The Maasai Mara & Amboseli
The wildlife of Kenya shares the land with the Maasai, and a visit to one of their villages is among the most genuine and human moments of any safari. These are the people whose territory the Mara and Amboseli plains have always been, semi-nomadic cattle herders who have lived alongside the lions and the elephants for centuries, and whose deep red shukas are as much a part of the landscape as the acacias. Sitting with them, learning how they read the bush and live with the wild, gives a safari a richness that the game drives alone cannot.
Maasai life still turns on cattle. Wealth and standing are measured in herds, and a young man's days are spent grazing and protecting them across the open country, often walking many miles between water and pasture. The village, or manyatta, is a tight ring of low homes built by the women from a frame of branches, and the social world is woven through with song, color and intricate beadwork, each pattern and hue carrying its own meaning. To step inside that world for an afternoon is to see a way of life that has changed remarkably little.
We arrange these visits respectfully and through your own camp or conservancy, so the fee you pay goes directly to the community rather than to a middleman, and so the welcome is genuine rather than staged for crowds. You are likely to be greeted with the rhythmic welcome dance, shown around a family homestead, and invited to browse the women's beadwork, which makes a meaningful souvenir and supports the village directly. It is an exchange, warm and unhurried, and our travelers come away from it as moved as by anything they see on the plains.
