Editing Maasai people (section)

== History ==

The Maasai inhabit the [[African Great Lakes]] region and arrived via [[South Sudan]].<ref name="Okothndaloh">A. Okoth & A. Ndaloh, ''Peak Revision K.C.P.E. Social Studies'', East African, p.60–61.</ref> Most [[Nilotic languages|Nilotic]] speakers in the area, including the Maasai, the [[Turkana people|Turkana]] and the [[Kalenjin people|Kalenjin]], are [[Pastoralism|pastoralists]] and have a reputation as fearsome warriors and cattle rustlers.<ref name="Okothndaloh" /> The Maasai and other groups in [[East Africa]] have adopted customs and practices from neighbouring [[Cushitic languages|Cushitic-speaking]] groups, including the [[age set|age-set]] system of social organisation, [[circumcision]], and vocabulary terms.<ref name="Collins">{{cite book|first=Robert O. |last=Collins |title=The southern Sudan in historical perspective |publisher=Transaction Publishers |date=2006 |pages=9–10}}</ref><ref name="Wandi">S. Wandibba et al., p.19–20.</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=June 2022}}

=== Origin, migration and assimilation ===

[[File:Maasai man, Eastern Serengeti, October 2006.jpg|thumb|right|Maasai man]]
Many ethnic groups that had already formed settlements in the region were forcibly displaced{{when|date=December 2023}} by the incoming Maasai.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |year=2001 |title=Maasai People |url=https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/africa/explore/savanna/print_savanna_peopleM1.html |access-date=2023-03-13 |website=[[WNET|THIRTEEN]] |publisher=[[PBS]] |publication-place=New York}}</ref> Other, mainly Southern Cushitic groups, were assimilated into Maasai society. The Nilotic ancestors of the Kalenjin likewise absorbed some early Cushitic populations.<ref>{{cite book|author=International Labour Office |title=Traditional occupations of indigenous and tribal peoples: emerging trends |publisher=[[International Labour Organization]] |date=2000 |pages=55}}</ref>

=== Settlement in East Africa ===

The Maasai territory reached its largest size in the mid-19th century and covered almost all of the [[Great Rift Valley, Kenya|Great Rift Valley]] and adjacent lands from [[Mount Marsabit]] in the north to [[Dodoma]] in the south.<ref>{{cite book|title=Northern Tanzania with Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar |first=Phillip |last=Briggs |date=2006 |pages=200 |publisher=Bradt Travel Guides |isbn=1-84162-146-3}}</ref> At this time the Maasai, as well as the larger Nilotic group they were part of, raised cattle as far east as the [[Tanga Region|Tanga coast]] in [[Tanganyika Territory|Tanganyika]] (now mainland Tanzania). Raiders used spears and shields but were most feared for throwing clubs (orinka) which could be accurately thrown from up to 70 [[Pace (unit of length)|paces]] (approx. 100 metres). In 1852, there was a report of a concentration of 800 Maasai warriors on the move in what is now Kenya. In 1857, after having depopulated the "Wakuafi wilderness" in what is now southeastern Kenya, Maasai warriors threatened [[Mombasa]] on the Kenyan coast.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PQJjYC74tu8C&pg=PA183 |title=Sources and Methods in African History: Spoken, Written, Unearthed |last1=Falola |first1=Toyin |last2=Jennings |first2=Christian |year=2003 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |isbn=9781580461344 |pages=2, 18 |access-date=28 February 2012 |via=[[Google Books]] |archive-date=1 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101080420/https://books.google.com/books?id=PQJjYC74tu8C&pg=PA183 |url-status=live }}</ref>
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 105-DOA0556, Deutsch-Ostafrika, Massaikrieger.jpg|thumb|Maasai warriors in [[German East Africa]], {{circa|1906}}–1918]]

Because of this migration, the Maasai are the southernmost Nilotic speakers. The period of expansion was followed by the Maasai "Emutai" of 1883–1902. This period was marked by epidemics of [[contagious bovine pleuropneumonia]], [[rinderpest]] (see [[1890s African rinderpest epizootic]]), and [[smallpox]]. The estimate first put forward by a German lieutenant in what was then northwest [[German East Africa|Tanganyika]], was that 90% of cattle and half of wild animals perished from rinderpest. German doctors in the same area claimed that "every second" African had a pock-marked face as the result of smallpox. This period coincided with drought. Rains failed in 1897 and 1898.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/ecology/news/news.asp?id=192 |title=Ecology Books and Journals |publisher=[[Blackwell Publishing]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121003192715/http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/ecology/news/news.asp?id=192 |archive-date=3 October 2012 |access-date=28 February 2012}}</ref>

