Name: Maasai, which means ‘my people.’
Location: Kenya and Tanzania (see map at right)
Population: Roughly 1 million.
Language: Maa
Ancestry: Nilotic peoples from southern Sudan.
Economy: Primarily cattle herding (along with goats and sheep), some subsistence agriculture with pockets of large-scale farming.
Spiritual Beliefs: Belief in ‘Enkai,’ an omnipresent diety. There has been a recent introduction of western religions.
Community: Historically homesteads have contained one or several family homes. Thorn bush enclosures keep domestic animas safe from predators. Grazing land and water resources are generally shared.
Environment: Open grasslands called savannah, much of it surrounded by hills and forests filled with wildlife. Rains fall seasonally, historically from mid March through May, and October through November. However, prolonged and more frequent drought has resulted in a dramatic decline in seasonal rainfall.