Magical Maasai Culture E-Book

Thomas Kreutziger

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 53

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Dear African & Culture Friend! This timeless tribe of culture is a fascinating cultural illustrated book with expressive photos and matching short stories about a primitive people, which lives still today like in the Stone Age. My friend Yakon, "the little Maasai", with his incredible skills.

Leseprobe

My

frend

Yakon...

of the MAASAI tribe,

born in an almost

untouched world,

living his life in a

parallel universe.

The author:

Thomas Kreutziger, a geniuine "Northern Lights" child of Hamburg, is always on the move traveling the world with an open eye.

After a well established career as an automotive technician, he soon moved into the much better paid drivetrain technology domain. 15 years later, after his first one-year break in Australia, he became a freelancer specialist in the construction of special off-road vehicles.

After another 10 hard but financially successful years, to the amazement of his friends, he sold his booming company "Alu-Star", and in 2002. At the age of 45, he moved into his self-built expedition truck to discover the world. In his daily business routine, he had quickly realised that money and material possessions are not everything in this world. Indeed, free time, combined with good health and a sound nervous system, counts much more in life. So, he started writing about his first travel adventures.

Thomas driving force was to discover new adventures and destinations on his "world tour" and, in a constant travelling fever between Africa and Australia, he coincidental made contact with some old Tanzanian acquaintances. They wanted to create their own "Safari Tent Camp", and were seeking professional help to set up a luxury top class camp. Near the Kenyan border, below the "King of Africa", the Mount Kilimanjaro, they had rented a worthy place in the Maasai-Sinya region to realize their dream of "Shu'Mata" camps (i.e. so close to heaven).

For Thomas, after having been strongly affected by a few trips along the border of Kenya and Tanzania, making contact to this proud natural people was far from difficult. Nevertheless, as a short-term tourist in a normal travel time window, one rarely gets the opportunity to personally approach this special kind of people. Even today, in the New Millennium, the Maasai manage to maintain their traditional way of life while adopting almost no western standard. Fortunately, they are only receptive to a few things of modern times: fancy watches, cell phones and bicycles. For anything else, they can hardly be bothered. Thanks to their strong family cohesion and their august, almost untouchable dignity, they hardly ever let strangers penetrate their own “magic world”.

It was only after months of direct collaboration with a Maasai, that Thomas realized he had gained his trust, which ultimately led to a close friendship that continues even to this day.

My friend, Yakon, a.k.a. "little Maasai", with such incredible skills.

This photo book serves as a big "thank you, Yakon, for our friendship", and allows a deeper insight into his fascinating, original world, with short explanations, small stories, and expressive pictures.

Many thanks also to Marlies and Jörg, who have given me the opportunity to further access this cultural area through this assignment.

www.shumatacamp.de

Contents

Sinya Maasai Land -Tansania

Beach Security...

WEDDING JEWELLERY

Shoes... Art...Fashion...

The Land of Maasai

The Marsh Lion of Lake N'Dutu

Maasai Manpower

Maasai Fundi Yakon - the "miracle worker"

Maasai Land Euphorbia Hill

Spirit African

Sinya Maasai Land -Tansania

While Salash, the Askari (i.e. camp guard) of the Shu'Mata Camp gazed in the direction of the Kenyan borders just 6 km away, the shadow of Kilimanjaro moved closer in the background and soon immersed everything in a dim light. Moments like this in such a scenery are spectacular. Someone from a vibrant metroplis who finds his way here, immediately realizes what a hectic, western world so many people live in.

On the horizon, one can see the so called "7 sisters", whose feet accommodate a dozen Maasai "Boma" (i.e. Family communities).

Peak Kibo of the 5895m tall Kilimanjaro

Yakon's total pride: his family, his Chinese "junk bicycle" and his hand-made Boma, surrounded by acacia thorns, just below the "7 Sisters", an amazing volcanic hill chain that lies on a strikingly perfect line.

Those who live here must walk many kilometers every day. During one of my first Maasai encounters in the Lengai/Natron area, we set up our wild bush camp in the afternoon, with four young Maasai boys barely visible at a distance. As any tourist in my position would do, I was almost sure that they were just too far away to come to us... wrong. After less than twenty minutes, they were standing next to us, marvelled at what we were doing there. I call this, the "African bush cinema".

The sacred mountain of the Maasai, the Ol Doinyo Lengai, on which their god Engai is said to live. Even though most Maasai have joined Christianity, they still believe that their own god watches over them on this 2962m tall mountain.

Wild camping on the tall, lush grass of the Lengai region. Following the rainy season, this unspoilt landscape provides enough food for all greezing animals. Buffaloes, zebras, giraffes and, above all, all kinds of springbok gazelles, now find plenty of food. Of course, herds of elephants also cross this extensive “Supermarket." During this fertile season, the offsprings are born, and become big and strong enough before the much drier, hot summer time. Anyone who finds himself here in the very hot season, experiences a completely different, parched landscape.

This impressive, vividly shaped by extinct volcanic cones, region has such an incredibly grandiose aura, that one almost sees dinosaurs jumping around the mountain right here! Dangers lurk at every corner, and do not always have to be of great stature. Take for instance these thumb-thick and up to 15cm long caterpillars, which present a major hazard: if you fail to notice them in the tall bush grass and only touch their poisonous fine hairs with your bare legs, you are in trouble. I call them: "living toilet brushes".

<a> Find more about the African rift valley in the ZDF Documentaries channel:

https://www.zdf.de/dokumentation/zd fi nfo-doku / Reise-durch-dieerdgeschichte-2-102.html, dated 07/23/2017 / length: 44min

The "Great Rift Valley" stretches over 6000 km and extends from northern Syria, via the Jordan Valley and the Red Sea, to the Gulf of Aden. From there, it stretches across the highlands of Ethiopia and splits across two large arms that extend to the coast of Mozambique. In 1974, Ethiopia discovered “Lucy", the oldest find of human life to date, dated 3.2 million years ago, So here we are, in the cradle of humanity.