Framingham Public Schools
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Kenyans share glimpse of Maasai culture By Charlie Breitrose / News Staff Writer Wednesday, December 8, 2004 FRAMINGHAM -- The sixth-grade class at Fuller Middle School welcomed some special guests from Africa's Rift Valley yesterday, as they were entertained and educated by four Maasai from Kenya. The members of the Simba Maasai Outreach Organization stopped by the three town middle schools yesterday while they are in town for an event at Framingham State College. The Maasais' visit, made possible by a grant from the Framingham Education Foundation, came at a fortuitous time for the sixth-graders at Fuller, said Vice Principal Dan Fleming. "The timing could not be better," Fleming said. "The (curriculum) frameworks call for students to study Africa in the sixth grade, and they are studying Africa right now." Donning traditional Maasai clothing, the four Maasai -- Francis Nkitoria Sakuda, John Lemeiloi Sakuda, Alice Kitapo Lasoi and Jane Naserian Kamuasi -- performed several songs and dances for the auditorium full of sixth-graders. They also told the students about the life of their nomadic, herding culture. Living in huts made with sticks and grass and held together with cow dung, the Maasai rely mostly on their herds of cows and goats, said Nkitoria Sakuda, an anthropologist by profession. What seemed to fascinate the students most about Maasai life, however, was the fact that boys had to kill a lion to complete the journey to manhood. "You have to kill a lion to become a junior elder," Lemeiloi Sakuda said. "You have to kill a lion to get a wife -- no lion, no wife Livestock take the place of currency, for the most part, Nkitoria Sakuda said. When someone is married, people give livestock as gifts. When someone commits a crime, the council of elders will fine someone in cows, rather than dollars. Besides sharing stories with the students, the group showed the students a few dances, including one celebrating a successful lion hunt. The visitors invited students on stage to join them in a song and dance that is performed by children for the council of elders. Dozens of Fuller students moved and sang the song with the Maasai, to the delight of their classmates in the audience. The Maasai will appear at the Framingham State College College Center tomorrow night from 7 to 9. The event will include a discussion about the Maasai culture and problems they face, said David Favreau of Cultural Survival, the Cambridge-based organization that helped bring the group to Massachusetts. |
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