#maasai bomas

[keepingitneutral]

Nairobi Waldorf School, Kenya,

Classrooms are enveloped in wooden logs to harmonize with their forested environment. The project located in forest clearings, features a series of temporary classrooms organized as a “small village” to serve the existing Nairobi Waldorf School.

Construction system was conceived to be adaptable and collaborative, engaging children, parents, and teachers in the process.

Whenever feasible, materials from dismantled classrooms were recycled – wooden floors and walls were transformed into parapets, and roof tiles were repurposed to define path boundaries, among other uses.

The construction materials were chosen for sustainability, including locally sourced red laterite soil from the site excavations for the ‘living walls’ and recyclable polycarbonate for transparency and efficiency

This approach seamlessly blended creativity, sustainability, and community involvement, resulting in a truly unique educational environment.

Courtesy: Urko Sanchez Architects

[spence500]

Maasai Bomas

Maasai houses, or Bomas, are distinct for their roundness made from sticks and cow dung.  4 families will live in one Boma, taking up a sleeping area of 5 x 4 feet.  Sharing it with baby cows, walls are constructed of long sticks and the bedding is simple straw and rawhide.  The cooking area is in the center with a small vent at the top.

Cow dung is used to fuel the fire as it’s believed to ward off mosquitoes.  Some contend that the redness of their eyes is due to constant exposure to close fire of dung and cooking. 

For food, traditionally Maasai only eat what their livestock can provide – blood, milk, and meat.  Porridge is made from milk and blood, and on occasion meat is consumed.

Although its again Maasai beliefs to cultivate land (it reduces grazing opportunities for cattle), modern society has some Maasai cultivating the land for wheat which is made into ugali and porridge.  

[spence500]

Maasai People - as omnipresent as Africa herself

Maasai, ah the Maasai, distinguishable on a continent as vast as creation itself.  Clad in dramatic colors of red and blue, their tall, robust figures are powerful as they roam across the African plains.  Shifting with the pastures and water resources and always accompanied by throngs of cattle, sheep, and goat.  Preserving a culture and tradition caught in an ever-changing world, they have managed to not only maintain ritualistic practices, they excel in a fierce economic market.  

Although generally living in Southern Kenya and Northern Tanzania, its’ difficult to go anywhere in Africa without running into them.  Their iconic dress characterizes them in town, villages, deserts, beaches, on the bus, and in the market.  Standing tall and proud, adorned with anklets and charms, their skin is dark and their beauty is unmistakable.  Children happily wave with eager smiles, their long, bright dresses blowing in the breeze. 

Livestock are their world.  They use it for food and for bartering, and for everything  in-between.  Very young boys are given a female cow to look after and when she grows up, the baby cows will become his too.  After he becomes an adult, he should have many cows of his own.  With 20 cows he can buy a wife.  With 20 more he can buy another wife.  And so on. 

Culturally they have 3 stages of life.  Lioni - the uncircumcised children who are not respected and whose duties are to harvest water, clean the grounds and feed the animals.   Morani – circumcised adults who are allowed to get married.  Men are not allowed to eat at home after reaching this stage, and life is centered around the cattle.  Laguana – the elderly

Women are brokered off before they are even born and are not respected,  even though they make the houses, gather firewood, render the children, and prepare food. Its common for a 14 year old to be married off to a 60 year old man, who may already have 15 wives and 30 other children. 

They’ve always been semi-nomadic moving their villages and cattle to best utilize pastures and watering grounds. Land ownership isn’t part of their culture and they’ve been forced to adjust to loss of land and grazing pastures as private developers and national parks have claimed their long time grounds. 

Strong people, they have always been a winning contender in battles over land.   However much they are faced with the social-economic and political challenges of the 21st century, they are still one of the top contenders in the system. They are not only one of the main providers for tourism-based souvenirs, many young Maasai are finding their way into secondary based education systems to return to their original villages to lead them into the future with strong and clear goals.