The [[Austria]]n explorer [[Oscar Baumann]] travelled in Maasai lands between 1891 and 1893 and described the old Maasai settlement in the [[Ngorongoro Conservation Area|Ngorongoro Crater]] in the 1894 book {{lang|de|Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle}} ("Through the lands of the Maasai to the source of the Nile"). By one estimate two-thirds of the Maasai died during this period.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ntz.info/gen/n00526.html |title=Rinderpest |date=14 February 1997 |publisher=Ntz.info |access-date=28 February 2012 |archive-date=20 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520053942/https://ntz.info/gen/n00526.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,699336,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070516115223/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,699336,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=16 May 2007 |title=The Land Is Ours |last=Faris |first=Stephan |date=19 September 2004 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kitumusote.org/history |title=History of the Maasai |last=Kitumusote |publisher=Kitumusote |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170429093833/http://www.kitumusote.org/history |archive-date=29 April 2017 |access-date=28 February 2012}}</ref> Maasai in Tanganyika (now mainland Tanzania) were displaced from the fertile lands between [[Mount Meru (Tanzania)|Mount Meru]] and [[Mount Kilimanjaro]], and most of the fertile highlands near [[Ngorongoro District|Ngorongoro]] in the 1940s.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Myth of Wild Africa: Conservation Without Illusion |first1=Jonathan S. |last1=Adams |first2=Thomas O. |last2=McShane |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GWtWDN0BWt0C&q=maasai+ears&pg=PA42 |date=1996 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |pages=44 |isbn=0-520-20671-1 |access-date=2020-11-01 |archive-date=2020-11-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201114083840/https://books.google.com/books?id=GWtWDN0BWt0C&q=maasai+ears&pg=PA42 |url-status=live }}</ref> More land was taken to create wildlife reserves and national parks: [[Amboseli National Park]], [[Nairobi National Park]], [[Maasai Mara]], [[Samburu National Reserve]], [[Lake Nakuru National Park]] and [[Tsavo]] in Kenya; and [[Lake Manyara]], Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tarangire<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tanzaniaparks.com/tarangire.htm |date=14 August 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070814101508/http://www.tanzaniaparks.com/tarangire.htm |archive-date=14 August 2007 |access-date=28 February 2012 |title=Tarangire National Park}}</ref> and [[Serengeti National Park]] in what is now Tanzania.

Maasai are pastoralists and have resisted the urging of the Tanzanian and Kenyan governments to adopt a more sedentary lifestyle. They have demanded grazing rights to many of the national parks in both countries.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Singo |first=Leiyo |date=2022-08-03 |title=When Maasaiphobia Became Policy |url=https://republic.com.ng/august-september-2022/maasai-predicament-ngorongoro/ |access-date=2023-06-07 |website=The Republic |language=en-GB}}</ref>

The Maasai people stood against slavery and never condoned the traffic of human beings, and outsiders looking for people to enslave avoided the Maasai.<ref>{{cite book|title=Africa's Great Rift Valley |first=Nigel |last=Pavitt |date=2001 |pages=122 |publisher=Harry N. Abrams Incorporated |location=New York |isbn=0-8109-0602-3}}</ref>

Essentially there are twenty-two geographic sectors or sub-tribes of the Maasai community, each one having its customs, appearance, leadership and dialects. These subdivisions are known as 'nations' or 'iloshon' in the [[Maa language]]: the [[Keekonyokie]], Ildamat, Purko, Wuasinkishu, Siria, Laitayiok, Loitai, Ilkisonko, Matapato, Dalalekutuk, Ilooldokilani, Ilkaputiei, Moitanik, Ilkirasha, [[Samburu people|Samburu]], Ilchamus, [[Laikipiak people|Laikipiak]], Loitokitoki, Larusa, Salei, Sirinket and [[Parakuyo people|Parakuyo]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.laleyio.com/facts.html |title=archived copy of laleyio.com |date=27 May 2008 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212003604/http://www.laleyio.com/facts.html |archive-date=12 February 2009 |access-date=28 February 2012}}</ref>