals and bring money into the country by attracting tourists eager to meet them, they have little access to medical and veterinary care, education or water supplies. Only the Christian missions seem to have shown any interest in their plight, albeit on a small scale. The reduction in the surface area of their land has sometimes led them to settle down and grow corn. Widespread education seems essential to enable them to defend their rights (health for children, animal care...).
A traditional semi-nomadic pastoral life
The Maasai are thought to own around 3 million horned cattle, or around 10 head per person, including women and children: the highest figure of any African tribe. The adult man depends on his herd. A true heritage. The "kraal" villages generally house 2 to 5 families, with an average of 4 to 15 huts, surrounded by an ortification of poles and thorn trees, to prevent wild beasts such as lions, leopards and hyenas from attacking the herd or the children at night. The whole organization of the kraal symbolizes a magical world: it is a codification of man's place in the universe. The Maasaïs, who live by and for their herds of zebus and goats, are convinced that Engaï, their god, has destined all the livestock in the world for them. This, in turn, gives them the right to go and get them wherever they are, especially from neighboring tribes. This candid faith was at the root of many raids, until the Tanzanian Bantu authorities became more observant. Maasai children are harshly trained: from the age of 3, they set off to herd cattle, armed only with their rungu (shepherd's stick). The infant mortality rate is frightening: it can reach almost 50%. The causes are manifold: pulmonary infections, malaria, attacks by wild animals, snake and scorpion bites, infections due to benign but untreated wounds... Those who survive are strong. This extremely proud (but neither arrogant nor combative) warrior people have preserved their ancestral way of life. The Maasai live happily as they are, and do not covet material success. They cherish the memory of their past power, of their long domination over other ethnic groups, of their victory over the Tatogs (Barabaigs or Wamangatis), other Nilote pastoralists, their hereditary enemies.
The Maasai feed solely on milk (fresh or curdled into yogurt in their smoke-cleaned gourds), blood and, only on special occasions, the meat of their cattle, which they slaughter and eat in places called Olpul. In times of scarcity, they pierce the carotid arteries of their cows with an arrow that does not deeply wound the animal. The blood is then collected in a hollowed-out fruit gourd, and drunk hot or mixed with milk. The cow's wound is plugged with dung, and healing is generally straightforward. They leave the bodies of their dead to the wild beasts (except those of the laibon, who they believe are reincarnated as snakes), laying them aside, smeared with animal fat. When they have to sacrifice a cow or goat (they choke it, then beat it to curdle the blood in the flesh), they leave nothing but the hooves and eyes. They use herbs for all sorts of purposes, such as brushing their teeth, preparing an antiseptic potion or a euphoric drink made from bark, or even making a deodorant!
Rituals and jewelry to celebrate the ages
The Maasais are accustomed to shaving women's heads, pulling out the two teeth in their lower jaws (milk teeth first, at around 4 or 5 years of age, then when the second row has grown back) in order to be able to feed the sick, standing at rest often on one leg, and spitting as a sign of blessing. They never eat fish and despise metalworking. Ethnologists have also pointed out similarities with the Romans, who also inhabited North-East Africa for a time: small sword (mkuki), sandals, toga (nagdo) tied over one shoulder, haircut in the shape of a Roman helmet... The Maasais, especially the men, wear red togas: it's the color of blood, and therefore a sign of courage to wear it. Traditional dress includes another piece of cloth worn directly over the body (nangeretena). Women are sometimes dressed in blue, and still wear goat or cow skins embroidered with beads. To find out more about the Maasai, see the sacred mountain of Ol Doinyo Lengaï on the slopes of the Ngorongoro volcano.
All Maasai men's lives are regulated by the passage from one age group to the next, according to a custom handed down from generation to generation: ilayok (child), Alamal lengipaata (preparation for circumcision), Emorata (circumcision), Ilmoran (warrior), Eunoto (rite of passage to adulthood), Ilpayiani (elder), a state confirmed by the Olngesherr ceremony, where young men must drink the hot blood from the body of a bull. At a very young age, the child is breast-fed, then fed by his mother's mouth, who chews the food before injecting it in small quantities. When he starts having problems with conjunctivitis due to the imbalance of his 100% animal diet, he is given a circular cauterized burn under each eye (hence the marks most have on their cheeks). Around the age of 7 or 8, a child's right ear is pierced with a tapered piece of horn and, little by little, enlarged with larger and larger pieces of wood. This is followed by the left ear, then the right earlobe, then the left earlobe. In remote areas, men's ears hang halfway from the shoulder. The function of this use seems primarily decorative. But all the jewelry that the Maasai make by stringing glass beads bought from neighbouring tribes onto iron or copper wires, forming huge necklaces (iruvusi) or bracelets (emeirinai) for women, for example, also have a social and ritual function, signifying the age class, status and even mood of those who wear them. Young women, for example, are only allowed to wear spiral jewelry around the limbs and pearls in the lobes after marriage. Excision takes place when young girls reach puberty (endito). It's a family affair. Circumcision, on the other hand, is a very important ceremony. It's on this occasion in particular that honey beer is drunk; the priest spits it out over the youngsters to bless them. After circumcision, the adolescent paints his face white: he becomes moran. He then lets his hair grow and braids long wool braids. The braids, smoothed with cattle urine, will be colored with ochre (lokaria), and decorated with jewelry. For at least 7 years, the moran receives a warrior's education from the elders. In particular, he will live with his fellow morans in a secluded village called manyatta. Fighting wild animals and, if possible, a lion, is part of the warrior's education, especially if the lion has attacked livestock. The Moran attack many of them with their spears, and it often happens that some of them are wounded or even killed. This practice is tolerated by the authorities, albeit unofficially.
The eunoto festival, passage to adulthood
It takes place in the o-singira, a manyatta built for the purpose. It lasts 4 days and features a great deal of dancing and singing, accompanied by the women's youyous and the high-pitched voice of a soloist, whose words evoke stories of battles against lions, wars against enemies, herds, or everyday life; Engaï is frequently invoked. The highlights of the eunoto are the cutting of the moran's hair, the milk ceremony, after which the moran can start drinking even on his own, and the meat ceremony, when the man can eat meat for the first time in front of a circumcised woman.
Marriage among the Maasai
Once an adult, the Maasai may marry a woman who has usually been circumcised shortly beforehand, and is therefore much younger. The wedding is celebrated with a big party. The number of wives a Maasai takes is determined by the size of his herd. Women face very difficult living conditions: they look after the animals, carry water, wood for the fire... Their life expectancy is lower than that of the men, who leave the children or the moran to look after the animals, and who, warriors in peacetime, seem to spend their time palavering and surveying the bush. The stick carried by older men, called a fimbo, is supposed to signify paternity, age and wisdom.
